then the byzantine christians, after overthrowing the temples of paganism, meditated re-building and re-modelling them, poverty of invention and artistic impotence reduced them to group the spoils in a heterogeneous mass.1 the sea-ports of egypt and the plains and mountains of syria abounding in pillars of granite, syenite and precious marbles, in pharaonic, grecian, and roman statuary, and in all manner of structural ornaments, the architects were at no loss for material. their syncretism, the result of chance and precipitancy, of extravagance and incuriousness, fell under eyes too ignorant to be hurt by the hybrid irregularity: it was perpetuated in the so-called saracenic style, a plagiarism from the byzantine,2 and it was reiterated in the gothic, an offshoot from the saracenic.3 this fact accounts in the gothic style for its manifold incongruities of architecture, and for the phenomenon, — not solely attributable to the buildings having been erected piecemeal, — of its most classic period being that of its greatest irregularity.
such “architectural lawlessness,” such disregard for symmetry, — the result, i believe, of an imperfect “amalgamation and enrichment,” — may doubtless be defended upon the grounds both of cause and of effect. architecture is of the imitative arts, and nature, the myriomorphous, everywhere delighting in variety, appears to abhor nothing so much as perfect similarity and precise uniformity. to copy her exactly we must therefore seek that general analogy compatible with individual variety; in fact, we should avoid the over-display of order and regularity. and again, it may be asserted that, however incongruous these disorderly forms may appear to the conventional eye, we find it easy to surmount our first antipathy. perhaps we end in admiring them the more, as we love those faces in which irregularity of feature is compensated for by diversity and piquancy of expression.
there is nothing, i believe, new in the arab mosque; it is an unconscious revival of the forms used from the earliest ages to denote by symbolism the worship of the generative and the creative gods. the reader will excuse me if i only glance at a subject of which the investigation would require a volume, and which, discussed at greater length, would be out of place in such a narrative as this.
the first mosque in al-islam was erected by mohammed at kuba, near al-madinah: shortly afterwards, when he entered meccah as a conqueror, he destroyed the three hundred and sixty idols of the arab pantheon, and thus purified that venerable building from its abominations. he had probably observed in syrian bostra the two forms appropriated by the christians to their places of worship, the cross and the parallelogramic basilica; he therefore preferred for the prayers of the “saving faith” a square, — some authors say, with, others without, a cloister. at length in the reign of al-walid (a.h. 90) the cupola, the niche, and the minaret made their appearance; and what is called the saracenic style became for ever the order of the moslem world.
the hindus i believe to have been the first who symbolised by an equilateral triangle their peculiar cult, the yoni-linga: in their temple architecture, it became either a conoid or a perfect pyramid. egypt denoted it by the obelisk, peculiar to that country; and the form appeared in different parts of the world: thus in england it was a mere upright stone, and in ireland a round tower. this we might expect to see. d’hancarville and brotier have successfully traced the worship itself, in its different modifications, to all people: the symbol would therefore be found everywhere. the old arab minaret is a plain cylindrical or polygonal tower, without balcony or stages, widely different from the turkish, modern egyptian, and hijazi combinations of tube and prism, happily compared by a french traveller to “une chandelle coiffee d’un eteignoir.” and finally the ancient minaret, made solid as all gothic architecture is, and provided with a belfry, became the spire and steeple of our ancestors.
from time immemorial, in hot and rainy lands, a hypaethral court, either round or square, surrounded by a covered portico, was used for the double purpose of church and mart, — a place where god and mammon were worshipped turn by turn. in some places we find rings of stones, like the persian pyroetheia; in others, circular concave buildings representing the vault of heaven, where fire, the divine symbol, was worshipped; and in arabia, columnar aisles, which, surmounted by the splendid blue vault, resemble the palm-grove. the greeks adopted this idea in the fanes of creator bacchus; and at pozzuoli, near naples, it may be seen in the building vulgarly called the temple of serapis. it was equally well known to the kelts: in some places the temenos was a circle, in others a quadrangle. and such to the present day is the mosque of al-islam.
