Bennett war diary, 1914-1915 / J. Bennett - Page 16

You are here

Transcription

[Page 16]

After leaving the Citadel, I went to see an old mosque, called after Sultan Hassan, which was built as far back as 1022 A.D., and was bombarded by the armies of Napoleon in 1792, but as the walls are 12 feet thick no great harm was done by the cannon balls, which were small round iron balls, & some of them are still to be seen embedded in the walls. Napoleon took away with him a great bronze door, inlaid with gold and silver, said to be worth £10,000. Until 3 years ago, the mosque was practically a ruin, but Lord Kitchener has had it restored, and in another two years it is to be opened again to the Mahommedans for worship, and also as a University, to take it 800 scholars. The contractor for the repairs was paid £5000 to put in a duplicate of the door taken by Napoleon. While the repairs were being carried out, a concealed cupboard was discovered in which was a copy of the Koran, (Mahommedan Bible) written 900 years before. It is in perfect order and now stands on a silver table in a new mosque. There is a copy of the first verse of the Koran

This page has its status set to Completed and is no longer transcribable.