Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/264

 220 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. minarets, which, so far as I know, were not attached to mosques during the so-called Pathan period. The call to prayer was made from the roof; and, except the first rude attempt at Ajmir, I do not know an instance of a minaret built solely for such a purpose, though they were, as we know, universal in Egypt and elsewhere long before this time, and were considered nearly indispensable in the buildings of the Mughals very shortly afterwards. The Pathans seem to have regarded the minar as the Italians viewed the Campanile, more as a symbol of power and of victory than as an adjunct to a house of worship. The body of the mosque became generally an oblong hall, with a central dome flanked by two others of the same horizontal dimensions, but not so lofty, and separated from it by a broad, bold arch, the mouldings and decorations of which formed one of the principal ornaments of the building. The pendentives were even more remarkable than the arches 382. Pendentive from Mosque at Old Delhi. (From a Sketch by the Author.) for elaborateness of detail. Their forms are so various that it is impossible to classify or describe them ; perhaps the most usual is that represented in Woodcut No 382, where the angle is