7 APRIL 1900, Page 15

THE EGYPTIAN BABYLON.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sr ,—With reference to a letter in the Spectator of March 24th as to an Egyptian Babylon, the latter word is invariably used by the contemporary historians of the

Crusades to denote Cairo. "Les croises et les Venitiens dirent gulls ne pouvaient mie eller en Babylone ni en Alex- andrie " (Robert de Clari, in his account of the Fourth Crusade). I have seen in one of these writers the Egyptian Caliph described as the "Soudan de Babylone," but I cannot now find the passage.—I am, Sir, &c., W. L. D. G.