CHAPTER XVIII

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SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT.

The architecture of the Saracens in its most perfect examples has a thoroughly distinctive style of its own, and their ornament in its pure form is unlike the ornament of any style that has hitherto existed.

The originality of the latter arose from the experimenting in ornamental patterns that should have no likeness to plants, animals, or other natural forms.

This prohibition of the use of objects from nature in their ornament was one of the articles of the Moslem religion; but to get any pleasing variety in ornament and leave out all natural reminiscences in the designs is out of human power, so consequently we have, even in Saracenic ornament, natural forms put through a geometrical process of draughtsmanship. Saracenic ornament in what is sometimes called Arabian has leaf and bud-like forms interlaced with strap-work, which is often very beautiful and is known under the name of “Arabesque” (Figs. 341, 342).

[Illustration: Fig. 341.—Arabesque Ornament from the Wekāla of Kāit Bey. (L.-P.)]

The Saracens were originally composed of Arab herdsmen, nomadic wanderers of the desert, carriers or merchants, and dwellers in villages, who cultivated the land around them. The earliest building of any importance that can be called Saracenic is the “Kaaba” or Moslem temple at Mecca, which contained the sacred brownish-black stone placed by Mahomet in the south-east angle of this square temple. This black stone is supposed to be a meteorolite, hemispherical in shape, and about 6 by 8 inches in the widest dimension. Some hundreds of stone images or “gods” used to be worshipped at Mecca by the Mohammedans in their early days, or in what they call their “days of ignorance,” but these were destroyed by the prophet’s orders. Mohammed himself was a fanatic that could neither read nor write; he made up the Korân from many sources, such as the Bible, the Apocryphal gospels, the Talmud, and possibly a good many original passages of his own, which he says he received from the mouth of the angel Gabriel in visions. The Mohammedan creed contains its essence in the words:—"There is no God, but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." This text is found very frequently as a decorative legend on the walls of the mosques and on painted tiles. At first Mohammed’s new religion was not favourably received, for, after converting his near relations and a few other followers, he had to fly from Mecca to Medina, to escape assassination.

[Illustration: Fig. 342.—Rosette in Mosque of Suyurghatmish; Seventeenth Century. (L.-P.)]

The “Hegira,” or flight of Mohammed, took place A.D. 622. He compiled more of his Korân at Medina, and altered parts of it, especially as regards the punishment of idolaters, which naturally included his late persecutors.

The punishment was to be of an eternal nature in the next world, and extirpation in this, unless they embraced Islâmism. Mohammed very soon began to make his power felt; he made a few marauding expeditions throughout the country, and gained many converts, especially when they became convinced that Islâm was to conquer the whole world by the sword. His army, however, was nearly annihilated by the Byzantine emperor, Heraclius, in a battle at Muta, but he recovered himself, and marched on to Mecca, where he put to the sword all those that did not embrace his religion, and destroyed all the remaining idols in the city. He allowed his army all the plunder they could get, after he had a tithe to himself, but it is said that he led a very abstemious life, dressed poorly, and resided with his wives in the shabbiest type of dwellings. He died in A.D. 632, or ten years after the Hegira, from which event is dated the Mohammedan era. After his death many of the converts became backsliders, but his successor, Abu-Bekr, and more especially the renowned Omar—the second caliph—brought the Saracens to a great power. They were very warlike, and capable of enduring great hardships, and as they had everything to gain and nothing to lose, they made war their sole trade, and carried their successful arms to India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

The islands of the Mediterranean, the northern coast of Africa, Spain, and the south-east of France, were by them also invaded, ravaged, and

## partly conquered.

[Illustration: Fig. 343.—Alhambra Diaper, Superposed Ornament.]

[Illustration: Fig. 344.—Stalactite Vaulting.]

In the youthful days of Saracenic power, as early as the second caliphate, Persia and Asia Minor had been plundered and pillaged of their costly and valuable objects in silver, gold, embroidered carpets, and silken goods. The wealth of the Moslem conquerors was now considerable, and was accumulating fast; the sight of so much that was fine and striking in the arts and architecture of the countries they had conquered, in the eyes of these people—who were no better than barbarians or banditti—began to have a more civilising effect on them. Add to this the influence of the Byzantine architecture, especially at Constantinople, with the Saracens, whose religion was in some respects not unlike the Christian, especially as in both cases there was the stern prohibition of idols or graven images; and so it was quite natural that the Moslem mosque should be built and decorated on the main lines of the Byzantine Christian church. The dome and the niche (_mehrab_) came from the Byzantine; the minarets—which are not strictly essential in Moslem architecture—probably from the Perseopolitan columns. The Moslem dome, however, may have had its origin in the domed palaces of Persia, of the Achæmedian dynasty. Saracenic ornament is mostly, however, derived from the geometric Byzantine with a strong dash of Indian forms in its mixture. The super-posing in their ornament of different planes (Fig. 343), the class of ornament known as “mnemonic” (Figs. 362, 363), and the stalactite decoration of vaults and domes (Fig. 344)—all these three classes deserve the credit of being distinctly Saracenic, although some say that the stalactite ornament was known in Persia before the days of Mahomet.

