The new suburbs, which are ever stretching out to the north and south of the modern Cairo, have little to attract one. Architectural studies may be made there to learn what to avoid. I avoided them altogether until the blossoming trees, the flowering shrubs, and the gorgeous colour of some of the creepers attracted me from one otherwise villainous house to another. There are scarcely any flowers to be seen in the old parts of the city, so that the houses and mosques could wait; but not so the blossoming trees in the gardens of the modern quarters.
Count Zogheb kindly showed me over his house, which forms a striking exception to the many tasteless buildings in its neighbourhood, and it was a pleasure to find that the planning and decoration of the best mameluke palaces can be adapted to modern requirements if the possessor has the means and the good taste to appreciate them. Herz Bey designed the building, and though it is no slavish copy of any existing old Cairene house, it has the spirit and the good taste of the best Saracenic work. I was also glad to see that it is possible to reproduce the handsome tiles, which I had repeatedly heard to be a lost art. Some panels which the owner pointed out to me were made up partly of old and partly of modern tiles, and I confess I found it difficult to tell which were which. Connoisseurs in old faience may smile at this, and they might have pointed out some differences in the glaze; but in the decorative effect on the walls one was quite as useful as the other. I wish they had been made in Egypt, for any signs of a revival of the lost handicraft would be most welcome. The Count informed me that some were made in Venice from patterns he sent there, and others were manufactured in Austria.
Nassan, he of the lamp-shop, must have acquired a good customer in my new acquaintance, for a great number of his lamps were seen here, and they were beautifully adapted to the electric light. A fear I had before entering the house was that it might look theatrical and not suitable to present-day use; but I lost that completely after I had been there some while. There was no affectation on the part of my host and his family to live as mediæval Moslems, any more than the possessor of an old English house attempts to live as did his predecessors. Chairs, tables, books and all other modern requirements were there, and they looked no more incongruous than did the unveiled faces of the handsome wife and daughters of my host. It was a bold venture, and if a less able architect than Herz Bey had had the designing of this home, it might have been a deplorable failure, instead of an encouragement to other wealthy Cairenes to try to do likewise.
The first attempt at a revival of Saracenic domestic architecture was the French Agency. I can only judge of it from its exterior, which is a dignified and handsome building; competent judges have assured me that the interior is very beautiful. It is singular that this noble attempt to build according to the traditions of Cairo’s best period went on while Ismael Pasha was tearing down fine old mameluke palaces and destroying one of the most picturesque parts of the old city, in order to construct the hideous ‘Boulevard Mohammed Ali.’ This act of vandalism went on under French influence while a French architect was constructing the ‘Maison de France,’ as the agency is called, and endeavouring to give it the appearance of the houses the Cairenes were destroying. Fine old mushrbiyeh work was to be had in plenty, and the furniture of a fine mosque, which was partly demolished in order to preserve the alignment of the Boulevard, were available to the architect of the agency. It contains, therefore, much genuine old work which was not procurable when Count Zogheb recently built his home. It is as well that this should be so. Age does little to improve the woodwork, whose chief beauty consists in the design, and of this plenty of examples remain. It is a hopeful sign that all that I saw in the Count’s beautiful house can still be achieved, providing an able architect be selected.
THE JACARANDA
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