Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/351

 it is an excellent example of Muhammadan workmanship in the eleventh or twelfth century, to which period Sarre assigns it ; ^ and it has well stood the test of time, including the frequent oscillations to which it is constantly subjected, for it belongs to the class of shaking minarets in Persia, and a man standing on the top can make it sway noticeably from side to side.^ To give many details regarding the minaret may, I hope, not seem irrelevant ; for a study of these structures has a special in- terest, not only because of the question of their supposed historic connection with the steeples of Christian churches and the ziggurat towers of the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian temples,^ but also from the practical standpoint of the brick- mason's art. Many a lesson for the artistic composition of brick in the modern factory chimney, and otherwise, is to be learned from these old-time monuments of the Moslem builder's art.

Shaikh Bayazid's shrine, though the simplest of all, is the most sacred monument in the whole collection. It is an ordinary stone tomb, square, and small in size, standing near the left- hand mausoleum ; and beside it is another small domed vault of a later date.* Tradition has it that in 874 A.D., at the age of ninety, Bayazid suffered martyrdom by stoning at the hands of his fellow-citizens, who later, however, sanctified his memory and made his tomb a place of pilgrimage ; and the tradition seems to be borne out by the stones which the pilgrims, recalling his fate, still piously throw upon his humble grave.

��1 See Sarre, DenkmdUr^ Textband, to me), an Afghan chief of the Baraz- p. 117. kai family, in the middle of the nine-

2 Different explanations of this phe- teenth century. He had hoped for the nomenon, which is looked upon by the throne of Afghanistan under Persian natives with considerable wonder, are support, but was forestalled by his given; see Curzon, Persia, 1. 283; brother; and, when on liis way back Sarre, Denkmdler, Lief. 1, p. 3. to Teheran to remonstrate, he was

8 Gottheil, Origin and History of slain in gallant combat with a band

the Minaret, in JAOS. 30. 132-154. of Turkomans, near al-Hak, and was

4 The small tomb with vaulted dome, buried at Bustam. See Eastwick, 2.

adjoining Bayazid's, is that of Amir 173 ; and cf. Sykes, Sixth Journey ,

Azam Khan (so the name was given p. 150.

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