Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/409

 Bk. IV. Ch. VI. SASSANIAN ARCHITECTURE. 377 CHAPTER VI. SASSANIAN ARCHITECTURE. CONTENTS. Historical notice — Palaces of Diarbekr and Al Hadhr — Domes — Serbistan Firouzabad — Tak Kesra. CHRONOLOGY. Ardeshir, or Artaxerxes, establishes Sassanian dynasty A. d. 226 Al Hadhr built (about) 250 Tiridates 286-342 Serbistan (about) 350 Bahrain Gaur begins to reign .... 420 Firouzabad (about) A. D. 450 Khosru Nushirvan begins to reign. . 531 builds palace at Ctesiphon (about). 550 Khosru Purviz Chosroes 591 Palace at Mashita 614-627 Battle of Cadesia 636 THERE still remains one other style to be described before leaving the domain of Heathendom to venture into the wide realms of Christian and Saracenic art with which the remainder of these two volumes is mainly occupied. Unfortunately it is not one that was of great importance while it existed, and it is one of which we know very little at present. This arises partly from the fact that all the principal buildings of the Sassanian kings were situated on or near the alluvial plains of Mesopotamia, and were therefore built either of sun-burnt or imperfectly baked bricks, which consequently crumbled to dust, or, where erected with more durable materials, these have been quarried by the succeeding inhabitants of these fertile regions. Partly also it arises from the Sassanians not being essentially a building race. Their religion required no temples and their customs repudiated the splendor of the sepulchre, so that their buildings were mainly palaces. One of these, that at Dustagird, is described by all contemporary historians' as one of the most gorgeous palaces of the East, but its glories were ephemeral ; gold and silver and precious hangings rich in color and embroidery made up a splendor in which the more stable arts of archi- tecture had but little part, and all perished in an hour when invaded by the victorious soldiers of Heraclius, or the more destructive hosts of Arabian invaders a few years afterwards. Whatever the cause how- ever, never was destruction more complete. Two or three ruined ]ialaces still exist in Persia and Mesopotamia. A fragment known as the Tak Kesra still remains to indicate the spot where Ctesiphon once stood, 1 These are well epitomized by Gibbon, Book xlvi. vol. v. p. 528.