Among the earliest mosques we may mention that of Omar at Jerusalem, which was supposed to be a small wooden mosque, now destroyed. Ferguson says it was the Mosque of El Aksah.

The Mosque of ’Amr at Old Cairo was built A.D. 641 by Amru-Ibn-al-Aās, the general and governor who conquered Egypt, A.H. 21 (after the Hegira). It has been frequently restored and enlarged. The columns which support the arcaded arches are classical in character, the arches are slightly horseshoe in the curve, and are tied together. The building is nearly square in plan (Figs. 345, 346).

[Illustration: Fig. 345.—East Colonnade of the Mosque of ’Amr. (L.-P.)]

The mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn (Son of Tūlūn) in Old Cairo was built by Ahmad-ibn-Tūlūn, founder of the house of the Tūlūn governors of Egypt, A.H. 263-5. This mosque and that of ’Amr are what are known as “cloistered” mosques. The plan of the latter (Fig. 346) gives a general idea of a cloistered mosque. The essential requirements of a mosque are very few and simple. Mahomet’s mosque at Medina was a small square brick-built structure, with a wooden roof plastered over: the chief thing required was retirement from the public for meditation and prayer.

[Illustration: Fig. 346.—Plan of the Mosque of ’Amr. (L.-P.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 347.—Minaret of the Mosque of Kaloum at Cairo.]

It was not essential that all the rectangular or square court that forms the mosque should be covered with a roof, provided there was sufficient shelter for the number of worshippers, which was generally small at a time, and if a larger space were required, a portion or all of the open court could be roofed in. What we would call the east end of a church corresponded to that part of a mosque where the _kibla_, or line of direction, would be indicated—towards Mecca—there the _mihrab_ or niche would be fixed. Close to the mihrab is the mimbar, or pulpit, for the sermon, and in close vicinity the _dikka_ or tribune, a raised platform, from which the imām intones the prayers and reads passages from the Korān. The minaret is a later addition, but is seen on every mosque; it is used by the Muezzin, who ascends to its galleries and calls the faithful to prayer five times a day (Fig. 347). A fountain is necessary for the lawful ablutions before prayer.

[Illustration: Fig. 348.—Mausoleum at Cairo.]

The dome is not a necessary feature to a mosque; it only occurs over the tomb of some sultan or other dignitary, and may be used as a chapel, but only when it covers a tomb. The majority of mosques, however, have a dome, either as a principal feature, or attached to some part of the building. Cairo is particularly rich in domed mausoleum structures (Fig. 348).

The domes or cupolas in Moslem buildings generally swell up beyond the semicircle, and are raised considerably by having their lower parts straight-sided or cylindrical; this part is sometimes pierced with a row of small windows, and is recessed back on a pyramid-like story, with a square or polygonal base, which in its turn rests on the top of a square embattled tower. The dome is usually built of brick, the courses projecting roughly one over the other, diminishing towards the top, and thickly plastered over inside and out to get an even surface; sometimes the mortar is thicker than the bricks in Saracen buildings.

[Illustration: Fig. 349.—Mosque of Kāit Bey, Cairo. (L.-P.)]

Wooden frames are often used in the construction of domes which support the plaster work. Some domes are built with slabs of stones on which a geometric pattern is carved on the outside (Figs. 348, 349); these are generally of a late period, as the tomb mosque of Kāit Bey, built about A.D. 1468 (Fig. 349). The oldest mosque in Cairo is that of Ibn Tūlūn (Fig. 350). It is a cloistered mosque, is built in a massive style, and has a high plain wall around it; it covers about four hundred square feet of ground. In the centre of the inner courtyard is a square stone building surmounted by a dome, one of the earliest carried on stalactites. This building is a century later than the cloisters, and is built over a well or fountain.

The great court is surrounded by arcades of pointed arches, that have a slight tendency to turn inwards at the base, and are built as piers of plastered brick; it is said to be the first mosque built on piers, instead of the usual round columns.

The Saracens did not make columns themselves, but took them from the ruins of Roman buildings, or even from existing Christian churches, and as often as not used the capitals turned upside down as bases.

