The Arabs Are The Strictest Of Misiconists; Yet Even They Allow
Plans And Pictures Of The Holy Shrines.
Other nations are comparatively
lax.
The Alhambra abounds in paintings and frescoes. The Persians never
object to depict in books and on walls the battles of Rustam, and the
Turks preserve in the Seraglio treasury of Constantinople portraits, by
Greeks and other artists, of their Sultans in regular succession.
[FN#6] This is at least a purer taste than that of our Gothic
architects, who ornamented their cathedrals with statuary so
inappropriate as to suggest to the antiquary remains of the worship of
the Hellespontine god.
[FN#7] At Bruges, Bologna, (St. Stefano), and Nurnberg, there are, if I
recollect right, imitations of the Holy Sepulchre, although the
"palmer" might not detect the resemblance at first sight. That in the
Church of Jerusalem at Bruges was built by a merchant, who travelled
three times to Palestine in order to ensure correctness, and totally
failed. "Arab art," says a writer in the "Athenaeum," "sprang from the
Koran, as the Gothic did from the Bible." He should have remembered,
that Arab art, in its present shape, was borrowed by Al-Walid from the
Greeks, and, perhaps, in part from the Persians and the Hindus, but
that the model buildings existed at Meccah, and in Al-Yaman, centuries
before the people had "luxurious shawls and weavings of Cashmere" to
suggest mural decoration.
[FN#8] See Theophile Gautier's admirable description of the Mosque at
Cordova.
[FN#9] Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, declares that Cairo contained in his
day (A.D. 1678-93) 5 or 6000 Mosques, public and private; at the same
time he corrects Mr. Collins, who enumerated 6000 public, and 20,000
particular buildings, and M. de Thevenot, who (Part I. p. 129),
supplied the city with 23,000!
[FN#10] In Niebuhr's time, a Christian passing one of the very holy
buildings on foot was liable to be seized and circumcised. All Mosques
may now be entered with certain precautions. When at Cairo, I heard
occasionally of a Frank being spat at and insulted, but the instances
were rare.
[FN#11] The "Handbook" contains the story current among the learned
concerning the remarkable shape of the minaret.
[FN#12] The columns support pointed arches, which, therefore, were
known at Cairo 200 years before they were introduced into England. By
the discoveries of M. Mariette, it is now ascertained that the
Egyptians were perfectly acquainted with the round arch and key-stone
at a period antecedent to the architectural existence of Greece.
[FN#13] A "Jami'" is a place where people assemble to pray-a house of
public worship. A "Masjid" is any place of prayer, private or public.
From "Masjid" we derive our "Mosque": its changes on the road to Europe
are almost as remarkable as that described in the satiric lines,-
"Alfana vient d'equus, sans doute,
Mais il faut avouer aussi,
Qu en venant de la jusqu'ici
Il a bien change sur la route."
[FN#14] So called, because supposed to contain relics of Hasan and
Husayn, the martyred grandsons of Mohammed.
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