The varieties of soil would thus expose to the fire, in various

combinations, alumine, silex, carbonate and sulphate of lime

(selenite). The blood flowed on it, and--as in the case of Jupiter

Olympius--it was plastered over with the ashes. In the alluvial plains

of Mesopotamia, these altars must have been of brick in the mountainous

districts, where alabaster as well as limestone abounded--gypsum and

lime. At once would the substance of plaster be known, and the manner

of using it, and, probably, lime was similarly treated, and thence

the strength of ancient mortar. Vitruvius directs it to be mixed

with ashes,[350] as it must have been in the plastering of these

earth-altars.

Having thus obtained lime, it was used as the discovery suggested that

it should be; that is, to harden the earth-walls themselves--not to

cement stones. They would soon discover that gypsum had to be set up

in moulds, hardening at once of its own accord; but that lime, mixing

with the earth, or with gravel, acquired consistency by being rammed

down. The varieties so presented are infinite, from the rudest, the

cheapest, and the most perishable walls, to the most costly and durable

ramparts; and these could so be raised without machinery or science,

yet affording a strength to resist the besieging operators of those

times, of a height to surpass all means of assault, and of a durability

that has defied Time itself. The Devonshire cobwalls and the Normandy

pisé afford examples of the first;--common earth bound together, in

default of lime, with chopped straw; while in the old Moorish tower

of Gibraltar is a specimen of the last, a concrete possessing greater

power of resistance to shot than any discovery which has been made

since the introduction of artillery.

When I first saw the ruins of the Phœnician city of old Tangier, which

is a rough-looking wall (the _opus incertum_ of the Romans), such as

might be built by a very rude people in our times, I could not believe

it to be Phœnician; but upon further examination of such ruins, and

when I came to consider the nature of the soil where these structures

were raised, and the merit attached to the first application of this

most important material--_lime_--I found in that very coarseness an

evidence of the high antiquity of these walls, and of the ingenuity of

this people; and felt that we were indebted to them for a substance

become of primary necessity.

A captive, employed as the Jews in Egypt were, has thus described the

task of the Christian slaves in Morocco:

“Our work and daily labour was continually building of houses and

walls: the material and method is so very foreign, and will appear

strange to my countrymen. Here there are boxes of wood, of dimensions

according to pleasure: these we fill with earth powdered, and lime and

gravel well beat together and _tempered with water_; and when full, we

remove the box according to order, and withdraw the box planks, and

leave this matter to dry, which will then acquire an incredible degree

of hardness and is very lasting, for we have seen walls of some hundred

years’ standing, as we are informed, and all that time has not been

able to do them any prejudice. The king himself (what reason for his

humour may be we never had the curiosity to ask him) will sometimes

vouchsafe to work in the lime and dirt for an hour together, and will

bolt out an encouraging word to the slaves there, viz., as I remember,

'God send you to your own countries;’ but I judge he either does not

speak from his heart, or else he hopes God will not answer the prayer

of such a wretch as himself.”[351]

Livy mentions the Wall of Saguntum as similarly constructed; and Pliny

speaks of the “forms” which they used for ramming down the materials in

constructing them. He confines the practice to Mauritania and Spain.

In these two countries it has still one and the same name, _Tapia_. In

Hebrew and in Egyptian _teb_ is the word which we translate “brick;”

it also signifies “box.” The name has been derived from the mould. The

hieroglyphic for _teb_ is a foot and a hand.

No doubt from this word the name of the great city of Egypt, Thebes,

is derived. I am aware that Sir Gardnor Wilkinson derives it from

_ap_, or _ape_, meaning the head or capital of the country; but _tab_

is much nearer to Thebes than _ap_ or _ape_; and I am not aware that

any city ever received its name from the head; whereas the most common

of etymons for cities--at least among Arameans, is the defences which

distinguish them from the inhabitants of the Tents.[352]

The derivatives from this word are extraordinary from their number, and

the languages through which they spread, and vouch for the importance

of the object to which it was applied, and the antiquity of the

language in which it was used. The Turkish has taken from it its word

for _fortress_--“_tabia_,”--and for _mound_,--“_tepe_.” The Arabic

preserves it in its pure sense--the Spanish derives from it _tapar_

to close, and _tapeti_ a covering;--whence in the French we have

_taper_ and _tapis_;--in English we have _tapestry_, _tap_, which has

been probably derived from the original _teb_; we have[353] _tub_ and

_tube_. The Greeks have taken from it τύπος [typos], and thence τύπτω

[typtô]; whence the string of European derivatives, _type_, _typify_,

&c., ταπεινὸς [tapeinos], humble, _i.e._ beaten down; also, ταφὸς

[taphos], tomb, from the association of this mode of building with that

of tombs.[354]