The Saracens have a form of capital of Moorish design which harmonizes with their architecture; it has a slightly tapering, smooth, long neck, a heavy projecting head, and is well covered with characteristic foliated work (Fig. 351).

In the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn there are only two columns; these are placed at the niche or mihrab. Three sides of this mosque have two rows of arches, and the fourth—the side towards Mecca—which is the _liwān_ or sanctuary, has five. The architect of this mosque was a Coptic Christian, who received £5,000 and a costly dress of honour as his fee. The total cost of the building was £60,000 (_Lane-Poole_). Around the arches and the windows, which were placed high up between the arches, are bands of palmated ornament. These borders, according to Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, are the earliest examples of geometrical design and scroll-work that afterwards became so characteristic of Saracenic ornament.

They were made in plaster or stucco-work by hand, while the plaster was wet, and not cast in moulds, which was the case of later Moorish plaster ornament.

[Illustration: Fig. 350.—Arcades in the Mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn. (L.-P.)]

The arcades were roofed over with sycamore planks resting on heavy beams, and the whole structure was crowned with crenellations or embattlements. One of the back walls of the arcades is pierced with grilles of stone, of beautiful tracery design.

The Arabian or Saracen arches are of three kinds—the Ogee, the Horseshoe, and the Pointed (Fig. 352, _a_, _b_, _c_).

[Illustration: Fig. 351.—Moorish Capital.]

A peculiar arrangement of cusped inter-arching, combined with the horseshoe arch, is seen in the _maksura_, or space in front of the mihrab, of the mosque of Cordova, built A.D. 786 (Fig. 353).

This arrangement of cusping, though characteristically Moorish, is anything but beautiful. The Mosque of Cordova was begun by the Caliph Abd-al-Rahman in the year before he died, and was continued by his son Hisham, and his grandson El-Hakim. It is one of the great congregational mosques, and occupied a space of ground 580 feet by 435 feet.

[Illustration: Fig. 352.—Arches; _a_, ogee; _b_, horseshoe; _c_, pointed.]

The minaret is often a feature of great beauty, and is pre-eminently distinctive of Saracenic mosque architecture; it may be called the belfry of the mosque. Sometimes it is engaged to the main building, and sometimes starts from the roof of the mosque. The base plan is generally polygonal, and the upper stories above the main gallery are often circular; the top is crowned with a pear-shaped cupola. That of the mosque of Sultan Hasan is one of the highest, being about 330 feet in height. One of the most ornate and beautiful is the minaret that adorns the mosque of Kāit Bey, at Cairo (see Fig. 349). From the roof of the mosque it starts on a solid square base, and develops into an octagon story, which is pierced with window openings, and has an elaborate cornice gallery, consisting of a pierced balustrade, supported by stalactite brackets. The next upper division is cylindrical, decorated with geometrical interlaced ornament; another story is above this, crowned with a cupola, on the top of which is placed a pear-shaped ball, ending in a finial. Wooden bracket-like forms project out of this, from which lamps are suspended at festivals. The minaret and dome are covered with elaborate carvings.

[Illustration: Fig. 353.—Cusped inter-arching, Mosque of Cordova.]

The _mimbars_ or pulpits are singular in construction, and are usually well covered with decoration (Fig. 354).

[Illustration: Fig. 354.—Pulpit of the Sultan Kāit Bey: Fifteenth Century. (L.-P.)]

The remains of domestic architecture are not very plentiful—at least, of any examples of the best period of the Saracen style. The main idea in the design of the houses was to have them built so that people outside should see as little as possible of the inmates or inside, and that the women especially should see as little of street life as possible; so the first row of the windows was placed high up, and all the windows were thickly latticed, so that little could be seen from the inside and nothing from the outside (Fig. 355). An interesting and picturesque feature was the _meshrebiyas_, or drinking-places, so called because they were little projecting shaded structures of lattice-work, supported on brackets, that contained the water in vessels and other drinks; the currents of air that rushed through the lattice-work served to keep the drinking water cool.

[Illustration: Fig. 355.—A Street in Cairo. (L.-P.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 356.—Lattice-work, S.K.M. (L.-P.)]

The meshrebiyas are often very beautiful with their varied patterns of elaborate lattice-work, which is peculiarly Arabian in design. It is composed of many pieces of turned and carved pieces that are ingeniously fitted into each other to form the pattern (Figs. 356-7-8). In the museum at Kensington many examples of these lattice patterns may be seen, and also some of the meshrebiyas.

