[145] Idem, vol. iv, Plate 1. In the flanking chamber to the left of the entrance lîwân the vaults of the niches oversail the wall and the same seems to be the case in the vault of the lîwân itself. Flandin and Coste draw all the door, window, and niche arches oversailing the jambs. From Dieulafoy’s picture of the dome, it would seem that the arches of the side niches there certainly oversailed the jambs. Plate 5.
[146] Idem, vol. iv, Plate 2.
[147] Idem, vol. iv, Plate 5.
[148] Idem, vol. iv, Plate 7.
[149] There are probably many more than those which we know. De Morgan has given a plan of Haush Quru, a ruin by which I passed on my return from Qaṣr-i-Shîrîn. That I did not linger there was due partly to the circumstances described above, and partly to the fact that a village has grown up round and among the ruins, which renders their examination exceedingly tiresome. I was obliged to waste a large portion of my stay in a visit of ceremony to Kerîm Khân’s brother, who resides at Haush Quru. In plan the palace is very similar to the central block of Qaṣr-i-Shîrîn. It is noticeable that the same rectangular area occupies the centre of the state apartments; de Morgan represents it as covered with cement—was it opened or domed? Mission sc. en Perse, Plates 50 and 51. He mentions other Sasanian ruins and gives a sketch plan of Shirwân, p. 362, another of Dereh Shah, p. 367, and a fragmentary plan of Hazâr Dâr, together with some remarkably interesting details of decoration. Hazâr Dâr is probably so much ruined that without excavation the distribution of the palace could not be made out; at any rate it cannot be determined from the plan given on Plate 62. For other Sasanian remains see Sarre-Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, p. 237.
[150] So too at Susa; Dieulafoy, L’Acropole de Suse, p. 239.
[151] Idem, Fig. 126, and p. 240.
[152] I had not realized the purpose for which these oblong rooms were intended until Dr. Reuther told me that he had seen similar kitchens in modern Arab houses. He has made a careful study of Mesopotamian domestic architecture of the present day and published an excellent book on the subject, Das Wohnhaus in Bagdad und anderen Städten des Irak.
[153] I suspect that the cross-shaped disposition of chambers was used in oriental palaces older than the Mohammadan era. It is found in the fifth-century church of Qal’at Sim’ân (de Vogüé, La Syrie centrale, vol. i, p. 141), for which I do not know a Western prototype.
[154] Herzfeld, Erster vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen von Sâmarrâ, Plate 9.