One very prevalent and very peculiar clement of Arabian decoration ;a the use of inscriptions evidently with reference to their ornamental effect. So far there is a very striking analogy between the practice of the Moslems and that of the ancient Egyptians; if the latter covered the walls of their edifices with hieroglyphics, the others inscribed theirs no less profusely with sentences; and the characters of their ordinary writing, elegant and fanciful in themselves, were as studiously ornate and calligraphic as possible ; and so well do they harmonise with the rest, as to seem to belong to the embellishment, and to have sufficient value as such independent of their meaning. Neither was the effect of colouring and gilding wanting to set off the inscriptions in the most brilliant manner. The colours chiefly used were the primaries, red, yellow, and blue ; the secondaries, except in the decline of the style, being only used in the lower and subordinate parts of buildings. The use of these colours appears to have been most profuse ; gilding was also freely employed. In short, even by those who consider much of it to have been in false taste, architectural decoration must be allowed to have been carried by the Arabians to a very high pitch ; and although it may be too florid, too prodigal, too inflated, and overlaid with ornament, it well deserves to be studied, as many ideas may be derived from it, for novel combinations both of forms and colours. And for such study ample materials are supplied by Mr. Owen Jones's splendid work on the 'Alhambra,' and Hessemer's 'Arabische Bauer zierungen ; ' in both of which publications the plates exhibit the original colours. The general reader will hardly need to be reminded that Mr. Jones's admirably executed Alluambra Court at the Crystal Palace affords a means of examining copies the actual size, made from casts taken by Mr. Jones at the Alhambra, of the finest and most elaborate examples of Moorish ornamental work at its most advanced stage ; but we may point out that the little Handbook of the Alhambra Court,' written by Mr. 0. Jones, contains much valuable information on the principles of Saracenic ornamentation, and indeed on the second period of Saracenic architecture generally. • Lattice or open trellis-work was another fertile source of embellish ment, and was very much akin to the perforated tracery frequently met with in Gothic buildings. In this respect the-two styles display great similarity of taste, distinguishing themselves herein from almost every other, notwithstanding that each has a peculiar character cf its own. But in Saracenic architecture the interstices are smaller, and the design fills the whole of one aperture ; whereas in the Gothic style the ornamental tracery is confined to the heads of windows. Besides which, the character of Saracenic tracery is altogether different, it being composed of straight lines, frequently so disposed as to form 'stare in some parts of the design. As far as an idea of the peculiarities of the style in this respect can be formed from a single specimen, the example here annexed arum Hossemer) of a portion of a window in the mosque of Ilakim at Cairo, may be of some assistance. The pattern is rich and playful ; and notwithstanding that, although regular, it appears at first sight to be radar complicated, will be found to be ,impeded of merely a repetitiou of the same forms, yet producing a constant variety, according as the loyenge or the star Is fixed upon by the eye as the centre from which the rest of the pattern diverges.
Of perforated battlements and parapets, this style furnishes some exceedingly rich and tasteful specimens. Several of them are exceed ingly intricate and delicate also, and may therefore, almost without exaggeration, be compared to lace-work as seen against the sky. Of this kind are the parapets of the mosques Latham- and Akmer at Cairo, which in some parts have perforated battlements of fanciful outline rising above the general parapet of open-work. Curves, forming pointed horae-ahoe arches, occur in sonic of the patterns; further than this it is impossible to pretend to describe them, except it be to remark that the stonework is very slender, and the open spaces large in pro p and that the ribs or stems of which the former is composed have something the resemblance of being interwoven, one passing alter nately before and behind the next, after the fashion of wickerwork.
Equal fancy and diversity of invention are shown in the devices of mosaics and pavements, many of which appear exceedingly elaborate, although, when analysed, they are found to be very simple in prin ciple : for instance, some patterns exhibiting octagons, stars, and other figures, are produced merely by series of zigzag lines intersecting each other at right angles, different combinations being obtained according as the points of the zigzag are turned from or towards each other. Among the other ornaments which mark this style, the honeycomb fretwork and stalactite-like drops, or pendents of ceilings and roofs, deserve to be mentioned : of these, the rich example in the Alhambra Court, a copy in full size of the stalactite roof of the Hall of the Abencerragm, but coloured and gilt in accordance with what Mr. Jones conceives to have been the appearance of the hall in its original state, will at once recur to the memory. Another characteristic form of
ornament is that of the etnai star-shaped apertures cut in a sloping direction through the domes or vaults over baths, &c., for the purpose of admitting only a subdued degree of light.
