Outside The "Red Mosque," By Its Imposing And Lofty Wall, There Is
Always An Assemblage Of People, For Prayers Go Up In This Mosque,
Ablutions Are Made There, And The Floor Of The Arcade Is Often Covered
With Men Studying The Koran, Calmly Meditating, Or Prostrating
Themselves In Prayer.
And so there is a great coming and going up the
outside stairs and through the wonderful doorway:
Beggars crouch under
the wall of the terrace; the sellers of cakes, of syrups and lemon-
water, and of the big and luscious watermelons that are so popular in
Cairo, display their wares beneath awnings of orange-colored
sackcloth, or in the full glare of the sun, and, their prayers
comfortably completed or perhaps not yet begun, the worshippers stand
to gossip, or sit to smoke their pipes, before going on their way into
the city or the mosque. There are noise and perpetual movement here.
Stand for a while to gain an impression from them before you mount the
steps and pass into the spacious peace beyond.
Orientals must surely revel in contrasts. There is no tumult like the
tumult in certain of their market-places. There is no peace like the
peace in certain of their mosques. Even without the slippers carefully
tied over your boots you would walk softly, gingerly, in the mosque of
El Movayad, the mosque of the columns and the garden. For once within
the door you have taken wings and flown from the city, you are in a
haven where the most delicious calm seems floating like an atmosphere.
Through a lofty colonnade you come into the mosque, and find yourself
beneath a magnificently ornamental wooden roof, the general effect of
which is of deep brown and gold, though there are deftly introduced
many touches of very fine red and strong, luminous blue.
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