There Is No Uniformity In The Shape Or The Size Of These Four
Minarets, And At First Sight, Despite Their Beauty And Grandeur, They
Appear Somewhat Bizarre And Misplaced.
But after a few days I found
that my eye grew accustomed to them, and I had no difficulty in
appreciating their massive proportions and lofty forms.
Equally irregular are the Riwaks, or porches, surrounding the
hypaethral court. Along the Northern wall there will be, when finished,
a fine colonnade of granite, paved with marble. The Eastern Riwak has
three rows of pillars, the Western four, and the Southern, under which
stands the tomb, of course has its columns ranged deeper than all the
others. These supports of the building are of different material; some
of fine marble, others of
[p.335] rough stone, plastered over and painted with the most vulgar of
arabesques,-vermilion and black in irregular patches and broad streaks,
like the stage-face of a London clown.[FN#73] Their size, moreover, is
different, the Southern colonnade being composed of pillars palpably
larger than those in the other parts of the Mosque. Scarcely any two
shafts own similar capitals; many have no pedestal, and some of them
are cut with a painful ignorance of art. I cannot extend my admiration
of the minarets to the columns-in their "architectural lawlessness"
there is not a redeeming point.
Of these unpraisable pillars three are celebrated in the annals of
Al-Islam, for which reason their names are painted upon them, and five
others enjoy the honour of distinctive appellations.
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