Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/515

Rh BK. I. Ch. I. INTRODUCTION. 499 of Mahomet the Sabean worship of the stars was common to Arabia and Persia, and a great part of the Babylonian Empire. The Jewish religion was diffused through Syria and parts of Arabia. Egypt, long before the time of Mahomet, must have been to a great extent Arabian, as it now wholly is. In all these countries the religion of Mahomet struck an ancient chord that still vibrated among the people, and it must have appeared more as a revival of the past than as the preaching of a new faith. In Spain alone colonization to some extent seems to have taken place, but we must not even there overlook the fact of the early Carthaginian settlements, and the consequent exist- ence of a Semitic people of considerable importance in the south, where the new religion maintained itself long after its extinction in those parts of Spain where no Semitic blood is known to have existed. So weak, indeed, in the converted countries was the mere Arabian influence, that each province soon shook off its yoke, and, under their own Caliphs, Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, soon became independent States, yielding only a nominal fealty to that Caliph who claimed to be the rightful successor of the Prophet, and, except in faith and the form of religion, the real and essential change was slight, and far greater in externals than in the innate realities of life. All this is more evident from the architecture than from any other department — without, at least, more study than most people can devote to the subject. The Arabs themselves had no architecture, properly so called. Their only temple was the Kaabah at Mecca, a small square tower, almost destitute of architectural ornament, and more famous for its antiquity and sanctity than for any artistic merit. It is said that Mahomet built a mosque at Medina — a simple edifice of bricks and palm-sticks. i But the Koran gives no directions on the subject, and so simi>le were the primitive habits of the nomad Arabs, that had the religion been confined to its native land, it is probable that no mosque w^orthy of the name would ever have been erected. With them prayer everywhere and any where was equally acceptable. All that was required of the faithful was to turn towards Mecca at stated times and pray, going through certain forms and in certain attitudes, but whether the place was the desert or the housetop was quite immaterial. For the first half century after the Mahomedans burst into Syria they seem to have built very little. The taste for architectural magnificence had not yet taken hold of the simple followers of the Prophet, and desecrated churches and other buildings supplied what wants they had. When they did take to building, about the end of the 7th century, they employed the native architects and builders, and easily converted the Christian church with its atrium into a plaoe
 * Abulfeda, ed. Reiske, vol. i. p. 32.