A FAMOUS MOSQUE.*
No memory of Cairo is more abiding than that of the great mosque of Sultan Hazen. It forms a chief feature in so many views that one cannot escape it. Going up to the Citadel, its splendid portal towers over one to the right. Standing on the ramparts of the fortress, in the forefront of the wide panorama which embraces the curving Nile and the Pyramids and the forest of domes and minarets and fiat roofs of the city, the spectator sees the gaunt massive walls, the squat dome, and the lopsided turrets of the famous mosque,—the one domi- nating detail of the foreground. It was no fault of the un- known genius who planned the noble building that its crown- ing ornaments should be so ill proportioned. The architect designed a plan unprecedented in Saracenic ark—a mosque with four minarets. Three he completed, but the third, which rose over the gate, fell almost immediately, and buried in its fall a school of little children. The omen was decisive ; further attempt was made to brave the traditional arrange- ment, and Sultan Kasen remained two-minaretted. One of the two fell also at a later date, and the stubby tower which took its place is what we now see. The dome, too, has suffered indignity. Once it was worthy of the massy pile that supported it. Della Valle saw it in 1616, still in its original proportions, and described it as "di una forma, che io mai non ho vedute cioa, comincia stretta, poi si allarga, e poi si va, restringendo di nuouo, nella foirma a punts di vu vouo'di gallina." The egg-shape bulb, recurring at the base, suggests a Persian or Seljuk parentage, and was a decided deviation from the normal dome of Cairo.
But the whole building is full of remarkable peculiarities. Began in 1356, and finished six years later, at a cost, it is said, of some 2500 a day—insomuch that the Sultan declared that but for the fear that people would say that the King of Egypt could not finish what he began he would have abandoned the ruinous enterprise—the mosque comes in the middle of a series of similar monuments, and one would expect to find similar features and ornament. Instead of this, not only in the original design of the four minarets and recurred dome, but in numerous details, the mosque is unique among the hundreds of religious edifices of Cairo. The wonderful cornice or entablature, projecting several feet, has no parallel as a characteristic feature, the socle is unusual, and the frank realism of the foliate ornament is totally dis- tinct from the conventional treatmentnsual in so-called " Arab " art. The tomb-chamber, again, to which the dome belongs— domes are always the canopies of tombs in Cairo—instead of being included, as usual, in a corner of the square of the mosque, projects like a lady-chapet—an architectural im- provement which one is surprised to find without imitators. All these things point to foreign influence, and the author of a curiously perverse and ill-informed treatise on " L'Art Arabs," inspired by his zeal for everything Coptic, hastily concluded that, like the much older mosque of Ibn-Tulun, that of Sultan Hasan was the creation of an • Egyptian Christian. He even found insculpt on a pillar to the right of the portal the porch of a Coptic church, a cross, and a dove holding the olive-branch." In reply to this marvellous dis- covery of M. Gayet, Herz Bey, the talented architect to whom we owe this magnificent description of the mosque, "permits himself to remark simply that the porch is Gothic, and that the pillar has not a trace of a cross or a dove"! M. Herz has, however, himself discovered something curious about 'this pillar. There is no Coptic porch, indeed, carved in the panels, but there is a porch with spandrils and. other features of a building which he identifies as the representation of a Gothic church, and above this' is a sculpture of "a maisonnette with gable roof." His own opinion, advanced with diffidence, is that the architect was a Byzantine Greek who had studied the buildings of the Seljuks in Asia Minor; and it is certainly tempting to trace the analogies between the mosque of Sultan Iiasan and those at Konia, described and illustrated by Sarre. The hypothesis is at least probable, but it is a pity that the modesty of Moslem architects forbade the inscribing of their names upon their masterpieces.