The above are characteristic elements of the style generally. But there are others equally characteristic of the Asiatic varieties, though not found in the Spanish. Of these, a constructive feature, as striking as the arch itself, is that of the dome. For the most part domes occur in mosques and other religious edifices, but they are also usual in tombs. 1)onies were derived directly from Byzantine examples, and were there fore pendentive in character ; but following the Oriental tendency to inflation and luxuriance, they were variously altered in size, appli cation, and ornamentation, and ultimately in Persia, Turkey, and still more extravagantly in India [INDIA, ARCIIITF.CTURE OF, col. 848] assumed a bulbous form, thus losing sight of the mathematical prin ciples which render the dome so constructively simple an architectural feature. [Dome.] Moreover, instead of being employed singly, domes were sometimes used in great profusion, there being, besides the prin cipal dome, a number of subordinate ones, sometimes according and at others contrasting with it in shape. Minarets are another characteristic feature in the Asiatic varieties of Saracenic architecture ; but for an account of them it will be enough to refer to the article M1NAIW.T. The long and slender forms of minarets being opposed to the swelling curves. of domes, contributed not a little to that picturesqueness of outline which is so striking in buildings of later Sarteenie style. The cut of the At-Meidan at Constantinople, given under 3losQue, will serve as an illustration of the multiplication of domes and the appli cation of the minaret, whilst the article itself will furnish some general information on the subject of mosques.
We may now briefly notice a few of the more characteristic existing examples of the style; beginning with those of Spain. Of these the oldest is the mosque at COrdarA, which now serves as the cathedral of that city. It was the earliest structure of any importance erected by the Mows in Spain, having been c ,mmeneed by the Caliph Alsbel Itauthan, in 786 A.D., with the avowed intention that it should surpass in splendour the mosques of Itiglelad, Damaacus, and Jerusalem. It was completed in 796. Like all early Sameenio work it is characterised by a certain severity and massiveness of style. Byzantine architects are said to ham, been specially invited into Spain to superintend its con struction. In its plan the original building bore a general resemblance to a basilica, but it was greatly altered about the closo of the 10th century by El Mansonr, who converted it into a parallelogram by adding eight aisles to the eastern side. As it now stands it is an insu lated oblong building, extending 620 feet from north to south, including a spacious court at its north end or side. The interior presents almost a forest of jasper and other marble columns, upwards of 000 in number, and dividing the plan into nineteen aisles in one direction (350 feet in length), and thirty-five in the other. But it is disproportionately low as compared with its great extent, the height to the roofs being only about 34 feet. The arches are carried upon columns without entabla tures as in Romanesque buildings. [ROMANESQUE Ancinsscruss.] The interior presents a singular array of double, circular, and horse shoe arches, some of the upper ones being curiously interlaced. There is a great display of rich carving of a modified Byzantine character, and much of the peculiar tracery and diapering, as well as numerous inscriptions of the kind described above. The pointed arch does not occur ; the domes are comparatively recent additions. In that division of the building appropriated to the imams and chiefs was the great kibla, or sanctuary (in which the Koran was deposited), an octagon covered with a cupola shaped out of a single block of stone ; the or pulpit, and the vialvara, or khalif's seat. After the conquest of the city in 1236, by San Ferdinand, this mosque was converted into the cathedral, in consequence of which the character of the interior has been greatly injured by the erection of a Gothic choir in its centre. As a splendid work of a later epoch of the style, Cordova could once boast of the palace called the Az-zahril, erected about the middle of the 10th century by the celebrated Abd-el-Rhaman III., the eighth Umeyyah sovereign of Spain. Of this edifice, which was at the dis tance of about two leagues from the city, nothing now remains to attest its former magnificence, except the descriptions given of it by Mohammedan writers, according to which it was adorned with 4000 marble pillars, and had walls and pavements of the same materiaL The sumptuousness, ascribed to the edifice and its fountains and baths might pass for mere Oriental hyperbolism, were it not that the evidence still afforded by the Alhambra, and by parts of the Alcazar at Seville, removes the suspicion of exaggeration ; or rather, the exuberant beauties revealed to us by the latter structures greatly surpass any thing the most florid description can picture to the mind.