DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26747#0451
Chap. II.
SYRIA AND EGYPT.
387
The sonth wall has the usnal niches (Mirhah) to indicate the
direction of Mecca, and ahove these a range of circnlar-headed win-
dows, rnnning the whole length of the mosque. To the north tlie
mosque opens hy a series of arches supported on pillars into a court-
yard ahout 500 ft. long, hy half that in width, surrounded hy a colon-
nade on three sides—the whole apparently consisting of Christian
materials, hut entirely re-arranged hy the Mahometans.
With these two mosques our list of Syrian edifices closes—not that
others do not exist, hut simply hecause no one has yet either examined
or descrihed them. From the time of the Caliph Walid to the epoch
of the Crusades, Syria was a great and wealthy country, and all its
more important cities must have heen provided with plaees of prayer,
many of which still, no douht, remain ; and since the time of the
Crusades many more must have heen erected, hut these, too, are
equally unknown to us; so that, for the present at least, the informa-
tion does not exist from which this chapter in the history of architec-
ture can he written.
Egypt.
In Egypt our history hegins with the mosque which Amrou in the
21st year of the Hejra (642 a.d.) erected at Old Cairo ; its original
dimensions were only 50 cuhits (75 ft.) long, hy 30 cubits, or 45 ft.
wide. Edircy 1 says that it was originally a Christian church which
the Moslems converted into a mosque, and its dimensions and form
certainly would lead us to suppose that, if not so, it was at least
huilt after the pattern of the Christian churches of tliat age. As
early however as tlre 53rd year of the Idejra it was enlarged, and
again in the 79th; and it apparently was almost wholly rehuilt hy the
two great huilders of that age, Ahd el Malek and Walid, the huilders of
the mosques of Jerusalem and Damascus.
It prohahly now remains in all essential parts as left hy these two
Caliphs, though frequently repaired, and prohahly in some parts
altered hy suhsequent sovereigns of Egypt. In its present state it
may he considered as a fair specimen of the form 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
ahsorhed the basilica, so as to hecome itself the principal part of the
huilding, the church part heing spread out into a mere deep coionnade,
and its three apsidal altars modified into niches pointing towards the
sacred Mecca.
As will he seen from the plan, it is nearly square, 390 ft. hy 357
ft., consisting of a court-yard, 255 ft. square, surro.unded on all sides hj
porticoes, supported hy 245 columns taken from older edifices of the
Eomans and Byzantines. These are joined together by hrick arches of
circular form,2 tied at their springing hy wooden heams, as in the
1 Translated by M. Jaubert, tom. i. p. 303. 2 M. Coste makes all these arches pointed.
The particulars of this description are taken M. de Prangey states that they are all cir-
fromM.GiraultdePrangey,MonumensArabes, cular; the truth being that they are partly
compared with M. Coste’s Edifices de Caire. one, partly the other.
2 c 2
SYRIA AND EGYPT.
387
The sonth wall has the usnal niches (Mirhah) to indicate the
direction of Mecca, and ahove these a range of circnlar-headed win-
dows, rnnning the whole length of the mosque. To the north tlie
mosque opens hy a series of arches supported on pillars into a court-
yard ahout 500 ft. long, hy half that in width, surrounded hy a colon-
nade on three sides—the whole apparently consisting of Christian
materials, hut entirely re-arranged hy the Mahometans.
With these two mosques our list of Syrian edifices closes—not that
others do not exist, hut simply hecause no one has yet either examined
or descrihed them. From the time of the Caliph Walid to the epoch
of the Crusades, Syria was a great and wealthy country, and all its
more important cities must have heen provided with plaees of prayer,
many of which still, no douht, remain ; and since the time of the
Crusades many more must have heen erected, hut these, too, are
equally unknown to us; so that, for the present at least, the informa-
tion does not exist from which this chapter in the history of architec-
ture can he written.
Egypt.
In Egypt our history hegins with the mosque which Amrou in the
21st year of the Hejra (642 a.d.) erected at Old Cairo ; its original
dimensions were only 50 cuhits (75 ft.) long, hy 30 cubits, or 45 ft.
wide. Edircy 1 says that it was originally a Christian church which
the Moslems converted into a mosque, and its dimensions and form
certainly would lead us to suppose that, if not so, it was at least
huilt after the pattern of the Christian churches of tliat age. As
early however as tlre 53rd year of the Idejra it was enlarged, and
again in the 79th; and it apparently was almost wholly rehuilt hy the
two great huilders of that age, Ahd el Malek and Walid, the huilders of
the mosques of Jerusalem and Damascus.
It prohahly now remains in all essential parts as left hy these two
Caliphs, though frequently repaired, and prohahly in some parts
altered hy suhsequent sovereigns of Egypt. In its present state it
may he considered as a fair specimen of the form 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
ahsorhed the basilica, so as to hecome itself the principal part of the
huilding, the church part heing spread out into a mere deep coionnade,
and its three apsidal altars modified into niches pointing towards the
sacred Mecca.
As will he seen from the plan, it is nearly square, 390 ft. hy 357
ft., consisting of a court-yard, 255 ft. square, surro.unded on all sides hj
porticoes, supported hy 245 columns taken from older edifices of the
Eomans and Byzantines. These are joined together by hrick arches of
circular form,2 tied at their springing hy wooden heams, as in the
1 Translated by M. Jaubert, tom. i. p. 303. 2 M. Coste makes all these arches pointed.
The particulars of this description are taken M. de Prangey states that they are all cir-
fromM.GiraultdePrangey,MonumensArabes, cular; the truth being that they are partly
compared with M. Coste’s Edifices de Caire. one, partly the other.
2 c 2