[Illustration: Fig. 357.—Lattice-work, S.K.M. (L.-P.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 358.—Lattice-work, S.K.M. (L.-P.)]

In the illustration of a “Street in Cairo” (Fig. 355), two of these meshrebiyas project on brackets from a house front.

A richer style of the lattice-work decoration was used in open panels and balustrades of the pulpits, where the triangles and hexagons that form part of the design are carved on the surface, and inlaid back and front with ivory or ebony.

The houses in Cairo of the purest Saracen style have the best part of the carvings and decoration in the inside; they are generally two or three stories in height, but were much higher in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The lower parts are built of stone, and the upper stories of brick and wood, plastered white.

The lower story has the stones coloured in alternate courses of red ochre and white limewash. The doorways are sometimes decorated by having peculiar voussoirs and interlaced ornament (Fig. 359).

[Illustration: Fig. 359.—Doorway of a Private House. (L.-P.)]

There is an illustration of a shop-front in M. Bourgoin’s “Eléments de l’Art Arabe” which is an exquisite example of Saracen work of good proportion and design in its doors and windows. Saracenic ornament, as it appears in plaster, stone, wood, and mosaic decoration, of the mosques, pulpits, and wekālas or khans, deserves special notice on account of its extreme originality of design and treatment, inasmuch as, whatever may be its true origin, we must certainly admit that there is a marked difference between it and the ornament of any other historic style.

The mosques built anterior to that of Suyurghatmish (A.D. 1356) were decorated in plaster. The rosette (Fig. 342) shows a transitional piece of work of great beauty, that looks like a copy in stone of low-relief plaster-work, and has every sign of a Byzantine-like origin, seen more especially in the leaf-like markings and general treatment of the six large central flowers; the interlacing and other details are also Byzantine. It is quite likely that this example was designed by a Christian Coptic artist, as, indeed, nearly all the Saracen art in Egypt of this period was designed by Coptic Egyptians. Compare with this the illuminated Korān of the Sultan Sha’ Ban, of a year or two later (A.D. 1368). All the floral work in this is distinctly Persian in character, without any reminiscence of Byzantine, but shows rather a Chinese or Indian influence (Fig. 360). It is probably copied from a Persian embroidery.

[Illustration: Fig. 360.—Illuminated Korān of the Sultan Sha’ Ban; Fourteenth Century. (L.-P.)]

Another example of Saracenic ornament is the stone sculptured decoration from the portal of the mosque of Sultan Hasan, in Cairo (A.D. 1358), (Fig. 361). From being carved in stone the ornament is much stiffer than the two previous examples, but it is more thoroughly Saracenic or Arabian than either of them; the large flower-like forms in elevation are evidently developments of the Assyrian form of the lotus, and have here almost the form of the fleur-de-lis. This type of design was successfully developed in the Moresque diapers of the Alhambra, where the conventional leaves and flower forms were mixed with Saracenic inscriptions, and were redeemed from their aridity by the almost sensuous character of the colouring, which has a combination of red, blue, white, and gold, and further by the superimposed planes of the ornamental composition (see Fig. 343). It may be noticed that some of the leaf-work in these diapers have a feather-like decoration, which gives richness and variety to the ornament: these markings are evidently derived from the parallel veining of Byzantine acanthus leaf-work. The larger strap-work running through is interlaced in the form of pointed and horseshoe arches, which makes the ornament in appropriate harmony with the Moorish architecture, while the flat treatment of the whole is distinctively characteristic of all Saracenic ornament.

[Illustration: Fig. 361.—Ornament from the Portal of Sultan Hasan.]

Two examples of Mnemonic ornament are given at Figs. 362 and 363. The former is a Kufic inscription arranged so as to form a band ornament. This is in the angular and older form of writing. The latter is an example of the cursive Arabian hand which was more generally adopted, and is termed the Vaskhy: it is more round and flowing than the Kufic. The typical feather ornament forms a background to most of these inscriptions.

[Illustration: Fig. 362.—Kufic Writing, from the Alhambra.]

[Illustration: Fig. 363.—Arabian Cursive Writing, from the Alhambra.]

