Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/721

 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 663 with a dome supported on stalactite pendentives. On either side are minarets (No. 286 c), one being 300 feet in height. Externally the mosque is surrounded by walls crowned by a massive cornice, and divided into nine stories, having a total height of 100 feet. The Mosque of Sultan Barkook (a.d. 1384) is famous for its graceful dom^ over the tomb chamber, and for its minarets. In the following century the columned Mosque El-Muayyad (1415), and the small yet richly finished Mosque of Kait-Bey (1472) (Nos. 285 and 287), with elaborate minaret, are the best known. After this period the influence of the Renaissance movement in Europe (page 437) arrested the local character of Saracenic Architecture. (d.) SPANISH SARACENIC. Algiers, Tunis, Barbary, Tripoli and Morocco in North Africa formed connecting links between the Eastern and Western development of the style, but these districts have been only scantily investigated. After the Moorish conquest of the Peninsula in the eighth century, a series of buildings was erected which may be com- pared to Basilicas (page 178), extended in width by numerous parallel arcades. In these, the dome on pendentives is generally absent, and there is considerable ingenuity in geometrical design and colored decoration. Roman remains influenced the development. The Mosque, Cordova (a.d. 786) was commenced by the Caliph Abd-el- Rahman, and has since been enlarged, eastwards and southwards, by successive rulers, until it consists of a paral- lelogram 422 feet by 573 feet. The enclosed portion itself occupies more area than any Christian Cathedral, consisting of nineteen aisles placed North and South, with thirty- three bays to each aisle. The height is only 30 feet. The colonnades are in two heights (No. 288), formed of columns of varying design, mostly from older Roman buildings. From the upper and lower columns spring arches, the lower ones of circular cinquefoil pattern, and the upper of horseshoe form, the alternate lower columns being made to appear connected by a subsidiary treatment of the lower arches (No. 288). The Churches of S. Cristo de la Luz and S. Maria la Bianca, both at Toledo, are interesting because of their Saracenic features and detail. The Alcazar (el Kasr = the castle), Seville, dating chiefly from 1350-69, is much dilapidated, but still possesses some interesting remains as the principal faqade and Patio de las Doncellas. The Giralda, Seville (a.d. 1195), so called from the vane which turns ("gira"), is one of the most celebrated towers in the world. The upper part was burnt and rebuilt in a.d. 1395. It