The Arabs of the West emulated those of the East; and as Bagdad had relations with Byzantium, so also the caliphs of the Western Empire connected themselves herewith, and repeatedly in the course of the ninth century Cordova saw within its walls a brilliant embassage from the Eastern Roman emperor bringing as presents the products of Byzantine art. Though the Arabs might not in certain directions be able to equal these, vet they strove hard to reach, and even to surpass, their model.
The characteristics of Arabian art seem to have been evolved in the ninth and tenth centuries. Even though the separation of the East and the West, the uprisings and the wars, the formation of new states, the decadence and the fall of others, left no trace of the political unity of Islam, the brilliant civilization which the Arabs had acquired, and which was the only living civilization of the age, was still at home wherever Mohammed was honored as a prophet.
Mohammed an in A•/ca.—After Egypt was subdued the Arabs pressed farther westward in Africa, defeated the armies of the Byzantine emperor, and after a long struggle entirely annihilated the Mauritanic tribes, which had been only driven back by the Romans. The last rem nants of these tribes were completely absorbed by the conquering Arabs. Independent dynasties soon rose here, as the caliphs were too far distant to be able to uphold their suzerainty. Among the various small princes who here made themselves independent, the emirs of Kairwan were the most considerable, and their city, not far from the present Tunis, enclosed a mosque founded by Okba in the seventh century, but entirely rebuilt in 836. It has seventeen aisles, and the roofs are carried by four hundred and fourteen columns, most of which are antique.
Mosque of Jbn Tonloun. —The sumptuous Mosque of Ibn Touloun, in Cairo, the seat of the Fatimite caliphs, was a work of the ninth century. It is a court begirt with arcades in which rectangular piers are united by pointed arches which exhibit a slight horseshoe incurvation at their springing. The piers have a slender colonnette at each angle. There are two rows of arches on three of the sides, five on the fourth. Though all the leading details are severe and simple, the ornamentation ex hibits that graceful play of forms which charms us so highly in the thoroughly-developed works of Saracenic architecture. The piers and arches are of brick covered with plaster, and the ceiling of the rooms is of beams. The tenth century gave Cairo the mosques El-Daher ("Flower
Mosque," 969 A. D.) and El-Azhar (" The Splendid," 981 A. D.).
Congnes1 of Sicily . —Soon after the conquest of Spain, at the beginning of the ninth century, Sicily was subdued by the Moorish emirs of Kairwan, and, in the year S7S, Syracuse, where the Greeks made their last energetic stand, fell into their hands. Palermo, which was first taken by the Arabs, flourished under their sway, and at the beginning of the tenth century had, according to the narrative of an Arabian historian, three hundred mosques, one of which seated seven thousand men. It reached the height of its prosperity under Emir Abul Kasem (died 995). Here also the desire to acquire independence was the cause of the fall of domination. One of the pretenders sum moned to his aid the Byzantine commander in Apulia, and the latter led into Sicily the Normans, who by the close of the eleventh century were lords of the island.
City and Palace ql Ac Zahra.—Abderrahman III. (9r2-961) had raised Cordova to its highest pitch of prosperity, yet this was surpassed by the new city Az Zahra (" The Blooming"), which he laid out on the Guadalquivir a few miles from Cordova and adorned with the most splendid palace, of which nothing is left to us but the enchanting descriptions of the Arabian narrator. The name of the city was that of his favorite wife. Thousands of columns of various kinds of marble for the palace were brought here from different regions; the Byzantine emperor sent one hun dred and forty-six as a present, and even Rome contributed some of its own. Walls and floors were laid with marble, and the gilded and painted ceiling timbers were of cedar. In the halls jets of water fell into beauteous basins, in one of which swam a wonderful golden swan sent from Constantinople, while round about it twelve other animal-forms sent forth as many jets. From the roof bung a great pearl, a present from the Byzantine emperor. The arches of the eight hall doors were of ebony and ivory inlaid with gold and precious stones. The size of the palace was as famed as its magnificence. It is said to have had more than fifteen thousand costly doors, and thousands of servants were needed. Beautiful gardens laid out upon terraces surrounded the palace, and contained enclosures for rare beasts of every kind.