The beautiful volume in which M. Herz Bey advances this theory is published by the Egyptian Commission for the
• La Mosquie du Sudan Hassan as OaSre. Par Max Hars • Bey. Caire : ComIte de Conserradon des Monuments de l'Art Arabs. [55 ft)
Preservation of the Monuments of Arab Art. The Coramii- sion, as every one knows; has done excellent work in main- taining and occasionally restoring (though this excellence has been disputed) the decaying mosques and other medireval monuments of Cairo. It has accomplished wonders in the past fifteen years on an insufficient subsidy from the Egyptian Government. Latterly its efficiency has been increased by a grant of 220,000, which Lord Cromer, in his magic way, con- trived to extract from the Commissioners of the Public Debt. Its scope has also been enlarged by the consent of the Coptic authorities to submit their churches to its supervision. Even now, and in spite of the strict economies of its chief architect M. Herz, who certainly makes 2E1 go further in bricks and mortar than one could easily believe, the Commission cannot do all it would like to do. Lord Cromer's timely assist- ance has enabled a number of very important monu- ments to be taken in hand and saved from rain—notably the beautiful mosque of el-Maridani—but there are still some tasks wholly beyond its present means. One of these is the preservation of Sultan Kasen. The necessary repairs are estimated at 240,000, which would swallow up five yeari.' • income of the Commission and leave every other monument unprotected. With a view to interesting the European public in the splendid building, which threatens to fall to pieces, the Commission has authorised the publication of this sumptuous memoir,—the first detailed and complete historical and archi- tectural treatise on a monument which it has undertaken. The Annual Reports, indeed, are full of valuable descriptions, and even photographs, of mosques and other buildings in' course of repair or to be repaired, but nothing on the scale of the present work has been attempted.
Quite apart from the avowed object of obtaining funds for the restoration, the preparation of such a memoir appears to us to be part of the duties of the Commission. As was pointed out in the Report which Lord Cromer invited Professor Stanley Lane-Poole to draw up on the state of the monuments. of Cairo, and which was printed in the Egyptian Blue-book of 1897, it is imperative that when a monument is decaying, and when funds do not permit of its repair, a complete official survey—not necessarily for immediate publication—should be made of the building, careful architectural plans and sections drawn, photographs taken of the ensemble and all important details, and even reproductions in colours attempted of marble inlay and glass. Herz Bey's memoir on the mosque of Sultan Hazen appears . to be in some measure a fulfilment of this suggestion. The twenty magnificent plates, twenty by fifteen inches, some in colours, form almost, as complete a representation of the mosque as could be desired : we say "almost" because even twenty plates crowded with detail cannot exhaust the wealth of material presented in the decoration. The plates by themselves are a perfect treasure, and to turn them over is an education in Saracenic art. The accompanying memoir is also comprehen- sive: it deals with the plan and dimensions, the history, and inscriptions, and the objects belonging to the mosque (such as enamelled glass lamps and silver-incrusted lustres) ; extracts the notices of Arabic historians,' European travellers, and critics; offers some technical criticism of the architectural style and peculiarities ; and concludes with a statement of the measures which should be taken to preserve the monu- ment from further injury or positive ruin. The whole account is well done, and worthy of the admirable plans which M. Herz and his assistants have produced. If we have any -fault to find it is that there is scarcely enough detailed description: the medresas or colleges of the four orthodox sects, which surround the central court, might have been more . fully described, and even in the main building we should have liked rather more ample accounts of the details of construc- tion and ornament. Probably Herz Bey thought that the numerous plates sufficiently explained themselves ; but, from an architectural point of view, we 'miss those technical com- ments which no one is more competent to offer than the author of this work. He was, perhaps, afraid of .being tedious, and thus injuring the popularity of a volume which should appeal to all lovers of art. He may be right, and at least he has contrived to make his historical introduction extremely interesting. 'The man who walked on a rope attached to the minaret, and performed various feats in anticipation of the late M. Blondin ; the history of the closing of the door for fifty-one years; the pious mac iptions of visitors in the sixteenth and seventeenth- centuries, who came to lay down their sins before the niche of prayer; and many other curious facts are included in M. Herz's sketch. We must congratulate him and his Commission on the manner in which this important work has been executed, and hope sin- cerely that it may lead to what all must desire,—the preserva- tion of the most stately of the monuments of Cairo.
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