father:—In the days of ibn-az-Zubair the Greeks went out against Ḳaisârîyah and devastated it and razed its mosque to the ground. When ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Marwân was settled in his rule, he made repairs in Ḳaisârîyah, restored its mosque and left a garrison in it. Moreover, he built Ṭyre and outer Acre which had shared the same fate as Ḳaisârîyah.
Sulaimân ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik builds ar-Ramlah. The following tradition was communicated to me by certain men well versed in the conditions of Syria:—Al-Walîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik made Sulaimân ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik governor of the province of Palestine. Sulaimân took up his abode in Ludd and then founded the city of ar-Ramlah and fortified it.[1] The first thing he built in it was his palace and the house known as Dâr aṣ-Ṣabbâghîn [the house of the dyers] in the middle of which he made a cistern. He then planned the mosque and began its construction, but he became caliph before its completion. After becoming caliph, he continued its construction which was completed by ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAziz who reduced the original plan, saying, "The inhabitants of ar-Ramlah should be satisfied with the size thereof to which I have reduced it."
After having erected a house for himself, Sulaimân permitted the people to build their houses, which they did. He dug for the inhabitants of ar-Ramlah their canal which is called Baradah, and he dug also wells. The one he appointed to oversee the expenses of his palace in ar-Ramlah and of the cathedral mosque[2] was one of his clerks, a certain Christian of Ludd named al-Baṭriḳ ibn-an-Naka.[3]