even the riwak or porches surrounding the area in the mosque are revivals of older forms. “the range of square buildings which enclose the temple of serapis are not, properly speaking, parts of the fane, but apartments of the priests, places for victims, and sacred utensils, and chapels dedicated to subordinate deities, introduced by a more complicated and corrupt worship, and probably unknown to the founders of the original edifice.” the cloisters in the mosque became cells, used as lecture rooms, and stores for books bequeathed to the college. they are unequal, because some are required to be of larger, others to be of smaller, dimensions. the same reason causes difference of size when the building is distributed into four hyposteles opening upon the area: the porch in the direction of the ka’abah, where worshippers mostly congregate, demands greater depth than the other three. the wings were not unfrequently made unequal, either from want of building materials, or because the same extent of accommodation was not required in both. the columns were of different substances; some of handsome marble, others of rough stone meanly plastered over, with dissimilar capitals, vulgarly cut shafts of various sizes; here with a pediment, there without, now turned upside down, then joined together by halves in the centre, and almost invariably nescient of intercolumnar rule. this is the result of byzantine syncretism, carelessly and ignorantly grafted upon arab ideas of the natural and the sublime. loving and admiring the great, or rather the big in plan,4 they care little for the execution of mere details, and they have not the acumen to discern the effect which clumsy workmanship, crooked lines, and visible joints, — parts apparently insignificant, — exercise upon the whole of an edifice. their use of colours was a false taste, commonly displayed by mankind in their religious houses, and statues of the gods. the hindus paint their pagodas, inside and outside; and rub vermilion, in token of honour, over their deities. the persian colossi of kaiomars and his consort on the balkh road and the sphinx of egypt, as well as the temples of the nile, still show traces of artificial complexion. the fanes in classic greece have been dyed. in the forum romanum, one of the finest buildings, still bears stains of the tyrian purple. and to mention no other instances, in the churches and belfries of modern italy, we see alternate bands of white and black material so disposed as to give them the appearance of giant zebras. the origin of “arabesque” ornament must be referred to one of the principles of al-islam. the moslem, forbidden by his law to decorate his mosque with statuary and pictures,5 supplied their place with quotations from the koran, and inscriptions, “plastic metaphysics,” of marvellous perplexity.
his alphabet lent itself to the purpose, and hence probably arose that almost inconceivable variety of lace-like fretwork, of incrustations, of arabesques, and of geometric flowers, in which his eye delights to lose itself.6
the meccan mosque became a model to the world of al-islam, and the nations that embraced the new faith copied the consecrated building, as religiously as christendom produced imitations of the holy sepulchre.7 the mosque of omar at jerusalem, of amru at babylon on the nile, and of taylun at cairo were erected, with some trifling improvements, such as arched cloisters and inscribed cornices, upon the plan of the ka’abah. from egypt and palestine the ichnography spread far and wide. it was modified, as might be expected, by national taste; what in arabia was simple and elegant became highly ornate in spain,8 florid in turkey, sturdy in syria, and effeminate in india. still divergence of detail had not, even after the lapse of twelve centuries, materially altered the fundamental form.
perhaps no eastern city affords more numerous or more accessible specimens of mosque architecture than cairo. between 300 and 400 places of worship;9 some stately piles, others ruinous hovels, many new, more decaying and earthquake-shaken, with minarets that rival in obliquity the pisan monster, are open to the traveller’s inspection. and europeans by following the advice of their hotel-keeper have penetrated, and can penetrate, into any one they please.10 if architecture be really what i believe it to be, the highest expression of a people’s artistic feeling, — highest because it includes all others, — to compare the several styles of the different epochs, to observe how each monarch building his own mosque, and calling it by his own name, identified the manner of the monument with himself, and to trace the gradual decadence of art through one thousand two hundred years, down to the present day, must be a work of no ordinary interest to orientalists. the limits of my plan, however, compel me to place only the heads of the argument before the reader. may i be allowed to express a hope that it will induce some learned traveller to investigate a subject in every way worthy his attention?
the desecrated jami’ taylun (ninth century) is simple and massive, yet elegant, and in some of its details peculiar.11 one of the four colonnades12 still remains unoccupied by paupers to show the original magnificence of the building; the other porches are walled up, and inhabited. in the centre of a quadrangle about 100 paces square is a domed building springing from a square which occupies the proper place of the ka’abah. this “jami’13” cathedral is interesting as a point of comparison. if it be an exact copy of the meccan temple as it stood in a.d. 879, it shows that the latter has greatly altered in this our modern day.
