The Times, rarely successful of late in being first with
its news, has scored a success at Kairwan. Its correspondent has been all over the holy city, and penetrated to the holy of holies, the tomb of Syed Abdullah, the " Companion " of the Prophet, buried here in 70 A.H. He found it a room of marble, with a cupola forty feet high, lighted by stained-glass windows, covered with rich carpets, and full of lecterns of tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl, supporting illuminated Korans. The city is full of mosques, sacred tombs, schools, monastery-colleges, and baths, some more than seven hundred years old, adorned with marble courts, porphyry pillars, and all the architectural glories which once filled Granada. Each " college " or school of Mahommedan thought seems to have founded a building here for its disciples' use, and the occupation of the city will rever- berate all through Islam. The correspondent says the learning has died away, the guardians of the shrines are illiterate bigots, and the citizens are accepting French rule with complacency, or at least resignation. We shall see. The Times said all that about the occupation of Cabul.
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