records that the tower, which had never originally been
completed, had fallen into decay, and that the kiln-bricks
had split. These are the Agur bricks mentioned by Benjamin;
cf. Isaiah xxvii. 9. Al-ajur is the word still used by the
Arabs for kiln-burnt bricks.]

[Footnote 139: Niebuhr, vol. II, 216, gives a full account
of his visit to the tomb. Layard, speaking of Birs Nimroud,
says: "To the south-west in the extreme distance rise the
palm-trees of Kifil, casting their scanty shade over a small
dome, the tomb of Ezekiel. To this spot occasionally flock
in crowds, as their forefathers have done for centuries, the
Jews of Bagdad, Hillah, and other cities of Chaldea.... It
is now but a plain building, despoiled of the ornaments and
MSS. which it once appears to have contained" (_Nineveh and
Babylon_, p. 500). Alcharizi composed a beautiful ode when
visiting this tomb (chap, xxxv, also chap. L).]

[Footnote 140: This Mohammed, as in the case referred to p.
40, must have been a predecessor of the reigning Caliph, as
the Prophet was never in Babylonia, and in no case would he
have granted favours to the Jews. It should be noted that
the British Museum MS. on which our text is based, as well
as the Casanatense MS., generally styles the Prophet
[Hebrew]. The MS., on which the Constantinople _editio
princeps_ is based, had probably all passages where this
epithet or other objectionable remarks were used excised by
the censor, and it will be seen that the passage before us,
with reference to the grant of land by Mohammed, as well as
that further on, referring to Ali, the son-in-law of
Mohammed, do not appear in any of the printed editions. Dr.
Hirschfeld is of opinion that, on the one hand, the epithet
is the translation of the Arabic _majn[=u]n_, a term against
which Mohammed protested several times in the Koran, because
it means he was possessed by a _jinn_, like a soothsayer. On
the other hand, the word was chosen having regard to Hosea
ix. 7. This was done long before Benjamin's time, by Jafeth
and others.]

[Footnote 141: See picture of the traditional tomb of
Ezekiel in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_, vol. V, p. 315.]

[Footnote 142: The Talmud (Sabbath, II a) speaks of the
destruction of Mata Mehasya. Sura took its place as