next in date to the taylun mosque is that of the sultan al-hakim, third caliph of the fatimites, and founder of the druze mysteries. the minarets are remarkable in shape, as well as size: they are unprovided with the usual outer gallery, they are based upon a cube of masonry, and they are pierced above with apertures apparently meaningless. a learned cairene informed me that these spires were devised by the eccentric monarch to disperse, like large censers, fragrant smoke over the city during the hours of prayer. the azhar and hasanayn14 mosques are simple and artless piles, celebrated for sanctity, but remarkable for nothing save ugliness. few buildings, however, are statelier in appearance, or give a nobler idea of both founder and architect than that which bears sultan hasan’s name. the stranger stands awe-struck before walls high towering without a single break, a hypaethral court severe in masculine beauty, a gateway that might suit the palace of the titans, and a lofty minaret of massive grandeur. this mosque (finished about a.d. 1363), with its fortress aspect, owns no more relationship to the efforts of a later age than does canterbury cathedral to an anglo-indian “gothic.” for dignified beauty and refined taste, the mosque and tomb of kaid bey and the other mamluk kings are admirable. even in their present state, picturesqueness presides over decay, and the traveller has seldom seen aught more striking than the rich light of the stained glass pouring through the first shades of evening upon the marble floor.
the modern mosques must be visited to see egyptian architecture in its decline and fall. that of sittna zaynab (our lady zaynab), founded by murad bey, the mamluk, and interrupted by the french invasion, shows, even in its completion, some lingering traces of taste. but nothing can be more offensive than the building which every tourist flogs donkey in his hurry to see — old mohammed ali’s “folly” in the citadel. its greek architect has toiled to caricature a mosque to emulate the glories of our english “oriental pavilion.” outside, as monckton milnes sings,
“the shining minarets, thin and high,”
are so thin, so high above the lumpy domes, that they look like the spindles of crouching crones, and are placed in full sight of sultan hasan the giant, so as to derive all the disadvantages of the contrast. is the pointed arch forgotten by man, that this hapless building should be disgraced by large and small parallelograms of glass and wood,15 so placed and so formed as to give its exterior the appearance of a european theatre coiffe with oriental cupolas? outside as well as inside, money has been lavished upon alabaster full of flaws; round the bases of pillars run gilt bands; in places the walls are painted with streaks to resemble marble, and the wood-work is overlaid with tinsel gold. after a glance at these abominations, one cannot be surprised to hear the old men of egypt lament that, in spite of european education, and of prizes encouraging geometry and architecture, modern art offers a melancholy contrast to antiquity. it is said that h. h. abbas pasha proposes to erect for himself a mosque that shall far surpass the boast of the last generation. i venture to hope that his architect will light the “sacred fire” from sultan hasan’s, not from mohammed ali’s, turco-grecian splendours. the former is like the genuine osmanli of past ages, fierce, cold, with a stalwart frame, index of a strong mind — there was a sullen grandeur about the man. the latter is the pert and puny modern turk in pantaloons, frock coat and fez, ill-dressed, ill-conditioned, and ill-bred, body and soul.
we will now enter the mosque al-azhar. at the dwarf wooden railing we take off our slippers, hold them in the left hand, sole to sole, that no dirt may fall from them, and cross the threshold with the right foot, ejaculating bismillah, &c. next we repair to the mayza’ah, or large tank, for ablution, without which it is unlawful to appear in the house of allah. we then seek some proper place for devotion, place our slippers on some other object in front of us to warn the lounger, and perform a two-bow prayer in honour of the mosque.16 this done, we may wander about, and inspect the several objects of curiosity.
the moon shines splendidly upon a vast open court, paved with stones which are polished like glass by the feet of the faithful. there is darkness in the body of the building, a large oblong hall, at least twice too lengthy for its height, supported by a forest of pillars, thin, poor-looking, crooked marble columns, planted avenue-like, upon torn and dirty matting. a few oil lamps shed doubtful light over scanty groups, who are debating some point of grammar, or are listening to the words of wisdom that fall from the mouth of a wa’iz.17 presently they will leave the hypostyle, and throw themselves upon the flags of the quadrangle, where they may enjoy the open air and avoid some fleas. it is now “long vacation”: so the holy building has become a kind of caravanserai for travellers; perhaps a score of nations meet in it; there is a confusion of tongues, and the din at times is deafening. around the court runs a tolerably well-built colonnade, whose entablature is garnished with crimson arabesques, and in the inner wall are pierced apartments, now closed with plank doors. of the riwak, as the porches are called, the azhar contains twenty-four, one for each recognised nation in al-islam, and of these fifteen are still open to students.18 inside them we find nothing but matting and a pile of large dingy wooden boxes, which once contained the college library; they are now, generally speaking, empty.19
there is nothing worth seeing in the cluster of little dark chambers that form the remainder of the azhar. even the zawiyat al-umyan (or the blind men’s oratory), a place where so many “town and gown rows” have emanated, is rendered interesting only by the fanaticism of its inmates, and the certainty that, if recognised in this sanctum, we shall run the gauntlet under the staves of its proprietors, the angry blind.
