18. Muḥammadan Architecture and Art in Cairo.

The Architecture and Art of the Muḥammadans may be said to have sprung into being when the Arabs ceased to be a purely nomadic people, and when they found it necessary to construct large mosques and tombs, for these two classes of buildings are, after all, the principal sources from which our knowledge of Arab architecture and art is derived. As soon as the Arabs had conquered all Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, and their ruler wished to construct mosques at Damascus, Jerusalem, and Madinah, he applied to the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, who sent him workmen that were skilled in Byzantine architecture and its methods and ornament, and thus it came to pass that the substratum of Arab architecture is of Byzantine origin, and that one of its most important characteristics, namely, the arcade on pillars, is due to this influence. In a very short time, however, the form of the arcade and of its supports was altered, and the decoration used to ornament them soon assumed the character which is the peculiar product of the Arab mind. The religion of the Arabs prevented them from employing figures of men and animals in their architectural works, for the Prophet Muḥammad classed statues with wine, games of chance, and divination by means of arrows, and declared that all these were invented by Satan. This being the case the Arabs were driven to make use of designs of flowers, plants, fruits, &c ch they mingled with intricate leaf compositions and g cal patterns, harmonizing great detail with a compa bold and open treatment of symbols in a way whic the admiration f greatest experts in Western A e and Art. and shapes of large building o and in madan centres have been climate as well as of re ideal of a beautiful buj wherein fountains and imposing buildings; that if this combin enclosures must be several covered ga coolness, among tion might play. tecture is the na

beholder with a sense of bareness and coldness, and it seems as if this feature was specially repeated in order to make the contrast between the exterior and interior of the building more striking. The square capital is another peculiar feature of Arab mosques, tombs, etc., and when we consider this characteristic, which is derived from the Byzantine, in connection with its peculiar decoration, it is impossible to confound an Arab capital with that of any other order of architecture.

The oldest mosque in Egypt, that of 'Amr, was founded A.D. 643, but has been frequently restored; it was originally about 75 yards long, and 45 feet wide. Its shape resembled that of the mosque of Madinah, which consisted of a small enclosure of brick; this was partially covered over by a roof made of planks, which were supported on palm trunks plastered over with gypsum. Between 641 and 868 the Mosque of 'Amr was enlarged twice, and it was almost entirely rebuilt by Abd Al-Malik and Walid, the builders of the Mosques of Jerusalem and Damascus. Mr. Fergusson says (Architecture, Vol. II, p. 381): "In its present state it may be considered as a fair specimen of the form which mosques took when they had quite emancipated themselves from the Christian models, or rather when the court before the narthex of the Christian church had absorbed the basilica, so as to become itself the principal part of the building, the church part being spread out into a mere deep colonnade, and its three? altars modified into niches pointing toward the

probable that the brilliant Courts of Damascus and Baghdad did more than Egypt towards bringing about the result. At all events from this time we find no backsliding; the style in Egypt at last takes its rank as a separate and complete architectural form." (Fergusson, Ibid., p. 383.) The court of the Mosque of Ibn Tûlûn is about 300 feet square; no pillars are used in its construction, except as engaged corner shafts, and all the arches, which are invariably pointed, are supported by massive piers. The court has on three sides two ranges of arcades, and on the Mecca side there are five, but instead of running parallel to the side they run across the mosque from east to west. The general character of the arcades and their ornaments "is that of bold and massive simplicity, the counterpart of our own Norman style. A certain element of sublimity and power, in spite of occasional clumsiness, is common to both these styles. The external openings are filled with that peculiar sort of tracery which became as characteristic of this style as that of the windows of our churches five centuries afterwards is of Gothic style."

The next great Mosque of Cairo is Al-Azhar, i.e., “the splendid," which was begun in 969 and finished in three years under the rule of Al-Mu'izz Ma'add; it shows a great advance in elegance of detail over that of Ibn Tûlûn. The Mosque of Al-Ḥâkim was finished some 30 years later. Next in point of age come: (1) The tomb-mosque of Aș-Sâliḥ, which was built in the reign of Tûrânshâh in 1249; (2) the Mosque of Az-Zâhir Bêbars I, built in 1268; (3) the Mosque of Kalâ'ûn, built in 1279; (4) the Mosque of An-Nâşir Muḥammad, built in 1318; (5) the Mosque of Kûşûn, built in 1329; (6) the Mosque of Al-Mâridânî, built in 1339; (6) the Mosque of Aksunķur, built in 1347; (7) the Mosque of Sulțân Hasan, built in 1356; and (7) the Mosque of Barkûk. In the last-named building the pointed arch is used "with as much lightness and elegance as ever it reached in the West. The dome has become a truly graceful and elaborate appendage, forming not only a very perfect ceiling, but a most imposing ornament to the exterior. Above all, the minaret has here arrived at as high a degree of perfection as it ever reached in any after-age." The Mosque of Sulțân Ḥasan is one of the most remarkable mosques which has ever been erected in any country. Its appearance is bold and massive on every side, and "the building has all the apparent solidity of a fortress, and seems more worthy of the descendants

of the ancient Pharaohs than any work of modern times in Egypt." Instead of the usual arcades we see here that one gigantic niche opens in each face of the court; all four niches are covered with simple tunnel vaults of a pointed form, without either ribs or intersections, and for simple grandeur are unrivalled by any similar arches known to exist anywhere. One of its two minarets is the highest and largest in Cairo, and probably in any part of the world. The Mosque of

Al-Mu'ayyad, which was built in 1420, is a fine example of a mosque with columns, and the Tomb-Mosque of Ķâ'it Bey, outside the walls of the city of Cairo, is perhaps the most graceful of all this class of building in Egypt. It has been rightly described as a "perfect model of the elegance we generally associate with the architecture of this people, and it is perhaps unrivalled by anything in Egypt, and far surpasses the Alhambra or the other Western buildings of its age." Another authority on Saracenic Art, Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, believes that in this building we see the dome and minaret in