This mixture of Mohammedan and Hindu forms occurs also in three mosques at Jaunpur, which city was the seat of au independent dynasty in the first three quarters of the fifteenth century. It is a peculiarity of these mosques that in the middle of the arcaded courts which lie in front of the sanctuary grand portals arise, some crowned with cupolas, others flat-topped; by their massiveness these bring to mind the pylons of the Egyptian temples. This admixture of forms is yet more pleasing in the Mosque of Ahmedabad, the capital of the kingdom of Guzerat, whose rulers were Hindus converted to Islam. These are of the fifteenth century, or later. We can readily believe that these buildings were constructed by Hindu artists and workmen, while Arabian priests or rulers—perhaps some Arabian architects`—dictated the plan. In other places the Mohammedan element predominated in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The mosque built at Gour, in Bengal (135S-1367), is an extensive brick building, plain even to crudeness, and roofed with three hundred and eighty-five low cupolas. The mosque at Mandu, erected in the first half of the fifteenth century, has monolithic square pillars of red sandstone connected by pointed arches; on these rest small pointed domes, while upon the west side three similar large domes rest on twelve colunius. After the Moguls had established their empire in India, Mohammedan forms came more into the foreground, but they show such a resemblance to Persian works that they must be considered together.
Abbas the Great (1597-1629) fixed his residence at Ispahan and decorated it with magnificent buildings which, notwithstanding their vast dimensions, evidence the late period of their erection in the fanciful freedom displayed in the decoration.
The or Great Square—the most remarkable feature of the city, and probably the largest square in the world, being 2000 feet long by 70o feet wide—is surrounded by a bazaar formed of two storey arcades with reverse-curved pointed arches. The corners of the square face the cardinal points, and in the centre of each face some remarkable building varies the bazaar-arcades. On the north-west is the Ali-K6pi, forming the entrance to the royal palace. It is three storeys high, and from the summit is obtained a splendid view of the city and environs. Opposite the Ali-Kapi, on the south-east side of the square, is the famous Mesjid-i-Shah, or " royal mosque." The central hall of this mosque is square, and has a dome which, like those of India, is pear-shaped. The whole is lined throughout with glazed tiles and is
richly decorated with gold and silver ornaments, constituting it the hand somest mosque in all Persia. In the centre of the north-east face of the square is the gate-entrance to the great bazaar usually called the Kaiserieh, and on the south-west side is another mosque which is inferior only to the Mesjid-i-Shah in grandeur and beauty (Rawlinson). Among the other mosques of the city are several of considerable importance.
Mythin-i-Shah adjoins the quarter of the royal palace built by Shah Abbas. This is an oblong space of upward of forty acres, surrounded by walls and containing palaces, pleasure-houses,. and other dwellings embosomed amid beautiful gardens. The most sumptuous of the structures is the Royal Palace, called Chihil-Sutfin (" the Forty Pillars"). It has an entrance-hall with four rows of six columns, the bases of which are formed of groups of four lions. Columns and ceilings are brilliant with the richest decorations of colors, gold, and silver, between which glisten thousands of small mirrors. The Tomb of Abbas II. is also famous; this is a dodecagon with a dome glowing in gold and azure.
The Afedresseh (college) of Shah Sultan Hussain was erected about 173o in this quarter of the city. The entrance to the college—a lofty portico enriched with fantastically twisted pillars and intermixed with beautiful marble of Tabriz—leads through a pair of brazen gates finished with silver and their whole surface highly carved and embossed with flowers and verses from the Koran. The gates conduct to an elevated semi-dome which opens at once into the court of the college. The right side of this court is occupied by the mosque; the other sides of the square are occupied, one by a lofty and beautiful portico, and the remaining two sides by rooms for the students, twelve on each front, arranged in two storeys. These apartments are little square cells, and seem admirably calculated for study (Morier).
The mosque is still a beautiful building; it is covered with a cupola and faced with two minarets. The plan itself is entirely similar to that of the older buildings, and so is the method of decoration with glazed tiles; the patterns of these exhibit a playful fancy characteristic of the late date. Teheran has been the capital of Persia since 1796. The exist ing palace of this city imitates that of Ispahan in a very bizarre fashion.