the azhar is the grand collegiate mosque of this city, — the christ church, in fact, of cairo, — once celebrated throughout the world of al-islam. it was built, i was told, originally in poor style by one jauhar al-kaid,20 originally the slave of a moorish merchant, in consequence of a dream that ordered him to “erect a place whence the light of science should shine upon al-islam.”
it gradually increased by “wakf21” (entailed bequests) of lands, money, and books; and pious rulers made a point of adding to its size and wealth. of late years it has considerably declined, the result of sequestrations, and of the diminished esteem in which the purely religious sciences are now held in the land of egypt.22 yet it is calculated that between 2000 and 3000 students of all nations and ages receive instruction here gratis.
each one is provided with bread, in a quantity determined by the amount of endowment, at the riwak set apart for his nation,23 with some article of clothing on festival days, and a few piastres once a year. the professors, who are about 150 in number, may not take fees from their pupils; some lecture on account of the religious merit of the action, others to gain the high title of “teacher in al azhar.24” six officials receive stipends from the government, — the shaykh al-jami’ or dean, the shaykh al-sakka, who regulates the provision of water for ablution, and others that may be called heads of departments.
the following is the course of study in the azhar. the school-boy of four or five years’ standing has been taught, by a liberal application of the maxim “the green rod is of the trees of paradise,” to chant the koran without understanding it, the elementary rules of arithmetic, and, if he is destined to be a learned man, the art of writing.25 he then registers his name in al-azhar, and applies himself to the branches of study most cultivated in al-islam, namely nahw (syntax), fikh (the law), hadis (the traditions of the prophet), and tafsir, or exposition of the koran.
the young egyptian reads at the same time sarf, or inflexion, and nahw (syntax). but as arabic is his mother-tongue, he is not required to study the former so deeply as are the turks, the persians, and the indians. if he desire, however, to be a proficient, he must carefully peruse five books in sarf,26 and six in nahw.27
master of grammar, our student now applies himself to its proper end and purpose, divinity. of the four schools those of abu hanifah and al-shafe’i are most common in cairo; the followers of ibn malik abound only in southern egypt and the berberah country, and the hanbali is almost unknown. the theologian begins with what is called a matn or text, a short, dry, and often obscure treatise, a mere string of precepts; in fact, the skeleton of the subject. this he learns by repeated perusal, till he can quote almost every passage literatim. he then passes to its “sharh,” or commentary, generally the work of some other savant, who explains the difficulty of the text, amplifies its laconicisms, enters into exceptional cases, and deals with principles and reasons, as well as with mere precept. a difficult work will sometimes require “hashiyah,” or “marginal notes”; but this aid has a bad name:—
“who readeth with note,
but learneth by rote,”
says a popular doggrel. the reason is, that the student’s reasoning powers being little exercised, he learns to depend upon the dixit of a master rather than to think for himself. it also leads to the neglect of another practice, highly advocated by the eastern pedagogue.
“the lecture is one.
the dispute (upon the subject of the lecture) is one thousand.”
in order to become a fakih, or divine of distinguished fame, the follower of abu hanifah must peruse about ten volumes,28 some of huge size, written in a diffuse style; the shafe’i’s reading is not quite so extensive.29 theology is much studied, because it leads directly to the gaining of daily bread, as priest or tutor; and other scientific pursuits are neglected for the opposite reason.
the theologian in egypt, as in other parts of al-islam, must have a superficial knowledge of the prophet’s traditions. of these there are eight well known collections,30 but only the first three are generally read.
school-boys are instructed, almost when in their infancy, to intone the koran; at the university they are taught a more exact system of chanting. the style called “hafs” is most common in egypt, as it is indeed throughout the moslem world. and after learning to read the holy volume, some savans are ambitious enough to wish to understand it: under these circumstances they must dive into the ’ilm al-tafsir,31 or the exegesis of the koran.
