The generality, however, of the coffee-house politicians contented themselves with observing that it was the will of Mahomet that the palace should be consumed.

Satisfied by this supposition, they took no precaution to prevent similar accidents in their own houses.

Never were fires so common in the city as at this period; scarcely a night passed without our being wakened by the cry of fire.
"These frequent fires were rendered still more dreadful by villains, who were continually on the watch to increase the confusion by which they profited, and to pillage the houses of the sufferers.

It was discovered that these incendiaries frequently skulked, towards evening, in the neighbourhood of the bezestein, where the richest merchants store their goods.

Some of these wretches were detected in throwing _coundaks_, or matches, into the windows; and if these combustibles remained a sufficient time, they could not fail to set the house on fire.
"Notwithstanding all these circumstances, many even of those who had property to preserve continued to repeat, 'It is the will of Mahomet,' and consequently to neglect all means of preservation.