DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0550
530
SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE.
Part III.
style. With the Saracens the whole window is filled, and the interstices
are small and varied ; both which characteristics are appropriate when
the window is not to be looked out of, or when it is filled with painted
glass; but of course are utterly unsuitable to our purposes. Yet it is
doubtful, even now, whether the Saracenic did not excel the Gothic
architects, even in their best days, in the elegance of design and variety
of invention displayed in the tracery of their windows. In the mosque
of Ibn Tooloon it is used as an old and perfected invention, and with
the germs of all those angular and flowing lines which afterwards
were combined into such myriad forms of beauty.
It is possible that future researches may bring to light a build-
ing, 50 or even 100 years earlier than this, which may show nearly
as complete an emancipation from Christian art ; but for the present,
it is from the mosque of Tooloon (a.d. 885) that we must date the
complete foundation of the new style. Although there is consider-
able difliculty in tracing the history of the style from the erection of
the mosques of Damascus and Jerusalem to that of Tooloon, there is
none from that time onwards. Cairo alone furnishes nearly sufficient
materials for the purpose.
The next great mosque erected in this city was El-Azhar, or “ the
splendid ” built in the year a.d. 981 by the Arabs of Iverouan on the
type of their own mosque. This has been rebuilt in later times, but
according to Mr. Carpenter 1 it preserves the proportions of its origina]
plan. It is said to have been converted into a university in 1199, but
was overthrown by an earthquake in 1303, and subsequently entirely
rebuilt and restored by various sultans.
The Mosque of A1 Hâkim was built in the beginning of the llth
century. Portions of the arcades still remain, which show it to have
been of the same type as Tooloon, with pointed and slightly horseshoe
arches, and engaged angle shafts, which in Tooloon are probably the
earliest examples of that feature extant. In the place of the minarets
are two Mabkârehs or square tombs with small minarets on the top.
The buildings during the next two centuries are neither numerous
nor remarkable in size, though progress is very effident in such examples
as exist, and towards the commencement of the 13th century we flnd
the style almost entirely changed. The Mosque of El-Dhahir (1268),
now used as a fort, is remarkable for the ornament around the arches
of two of its porches, which would prove it to be of Horman origin. It
consists of a chevron or zigzag in one case, and of moulded mullions
in the other, similar to those found in the porch of the Holy Sepulchre
at Jerusalem, attributed to the Crusaders, and in the tower of the
Martorana at Palermo.
1 The mosque cathedrals of Cordoba and Seville and the contemporary Arabic
buildings. Transactions, R.I.B.A., 1882-83.
SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE.
Part III.
style. With the Saracens the whole window is filled, and the interstices
are small and varied ; both which characteristics are appropriate when
the window is not to be looked out of, or when it is filled with painted
glass; but of course are utterly unsuitable to our purposes. Yet it is
doubtful, even now, whether the Saracenic did not excel the Gothic
architects, even in their best days, in the elegance of design and variety
of invention displayed in the tracery of their windows. In the mosque
of Ibn Tooloon it is used as an old and perfected invention, and with
the germs of all those angular and flowing lines which afterwards
were combined into such myriad forms of beauty.
It is possible that future researches may bring to light a build-
ing, 50 or even 100 years earlier than this, which may show nearly
as complete an emancipation from Christian art ; but for the present,
it is from the mosque of Tooloon (a.d. 885) that we must date the
complete foundation of the new style. Although there is consider-
able difliculty in tracing the history of the style from the erection of
the mosques of Damascus and Jerusalem to that of Tooloon, there is
none from that time onwards. Cairo alone furnishes nearly sufficient
materials for the purpose.
The next great mosque erected in this city was El-Azhar, or “ the
splendid ” built in the year a.d. 981 by the Arabs of Iverouan on the
type of their own mosque. This has been rebuilt in later times, but
according to Mr. Carpenter 1 it preserves the proportions of its origina]
plan. It is said to have been converted into a university in 1199, but
was overthrown by an earthquake in 1303, and subsequently entirely
rebuilt and restored by various sultans.
The Mosque of A1 Hâkim was built in the beginning of the llth
century. Portions of the arcades still remain, which show it to have
been of the same type as Tooloon, with pointed and slightly horseshoe
arches, and engaged angle shafts, which in Tooloon are probably the
earliest examples of that feature extant. In the place of the minarets
are two Mabkârehs or square tombs with small minarets on the top.
The buildings during the next two centuries are neither numerous
nor remarkable in size, though progress is very effident in such examples
as exist, and towards the commencement of the 13th century we flnd
the style almost entirely changed. The Mosque of El-Dhahir (1268),
now used as a fort, is remarkable for the ornament around the arches
of two of its porches, which would prove it to be of Horman origin. It
consists of a chevron or zigzag in one case, and of moulded mullions
in the other, similar to those found in the porch of the Holy Sepulchre
at Jerusalem, attributed to the Crusaders, and in the tower of the
Martorana at Palermo.
1 The mosque cathedrals of Cordoba and Seville and the contemporary Arabic
buildings. Transactions, R.I.B.A., 1882-83.