MOHAMMEDAN ART. 657 MOHAMMEDAN ART.
- iiul Arniciiia. and (Jt'Oij;ia, in tlu' Imilrlings of the
thirU'fiith and fcmrlccntli rciitiiiio.s at Sivas, Kaisaiitli, Kunifli, Ni^dt-li. Niiica. Jiiusa, etc. Tile cunU'Uipoiary buiNliiigs in IVrsia. at Tabriz, .•^ultanifli, 'IVliiMan, and f>pi'oially Ispahan (tho Meidan, mosque of ilfsjid Sliali, Hazar, and ile- dressch of Hoscin Shah), scattered over a period of about three centuries, show that Persnm art was never led to al)an(hin flowing lines foi anguhir and geometrical designs; even its ara- hesipies are more continuous and soft, and jt hardly ever resorted to stalactite design. The form of its domes also varied essentially from those elsewhere. It is usually flat-sided and pointed on the interior and bulbous outside, l)uilt of brick, which was almost entirely used in place of stone. The minarets have the late <ireular shape and are exceedingly slender, being lopped by small domes. Another peculiarity is I he fatade of various clas-es of l)uildings formed id' high recessed pointed arches of the same pecu- liar flat-sided outline as the domes, and remind- ing distantly of such English screen facades as Lincoln and Peterborough. IxniA. At the same time Mohammedan art received a great impetus in India through the establishment of the ilogul supremacy (1520), and i)roduced a style that was in many ways the most artistic and the grandest in the whole sphere of Mohammedan architecture. Buildings like the mosque and tomb of Mahmud at Bijajiur. the mosques at Fathipur, Sikhri, -Agra, and Delhi, the palace of Akhar at Alla- habad, and the Taj JIahal at Agra are master- jdeces. There is undouI)tedly a dependence on the art of Persia in the shape of the pointed arches and domes, and in the niche facades, as well as a knowledge of the Turkish adaptation of the Saint Sopliia type, but these Indian archi- tects showed a surpassing sense of composition and efTeetiveness, never allowing, as the archi- tects of Egypt and Spain so often did, the love of detail to become paramount. Finally, when the Turks captured Constanti- nople (1453) they adopted the Byzantine style and speciflcally that of Saint So])hia. which be- came their chief mosque. They never knew the old type of cloistered mosque, but only great domi- cal, fully vaulted interiors. The architects they employed were Christian (Jreeks. Their mosques have ever since been mere repetitions of Saint Sophia on a smaller scale. I!it some of them have great merit of dignity and composition and some orijjinality in the exterior treatment: for example, the nio.sque of Mohammed II., which has four semi-domes grouped around the central one, but especially the Sulainianiyyah mosque (1553). These have alternating white and black marbles' in the interior voussoirs, and the simple bril- li.nncy of the surfaces gives quite a different effect from a Byzantine interior. For details regarding special classes of buildings ami the delightful domestic architecture of the ^loslems. see special articles, such as Caravanserai; Fountain; Bazar; Tekive; Minaret; ilo.squE. MINOR arts. Decoration. The sculpture of the Mohamme- dans was purely decorative, becoming richer as the Middle Ages advanced. In the earlier stages it partook somewhat of liyzantiue design, as in the mosqiie of Cordova and in early Eg'ptian and Syrian mosques. But it was then scanty and ra- ther heavy. W hen the >.eliociK iM'came more differ- entiated in the eleventh century, into the Persian naturalistic, ligured and floral: the Syrian sche- matic, animal and floral: and the Egyptian, geo- metric and stiff floral schools, ornament began to spread over the entire building. Even the exterior surfaces of domes and walls were covered, with a lacework cut in stone or stucco. Color was given by marble mosaics in Egj'pt, or in Syria and Persia by brilliantly colored tiles. The Mosque of Omar is an early, the Alhandjra at Granada a mediaeval, and the Mosque of Ispahan a late e.xam])le. The tiles became an Oriental specialty, and were imitated in Spain until re- centl>-. See AziLE-JO. WoonwoRK and Ivory. In no style of art has so varied an artistic use been made of wood. Where other styles have used stone and marble we find wood used, for instance, in carved ceil- ings, windows, pulpits, lecterns, screens, lattice- work, doors, balconies, parapets, tomb-casings. In the richest pieces ivory is sometimes used in connection with wood, being cither inlaid in carved panels or being set as panels in wooden frames. Wood was used not only for the furni- ture of the i)rivate house, but for that of the mosque, such as cupboards, tables, and the classes of work mentioned above. Some of the best ex- amples of floral design in Eg^'pt are preserved in wood carvings. The most magnificent pieces are probably the pulpits, such as that of Kait Bey in South Kensington Museum, and the panels from those of Maridany. Lagin, and Kusun in the same museum. The panels of the hospital of Kalaun show a Persian style of figures and ani- mals, rather than the floral and geometrical pat- terns. The reading-platform of the Mosque of Kait Bey is a fine instance of marquetry and ivory, largely in polygonal design. Ebony and ivory were often confliined in mosaic-like pat- terns, sometimes framed in strips of metal, as in jewel eases and other boxes. But the most exten- sive of all the wood carvings and inlaid work were the ceilings of mosques and palaces, as in those of Kait Bey, El-Mogyed. and El-Bordeini. Met.l Woriv. The Persians. Syrians, and Eg;s'ptians were skillful workers in metal. Per- haps the earliest centre was in Mesopotamia, at Mosul. Brass, bronze, and copper were chiefly used. While chiseled bronze and repousse copper seem the earliest processes, the works came to be often inlaid with silver and sometiiues with gold liy different processes: (1) by incrusting a thread of gcdd or silver into an. undercut groove; (2) by inclosing a metal strip or plate between raised walls: (3) by pressing a thin leaf of metal into stipple marks. The entire metal sur- face was excavated according to the elaborate de- sign, the edges undercut, the threads or plates of gold or silver inserted and burnished, and then the sirfaces chased with all the details that could not be given by the general outlines. . i- mals. birds, human figures, hunting scenes, feast- ing scenes, and other genre siibjeets. as well as floral designs. charact<'rize more especially the Persian and Syrian works, while arabesques and geometric patterns predominate in Egypt. In- scriptions are made almost always to contribute to the decorative effect. The Mesopotamian and Persian schools, though undoubtedly of much earlier origin, gained new life in the twelfth cen- tury, when Tatar and Turkish influence gave to artists far greater freedom in the use of the
