Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/715

 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 657 On the exterior the pointed or bulbous (pear-shaped) domes crowning the main structures, and the graceful, tall and elaborately decorated minarets (signal-post or light-house), used by the priests to call the faithful to prayer, impress the beholder very differently to any style already considered. The same importance of internal treatment^- applies to dwelling-houses which are plain outside, but have the ornamentation lavished on the porticos, walls, and pavements, of the interior. The architecture hardly ranks among those great styles which have been evolved on con- structive principles, for it is from the decorative side that it is specially impressive. The surface decoration is important, and must have been largely due to the prohibition of natural forms laid down in the Koran, The pointed, horseshoe, multifoil, and ogee arches are all used (No. 291). The introduction of vaulting into Egypt dates from the com- mencement of the Fatimite dynasty and the foundation of the city of Cairo (a.d. 971). The use of " stalactite " vaulting was first applied in a similar position to the " pendentive " which the Byzantines introduced (Nos. 79, 80, 82). ' Its origin was probably derived from the corbelling over of slabs of stone to form a resting-place for the circular dome over a square plan. The ornament was eventually used for the bracketing of minaret galleries, the upper part of niches, the crowning member of walls, and elsewhere. Note. — For the disposition of the essential parts of a mosque and the name given to each, see under Plans (page 678). 3. EXAMPLES. a. Arabian. e. Persian. h. Syrian. /. Turkish. c. Egyptian. g. Indian, d. Spanish. {a.) ARABIAN SARACENIC. Although Arabia was ^he birthplace of the new faith, neither Mecca nor Medina can boast of any noteworthy buildings. The Arabs were only required to turn towards Mecca at prayer times, which was as easy in the desert as in a building, and the erection of mosques appears to have been immaterial. At Mecca, however, is the Great Mosque, repaired and added to by successive Egyptian Caliphs, and finally by the Sultan of Turkey in the middle of the sixteenth century. As now existing, it is an irregular shaped inclosure internally, 570 feet by 380 feet, surrounded by arcades of pointed arches, with an outer inclosing wall having gateways and minarets. In the centre of the inclosure F.A. u u