the document ran ; " but the Christians have a king more powerful than thee, owing to the immense riches which he has amassed,—one who sells bishoprics for gold, and conducts himself in a manner highly displeasing to God." Hakem, on reading these words, at once commanded that all the churches throughout the kingdom should be closed, and the patriarch himself arrested, and wrote to the governor of Jerusalem in the following terms : " The Imam, the Commander of the Faithful, orders you so to destroy the Church of El Camâmah,* that its earth shall become its heaven, and its length its breadth." The order was immediately put into execution ; the church was razed to the ground, and an attempt made—though fortunately without success—to destroy the rock-hewn tomb itself, which had been for so many years the special object of devotion to myriads of Christian pilgrims. In 1012 Hakem renewed the greater part of his absurd police regulations. He forbade women to take any part in funeral ceremonies, or to visit the tombs of their deceased relatives ; the edicts against wine and forbidden fruits were more rigidly enforced ; all the vines were destroyed, and their cultivation for the future prohibited; immense quantities of raisins were burnt, and the merchants forbidden to expose the fruit for sale ; the same course was taken with regard to honey and dates, and no compensation whatever was allowed to the owners. In 1014 he ordered all the women of Cairo to confine themselves rigorously to their houses, and forbade them even to appear at the doors or windows, and shoemakers were forbidden to make shoes for them. This state of constraint they were compelled to endure until his death,— that is, for more than seven years and a half. It is related that, passing one day by certain baths, he heard a noise inside, and on being informed that some '. * See p. 71.