Some of the finest specimens of purely Saracenic ornament are found on the singularly ornate mimbars or pulpits (Figs. 354 and 364). The simplicity of their straight-lined silhouettes is in restrained contrast to the extreme elaboration of their carved surfaces. The stone pulpit from the mosque of Barkuk is early fifteenth century work. It is made of solid stone slabs, with doorway, staircase, and canopy raised on small pillars and surmounted by the usual pear-shaped cupola. The stone slabs are elaborately carved with geometrical patterns, arabesques, and inscriptions, and are said to be the finest examples of stone carving in Cairo. Another pulpit (Fig. 354) of the fifteenth century, made by order of the Sultan Kāit Bey, is built in wood; it is now in the South Kensington Museum, and bears the name of this Mamlūk Sultan, who was the ruler of Egypt at the end of that century. The folding doors and the niche of this pulpit are decorated with stalactite ornament; the cupola is copper; the carving is most elaborate, and is also inlaid with ebony and ivory. Some of the carved panels from the building known as the wekāla or khan of Kāit Bey, show Saracenic ornament in its purest form—both the geometrical variety and arabesques. This Sultan and his artists have shown the most refined taste of all the great Saracen builders. The wekāla or khan is a rectangular building with an open court in the centre, and consists of numerous chambers that were occupied by merchants for a short season when they came to buy and sell in Cairo, and was, in fact, a sort of Eastern hotel.

[Illustration: Fig. 364.—Stone Pulpit in Mosque of Barkuk; Fifteenth Century.]

The stabling was placed behind on the ground floor, and the exterior consisted of a row of small shops. The wekāla of Kāit Bey had thirteen of these shops on one exterior, and between the seventh and eighth was placed a splendid arched gateway. It is a pointed arch of eight feet in width, the edge of which is decorated with three tiers of stalactites that are carved on the sides of the archway, and has a fine band of carved scroll-work running round the face of the archway and spandrels. One of the most beautiful examples of alternating interlacing and arabesque ornament is that which forms an arch over a horizontal panel of carved ornament. This arch is shown at Fig. 365. A fine characteristic piece of carved ornament from the same building is the subject of the illustration Fig. 341.

Figure and animal representation, though prohibited by the Moslem religion, was in many cases practised by the Saracen sculptors; for instance, in the Baptistery of St. Louis is a large copper bowl inlaid with silver figures (Mōsil work) made at Mōsil in the thirteenth century. These figure and animal designs are from Mesopotamian sources, as may easily be seen in the examples given—from the Marīstan of Kalaun (Figs. 366 and 367), where on the last a centaur is shooting an arrow at a unicorn, balanced by a similar animal on the opposite side; and on the other example is a peacock in the centre, with figures of men on either side having drinking vessels and musical instruments, an evident representation of a concert and dances.

[Illustration: Fig. 365.—Ornament on an Arch of the Wekāla Kāit Bey. (L.-P.)]

The scroll borders around this panel, and the execution of the work, are in the Saracenic manner, but the motives of the designs are Persian. Other similar carvings in which animals figure and birds are introduced are to be seen in the same building, and are of late thirteenth century work. These illustrations are taken from Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole’s “Saracenic Art in Egypt,” after “Prisse d’Avennes,” to which the student is referred for an exhaustive account of the Saracen art in Egypt. We extract the following summary of this art from the above author, who quotes from Franz Pasha, the architect to the Government of the Khedive. “While bestowing their full meed of praise on the wonderfully rich ornamentation and other details of Arabian architecture, one cannot help feeling that the style fails to give entire æsthetic satisfaction; want of symmetry of plan, poverty of articulation, insufficiency of plastic decoration, and an incongruous mingling of wood and stone are the imperfections which strike most Northern critics. The architects, in fact, bestowed the whole of their attention on the decoration of surfaces; and down to the present day the Arabian artists have always displayed far greater ability in designing the most complicated ornament and geometrical figures on plane surfaces than in the treatment and proportioning of masses. Although we occasionally see difficulties of construction well overcome ... these instances seem rather to be successful experiments than the result of scientific workmanship. The real excellence of the Arabian architects lay in their skill in masking abrupt angles by the use of stalactites, or brackets,” &c.

[Illustration: Figs. 366, 367.—Carved Panels from the Maristan of Kalaun (after Prisse d’Avennes): Late Thirteenth Century. (L.-P.)]

This architect is right, generally speaking, in his admirable remarks, but we think, although it is admitted that Saracenic architecture lacks the cohesion and unity of parts that is the chief beauty in Greek and best examples of the Gothic, that in some instances, in the mosques and more particularly in the wekālas and in domestic architecture, the Saracen architects have proved themselves masters in the creation of architectural works second to none in point of beauty, while in their architectural application of ornament to the decoration of the various surfaces and other features of their buildings they are unrivalled. They have not only invented a new style of ornament, but in their correct application of it they have scarcely ever been equalled.

The decoration of surfaces, which is the chief glory of all Saracenic art and architecture, was the first and last lesson they learnt from their Persian masters in art, for Persian art, like the manners and customs of the people, has all its beauty and politeness on the surface.

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