In A.H. 984, his son Murad repaired and partly rebuilt the three other
sides, that had not been touched by him.
In the year 1039, (or 1626 of our era,) a torrent from Djebel Nour
rushed into the town, and filled the mosque so rapidly, that all the
persons then within it were drowned; whatever books, fine copies of the
Koran, &c. &c. were left in the apartments round the walls of the
building, were destroyed; and a part of the wall before the Kaaba,
called Hedjer, and three sides of the Kaaba itself, were carried away.
Five hundred souls perished in the town. In the following year the
damage was repaired, and the Kaaba rebuilt, after the side which had
escaped the fury of the torrent had been pulled down.
In 1072, the building over the well Zemzem was erected, as it now
stands; and in 1079, the four Makams were built anew.
After this time, the historians mention no other material repairs or
changes in the mosque; and I believe none took place in the eighteenth
century. We may, therefore, ascribe the building, as it now appears,
almost wholly to the munificence of the last Sultans of Egypt, and
[p.170] their successors, the Osmanly Sultans of Constantinople, since
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
