Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/717

 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 659 IS the Kaabeh or holy shrine, to which all other mosques must, by the Kihieh in the Mihrah (niche), indicate the direction. {h.) SYRIAN SARACENIC. • In Syria three important buildings only need be mentioned. The Mosque-el-Aksah (a.d. 691), on the Temple platform at Jerusalem, consists of a 3-aisled basilica, to which were added double aisles on both sides. The Mosque-el- Walid (a.d. 705) is a 3-aisled structure placed laterally on one side of an open space. The Dome of the Rock (known as the Mosque of Omar), on the Temple platform of Jerusalem, was built in the eighth century, Saladin (ii8g) rebuilt the dome, and it was restored in the sixteenth century. In plan it consists of a central circular space crowned with a dome, pierced with windows. This space is surrounded by four massive piers, with intermediate columns of Cormthian type brought from older buildings. These support an entablature on which are placed semi-circular arches. The central portion is surrounded by two aisles, octagonal in plan. In the sixteenth century the interior was encased with marble, and the exterior with colored Persian tiles and marble. {c.) EGYPTIAN SARACENIC. The principal examples are at Cairo. One of the earliest buildings IS the Mosque of Amru (seventh century), built by the Cahphs Abd-el-Melik and Walid. It consists of a central open space, surrounded by rows of columns, taken from Roman and Byzantine buildings, and supporting arches, at right angles to the Mihrab wall. The Mosque of Ibn Tooloon (a.d. 879) (No. 286 a, b) is on similar lines, but with piers and angle shafts instead of columns. These support pointed arches, square in section. The construction IS of brick with plaster surface. The windows are entirely filled m with geometrical tracery, and the minarets are reckoned the earliest in Egypt. At the end of the thirteenth century a series of mosques was commenced which corresponds in date with the Gothic development in Europe. The first of the series is the Mosque of Kalaoon (a.d. 1287). This was followed by the Mosque of Sultan Hassan (a.d. 1356), which differs from the normal type, being cruciform in plan (No. 286 c, d). The central space measures 117 feet by 105 feet, off which are four rectangular arms covered with pointed tunnel vaults. The southern arm contains the Mihrab, and beyond is the Founder's Tomb, about 70 feet square on plan, u u 2