Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/542

526 526 SARACENIC ARCHITECTUBE. Part III the most beautiful and elaborate specimen of Moorish architecture in Spain and of the best age. In the great body of the mosque the architects employed columns brought from the ruined Roman cities of Merida and the neighborhood, probably those supporting the por- ticos of the Forum and streets, or the courts of private houses. These being small and low, they were obliged to employ the expedient of j^lacing arch over arch to eke out their height — to invent in short for the nonce that strange style which gives so peculiar a character to this building. Before the age of El Hakeem, however, the style had 972. Exterior of the Sanctuary, Cordoba. (From Rosengarten.) time to perfect itself; it was no longer dependent either on the mate- rials or the forms of Roman art. They obtained also at this time the assistance of workmen from Byzantium, with which court the caliphs of Spain were closely allied ; and with their own exquisite taste they made the facade and niches of this part of the building the most elabo- rate and beautiful specimens of the art in Spain, and which, but for the smallness of the scale and confined nature of the design, might rival anything else found anywhere. The flowing and gracefiil forms of the design of this Sanctuary are preferable to the interlacing straight lines of the Alhambra, and