Page:PhilipK.Hitti-SyriaAShortHistory.djvu/217

Rh influence is apparent in schools, mosques, hospitals, dervish monasteries and palaces. The ornamentation of Ayyubid and Mamluk monuments enhanced their architectural beauty. Among the Ayyubid innovations was a tendency towards elaboration in detail, greater elegance of proportion and increase in the number of stalactites. There was also a breakaway from the tradition of the plain square towers. In the Bahri Mamluk period the elaborate type of minaret evolved from the Ayyubid. The finest minarets, however, belong to the Burji period, in which Arab architecture — as represented in the mosques — achieved its greatest triumphs.

Exquisite specimens of iron-work, copper- work, glass- ware and wood-carving have come down to us from the Ayyubid-Mamluk age. Especially noteworthy among copper utensils are vases, ewers, trays, chandeliers, perfume burners and Koran cases — all with rich decoration of a vigour and c sureness of touch that make it not only a delight to the eye but also ... a delight to the intelligence'. Damascus was especially noted for its c gold-like' basins and ewers inlaid with figures, foliage and other delicate designs in silver. Bronze ornaments from doors of mosques bear witness to the good taste of the age. Wood-carvings with floral and geometrical designs indicate freedom from the sterile formulas of Fatimid art. A thirteenth-century bottle sur- vives as one of the oldest specimens of enamelled glass, while mosque lamps prove that Syria was still ahead of any European land in the technique of glass manufacture.

Intellectually, the entire Ayyubid-Mamluk period was one of compilation and imitation rather than of origination. Nevertheless Damascus and Cairo, especially after the destruction of Baghdad and the disintegration of Moslem Spain, remained the educational and intellectual centres of the Arab world. The richly endowed schools in these two cities served to conserve and transmit Arab science and learning.

In Sufism certain significant developments took place. Rh