DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11715#0038
THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS.
had been working. There was no display of wealth. Every article was brought out
separately, and its price fixed by weight. Yet even here the intrusive West had made
its way. Each Jeweler had at the back of his forge an iron safe made in London or
Birmingham, in which his treasures were stored.
The mosques in Cairo are very numerous, not fewer, it is said, than four hundred.
Many of them are of considerable size and architectural merit. But, with the single ex-
^-.jj,. ception of that of Moham-
med Ali, recently erected,
they are all falling into di-
lapidation. Many reasons are
assigned for their ruinous
condition. It is said that
the Egyptians are deterred
from repairing them by sup-
erstitious feelingrs. Others
ascribe the neglect to a de-
cay of religious faith and
zeal. The more probable
explanation is, that the gov-
ernment having confiscated
the estates of the mosques,
as well as those of private
individuals, now fail to dis-
charge the duty of keeping
the edifices in repair. The
mosque of Sultan Tooloon
is interesting to architects
from the fact, that although
built a thousand years ago
(a.d. 879), it had pointed
arches at least three hundred
years before their introduct-
ion into England. That of
Sultan Hassan, near the cita-
del, is a building of great
beauty, constructed out of
the casing stones of the Great
Pyramid. "It abounds,"
says Fairholt, "with the most enriched details of ornament within and without; not the
least remarkable of its fittings being the rows of colored glass lamps hanging from its
walls, of Syrian manufacture, bearing the Sultan's name, amid glowing colored deco-
rations ; they are some of the finest early glass-work of their kind, but many are broken,
and others hanging unsafely from half-corroded chains." Though this mosque is the
boast and pride of the Cairenes, yet it is allowed to remain in a condition of filth and
dilapidation which seems to prove that all religious zeal is dying out from the hearts of
the people.
34
A STEEET IN CAIEO.
*
had been working. There was no display of wealth. Every article was brought out
separately, and its price fixed by weight. Yet even here the intrusive West had made
its way. Each Jeweler had at the back of his forge an iron safe made in London or
Birmingham, in which his treasures were stored.
The mosques in Cairo are very numerous, not fewer, it is said, than four hundred.
Many of them are of considerable size and architectural merit. But, with the single ex-
^-.jj,. ception of that of Moham-
med Ali, recently erected,
they are all falling into di-
lapidation. Many reasons are
assigned for their ruinous
condition. It is said that
the Egyptians are deterred
from repairing them by sup-
erstitious feelingrs. Others
ascribe the neglect to a de-
cay of religious faith and
zeal. The more probable
explanation is, that the gov-
ernment having confiscated
the estates of the mosques,
as well as those of private
individuals, now fail to dis-
charge the duty of keeping
the edifices in repair. The
mosque of Sultan Tooloon
is interesting to architects
from the fact, that although
built a thousand years ago
(a.d. 879), it had pointed
arches at least three hundred
years before their introduct-
ion into England. That of
Sultan Hassan, near the cita-
del, is a building of great
beauty, constructed out of
the casing stones of the Great
Pyramid. "It abounds,"
says Fairholt, "with the most enriched details of ornament within and without; not the
least remarkable of its fittings being the rows of colored glass lamps hanging from its
walls, of Syrian manufacture, bearing the Sultan's name, amid glowing colored deco-
rations ; they are some of the finest early glass-work of their kind, but many are broken,
and others hanging unsafely from half-corroded chains." Though this mosque is the
boast and pride of the Cairenes, yet it is allowed to remain in a condition of filth and
dilapidation which seems to prove that all religious zeal is dying out from the hearts of
the people.
34
A STEEET IN CAIEO.
*