Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/525

Rh Bk. I. Ch. II. SYRIA AND EGYPT. 509 this part of the mosque, however, has been so often repaired and reno- vated that but little of the original details can now remain. Of the original mosque, or perhaps church, the only part that can with certainty be said to exist is a portion of the outer wall, repre- sented in Woodcut No. 960, which possesses the peculiarity of being .^^^i built with pointed arclies, similar ^^^^ in form to those of the Aksah at Jerusalem. They are now built up, and must have been so at the time of one of the earlier altera- Ai'ches in the Mosque of Amrou. (From G. de Prangey's Work.) tions ; still they are, from their undoubted antiquity, a curious contribution to the nmch-con- tested history of the pointed arch. Notwithstanding the beautiful climate of Egypt, the whole mosque is now in a sad state of 9go. degradation and decay, arishig principally from its original faulty construction. Owing to the paucity of details, many of M. Coste's restorations must be taken as extremely doubtful. From the time of the great rebuilding of the mosque of Amrou, under Walid, there is a gap in the architectural history of Egypt of nearly a century and a half, during which time it is probable that no really great work was undertaken there, as Egypt was then a dependent province of the great Caliphat of the East. With the recovery, however, of something like independence, we find one of its most powerful rulers, Ibn Touloun, commencing a mosque at Cairo (a.d. 876), which, owing to its superior style of construction, still remains in tolerable perfection to the present day.^ Tradition, as usual, ascribes the design to a Christian architect, who, when the Emir declined to use the columns of desecrated churches for the proposed mosque, offered to build it entirely of original materials. He was at first tlirown into prison through the machinations of his rivals ; but at last, when they found they could not dispense with his sei-vices, was again sent for, and his design carried out.^ Be this as it may, the whole style of the mosque shows an immense advance on that of its predecessor, all trace of Roman or " This was quite true when I first saw it and wrote these lines. Since then the arches liave been built up, and it has been converted into a hospital, and I fear irretrievably ruined. ■^ See Coste's "Edifices de Caire," p, 32, quoting from Makrisi.