our student is now a perfect fakih or mulla.32 but the poor fellow has no scholarship or fellowship — no easy tutorship — no fat living to look forward to. after wasting seven years, or twice seven years, over his studies, and reading till his brain is dizzy, his digestion gone, and his eyes half blind, he must either starve upon college alms, or squat, like my old shaykh mohammed, in a druggist’s shop, or become pedagogue and preacher in some country place, on the pay of l8 per annum. with such prospects it is wonderful how the azhar can present any attractions; but the southern man is essentially an idler, and many become olema, like capuchins, in order to do nothing. a favoured few rise to the degree of mudarris (professors), and thence emerge kazis and muftis. this is another inducement to matriculate; every undergraduate having an eye upon the kazi-ship, with as much chance of obtaining it as the country parocco has of becoming a cardinal. others again devote themselves to laical pursuits, degenerate into wakils (lawyers), or seek their fortunes as katibs — public or private accountants.
to conclude this part of the subject, i cannot agree with dr. bowring when he harshly says, upon the subject of moslem education: “the instruction given by the doctors of the law in the religious schools, for the formation of the mohammedan priesthood, is of the most worthless character.”33 his opinion is equally open to objection with that of those who depreciate the law itself because it deals rather in precepts than in principle, in ceremonies and ordinances rather than in ethics and aesthetics. both are what eastern faiths and eastern training have ever been, — both are eminently adapted for the oriental mind. when the people learn to appreciate ethics, and to understand psychics and aesthetics, the demand will create a supply. meanwhile they leave transcendentalism to their poets and philosophers, and they busy themselves with preparing for heaven by practising the only part of their faith now intelligible to them — the material.
it is not to be supposed that a nation in this stage of civilisation could be so fervently devout as the egyptians are, without the bad leaven of bigotry. the same tongue which is employed in blessing allah, is, it is conceived, doing its work equally well in cursing allah’s enemies. wherefore the kafir is denounced by every sex, age, class, and condition, by the man of the world,34 as by the boy at school; and out of, as well as in, the mosque. if you ask your friend who is the person with a black turband, he replies,
“a christian. allah make his countenance cold!”
if you inquire of your servant, who are the people singing in the next house, it is ten to one that his answer will be,
“jews. may their lot be jahannam!”
it appears unintelligible, still it is not less true, that egyptians who have lived as servants under european roofs for years, retain the liveliest loathing for the manners and customs of their masters. few franks, save those who have mixed with the egyptians in oriental disguise, are aware of their repugnance to, and contempt for, europeans — so well is the feeling veiled under the garb of innate politeness, and so great is their reserve when conversing with those of strange religions. i had a good opportunity of ascertaining the truth when the first rumour of a russian war arose. almost every able-bodied man spoke of hastening to the jihad, — a crusade, or holy war, — and the only thing that looked like apprehension was the too eager depreciation of their foes. all seemed delighted with the idea of french co-operation, for, somehow or other, the frenchman is everywhere popular. when speaking of england, they were not equally easy: heads were rolled, pious sentences were ejaculated, and finally out came the old eastern cry, “of a truth they are shaytans, those english.35” the austrians are despised, because the east knows nothing of them since the days when osmanli hosts threatened the gates of vienna. the greeks are hated as clever scoundrels, ever ready to do al-islam a mischief. the maltese, the greatest of cowards off their own ground, are regarded with a profound contempt: these are the proteges which bring the british nation into disrepute at cairo. and italians are known chiefly as “istruttori” and “distruttori”36 — doctors, druggists, and pedagogues.
yet egyptian human nature is, like human nature everywhere, contradictory. hating and despising europeans, they still long for european rule. this people admire an iron-handed and lion-hearted despotism; they hate a timid and a grinding tyranny.37 of all foreigners, they would prefer the french yoke, — a circumstance which i attribute to the diplomatic skill and national dignity of our neighbours across the channel.38 but whatever european nation secures egypt will win a treasure. moated on the north and south by seas, with a glacis of impassable deserts to the eastward and westward, capable of supporting an army of 180,000 men, of paying a heavy tribute, and yet able to show a considerable surplus of revenue, this country in western hands will command india, and by a ship-canal between pelusium and suez would open the whole of eastern africa.39
there is no longer much to fear from the fanaticism of the people, and a little prudence would suffice to command the interests of the mosque.40 the chiefs of corporations,41 in the present state of popular feeling, would offer even less difficulty to an invader or a foreign ruler than the olema. briefly, egypt is the most tempting prize which the east holds out to the ambition of europe, not excepted even the golden horn.
