CATALOGUE. 51 



A. D. 



859 or — Al Macin says : ' The cities of the West were shaken by an earth- 



860. quake, so that castles, houses, and bridges, fell '. It was 



felt also at Bagdad, Damascus, Tarsus, and the shores of 

 Syria and at Laodicea. In the same year the springs at 

 Mecca failed, so that a skin of water was sold for 100 

 statera. Same year also great earthquake at Antioch, which 

 destroyed many people. Fifteen hundred houses said to have 

 fallen, and more than 90 of the turrets of the wall fell. 

 Terrible and tremendous sounds were heard from the ruins, 

 and the people fled to the fields. The mountain Akraios 

 was torn up and thrown into the sea, whence this was 

 disturbed, and from it came a black, thick and foul-smelling 

 smoke.-— (Al Macin, edit, cit., page 190). Abul Earaj 

 (Pocock's edit., Oxford, 1663, page 170) mixes up this last 

 event and the earthquake of 856 in the month of Sha'ban 

 at Corinth, noticed above. 

 The year 245, A. H., which Al Macin gives for these events, 

 commenced on the 8th April 859, and extended to the 27th 

 March 860, A. D. 



899. November 14th. — A great earthquake is recorded by Al Macin as occurring in 

 Egypt 'from the middle of the night to the morning.' 

 The date is given as the seventh day of Zulqa'dah (translated 

 Dulkiad in Erpenius), A. H., 286. The month Zulqa'dah 

 is the 11th month of the year, and the 7th of Zulqa'dah 

 is the 54th day from the last day of the year. Now, 286 of 

 the Hijra (a bis-sextile Mahomedan year) ends on the 6th 

 January, A. D. 900 ; therefore the date of the earthquake 

 was the 14th November, A. D. 899 — (Al Macin, edit, 

 cit., p. 227). 



941. August 6th. — A violent earthquake in Egypt. The date as given in Al 



Macin is 11th Zulqu'dah 329, A. H. This day is the 

 fiftieth day from the last day of the year. Now, 329 (a 

 bis-sextile year) ended on the 15th September, A.D. 942 ; 

 therefore the earthquake occurred on the 6th of August 

 941, A.D.— (Al Macin, edit, cit, page 260.) 



989. A. H. 379= 11th April 989, to 30th March 990, fourteenth year of Basileus 



990. the Emperor. One third part of Sta. Sophia fell and many 

 buildings destroyed ; also in Nicomedia (I. c, page 314) . 3 



1 Al Macin says, he quotes from Tabari ' qui fide est dignus.' 

 ■ 2 Gibbon (viii, 10) states that the church of Santa Sophia in Constantinople was de- 

 stroyed by earthquake in 1346 a.d. 



( 213 ) 



