How to Study Architecture

by Charles H. Caffin

TAJ MAHAL, AGRA

Erected by Shah Jehan as a Tomb for His Wife. In Distance the “Pearl Mosque”, Another of His Monuments. [P. 230]

embellished with minarets. The chief sanctuary is the Kaaba, so called from its resemblance to a cube, of about 40 feet measurement, to the outside of which, on its southeast angle, is affixed the sacred Black Stone, the chief object of veneration. The shrine is surrounded to a depth of 20 yards by successions of colonnades with pointed arches.

Arcades.—These arcades, affording protection to the worshippers, are a feature common to all mosques; the direction of the arcades being usually at right angles, though occasionally parallel to, the wall of the mihrab—the niche which points toward Mecca. For columns the early Muhammedan builders relied upon what they found in the buildings which they replaced or remodelled; mixing the styles Egyptian, Roman, and Byzantine, and bringing their different sizes to conformity by setting blocks upon the capitals. To resist the thrust of the arches, wooden tie-beams were built into the masonry at the spring of the arches, and utilised for the hanging of lamps and lanterns. As these became a recognised feature of mosques, the beams were retained even after the skill of the builders had made them unnecessary as ties.

Domes.—The roofs are flat, constructed of timber, and on the inside coloured and gilded. A dome frequently crowns the maksura or prayer chamber, and the tomb of the saint, when the latter is included in the sacred precincts. Almost always the dome surmounts a square plan and to accommodate the latter to the circle the Muhammedan architects invented a method of construction that corresponds to the Byzantine pendentive. In principle it goes back to the ancient method of bridging over a space by setting the stones on each side of it in layers that project over one another until the two sides meet at the top. The Muhammedan builders filled in the corners of the square with tiers of projecting brackets or corbels with niches between them. At first they placed corbel above corbel and niche above niche, but in time alternated them, so that the niches in one tier were astride of the corbels in the tier below them. This method of filling in the angles of the square, so as to bring the latter to a circle, came to be known as “stalactite” work and from being used as a constructive expedient was developed into a system of decoration that was frequently extended over the whole ceiling of the vault.

The exterior of the dome was seldom spherical, as in Byzantine architecture, but took the form of the pointed, or the ogee, or the horseshoe arch. It was built, either of brickwork in horizontal courses, covered inside and out with plaster; or, in later mosques, of horizontal layers of stone, engraved on the exterior with horizontal patterns. Windows were frequently ranged round the lower part. In some old tombs of the thirteenth century, as that of Sheik Omar, inside the East Gate of Bagdad, the dome is pineapple shaped.

The walls were built of local materials and decorated either with stone or brick in alternate courses, or with plaster, inset with precious stones or veneered with glazed tiles.

Minarets.—A distinctive feature of the mosque was the minaret, a lofty tower of lighthouse form, from the balcony of which the muezzin summoned the faithful to prayer. While the minarets show a general similarity of character, the details vary in different countries. Thus, in Persia they rise from a circular base and are crowned by a round cap; in Constantinople the base is round, octagonal, or square and the top is finished with a cone; while in Cairo the top is flat. The shafts vary from circular to polygonal, and are usually divided into three tiers of balconies—though the Persian is generally distinguished by one—carried round the shaft and supported by corbels, which in some instance are embellished with stalactite ornament.

During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the mosques became an aggregation of buildings, including the tomb of the founder, residences for priests, schools and hospitals. They correspond, in fact, to mediæval monasteries, and the evolution of their styles presents a certain parallel to the contemporary evolution of Gothic architecture.

Syria.—Among the existing mosques in Syria are those of El-Aksah on the Temple platform at Jerusalem and of El-Walid in Damascus, both of which are planned like a basilica. Also on the Temple platform is the Dome of the Rock, misnamed the Mosque of Omar, the central feature of which is a circular space, crowned by a dome, which was rebuilt by Saladin in 1189.