Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/257

 *partments, four feet long, and two and a half broad, which are inlaid with inscriptions in black marble, in the Nishki character; and are said to contain the greater part, if not the whole, of the Koran. The inside of the mosque is paved throughout, with large slabs of white marble, decorated with a black border, and is wonderfully beautiful and delicate; the slabs are about three feet in length, by one and a half broad. The walls and roof are lined with plain white marble; and near the kibla is a handsome taak, or niche, which is adorned with a profusion of frieze-work. Close to this is a mimbar or pulpit of marble, which has an ascent of four steps, balustraded. Kibla literally implies compass, but here means a small hollow or excavation in the walls of Muhammadan mosques, so situated on the erection of the buildings as always to look towards the city of Mecca.

"The ascent to the minarets is by a winding staircase of an hundred and thirty steps of red stone; and, at the top, the spectator is gratified by a noble view of the King's Palace, the Cuttub Minar, the Hurran Minar, Humaioon's Mausoleum, the Palace of Feroze Shah, the Fort of old Delhi, and the Fort of Loni, on the opposite bank of the river Jumna. The domes are crowned with cullises of copper, richly gilt; and present a glittering appearance from afar off. This mosque was begun by the Emperor Shāhjahān, in the fourth year of his reign, and completed in the tenth. The expenses of its erection amounted to ten lākh of rupees; and it is in every respect worthy of being the great cathedral of the empire of Hindūstan."—

Exclusive of the mosques before described, there are in Shāhjahānabad and its environs above forty others; most of them of inferior size and beauty, but all of them of a similar fashion. In the evening, we drove to the Turkoman gate of the city, to see the Kala Masjid or Black Mosque. We found our way with difficulty into the very worst part of Delhi: my companion had never been there before, and its character was unknown to us; he did not much like my going over the mosque, amid the wretches that surrounded us; but my curiosity carried the day. The appearance of the building from the entrance is most sin