About the time that the Hebrews were taking Jericho, the Phœnicians

were carrying on their commercial enterprises to the west. By this

irruption into Canaan, an immense mass of colonists was placed

at their disposal; and to this event in all probability is to be

attributed the number and importance of their settlements. They are

supposed to have reached the Northern Ocean, and especially to have

had their settlements in Britain, as is indeed proved by the names

still preserved in Devonshire and Cornwall. In those two counties the

_tapia_ of Morocco is still used in building, though the species is

of that inferior order in which lime is not used; or if used at all,

merely for the coating--the tempering with lime of Ezekiel. In deriving

it from the Phœnicians, difficulty presents itself in the name: it

is called _cob_:--this word is neither Teutonic, nor Celtic, Greek,

nor Latin, Hebrew nor Arabic. It was after long research that the

origin of it occurred to me in a word that I was in the daily habit of

using, and which is the common name given in Morocco to a tomb--which

is Cubbe. Many English derivatives show that _cob_ meant both “wall”

and “beating.” _Cobweb_, the web and the wall; _cobden_, hole in the

wall; _cobler_, one making frequent use of the hammer; _cobbing_, a

school-boy term for thrashing with a knotted handkerchief, besides many

others--_Cobbett_--_Cobham_,--_cob_ as applied to a breakwater--Lyme

_cob_.

Cubbe designates indeed a tomb; but it might equally be rendered,

building, or wall: for the cubbe are the only buildings which appear

throughout the Western regions of Africa. Although the word will be

found in no Arabic dictionary, it is not likely that _cob_, the

Devonshire name for the material from which the Moorish cubbe is built,

should have been given by mere chance. As the dictionary affords no

clue, we must endeavour to trace them back constructively.

Bochart accounts for the story of a tomb of Hecuba, in Sicily, by

supposing that the Greeks, seeing some Phœnician tomb, and inquiring

what the building was, were answered, “BETH HACUB, _suprema domus_.”

The meaning of Beth they could not mistake, and Hacub could only be

the unhappy consort of Priam. Sir W. Hamilton does justice to this

explanation in a rigid criticism of the author. If Beth Hacub were so

employed, the contraction to the last syllable is quite natural; and as

the tombs in Britain would be built of Tapia, the natives would call

that substance by the same name--Cub--cob; as the Phœnicians themselves

may have contracted it. The contraction has remained in Britain

applicable to walls when built of this material--in Africa to the tombs

which are their buildings.

As each promontory in Sicily had its fable connected with a tomb, the

interpretation of which forms one of the most interesting chapters of

“_Pheleg_,” the tomb must have been, as here now, the feature of the

landscape. The figure, at once the most simple and complex--the cube,

the dome, the arch, and spandril, all combined, doubtless has remained

unchanged. Such, then, were those tombs scattered through Greece, and

which we hear of as “Phrygian,” a people which I think I shall be able

to prove to be identical with the ancient inhabitants of Morocco; and

to them Solon must have referred when he forbade tombs to be built with

“_arched roofs_.”

The dominant form is the cube; but this is the very word! It has been

attempted to derive cube from Caaba. Here is a distinction without a

difference.[355] From the Greek κύβος [kybos] we have the term all

the way downwards in every western language. Thus, the building has

supplied the general name to Europe for its figure, to Devonshire for

its substance, and in Morocco has remained with its primitive meaning,

substance and figure.

The mistranslation of the Greeks respecting Hecuba, receives a curious

confirmation from a grotesque mistake of the French: they call these

buildings _marabouts_, and speak and write about _marabouts_ as if it

really were either an Arabic or a French name for Cubbe.[356] Marabouts

are men, and they are sometimes honoured with such a tomb.[357] The

Greeks, hearing the name of the building, applied it to a supposed

inmate; the French, being told the name of the inmate, applied it to

the edifice.

Pisé evidently comes from πιέζω [piezô],[358] to squeeze or break; and

the Phoceans, the allies of the Phœnicians, monopolised the commerce of

Gaul. It is to be inferred that Cob is Phœnician; but the word is at

present unknown, nor are there traces of it in the ancient language.

Moors, like the Jews, as shown in Ezekiel’s parable, “temper” the earth

with lime. The durability depends upon the amount of beating, and the

quantity of lime; and the expense is, of course, in proportion. No

ancient buildings of mere earth remain; but still in Africa, though

rarely, earth alone is used: in one very important portion of their

architecture the three methods are all employed together, namely,

earth--earth and lime mixed, and pure lime. This is for the flat

roofings of their houses, and is a matter of the greatest difficulty;

in fact, the very word architecture is derived from the process of

roofing; and they celebrate the covering-in of the houses with

ceremonies analogous to those which we employ in laying the foundation

stone. Over the wood-work earth is first beaten down, then a layer

of earth and lime, and then the pure lime: each layer is separately

beaten. They use a small paviour’s mallet: they work by gangs, and

strike in cadence with short stroke, singing in concert, and producing

a strange melody, that resounds through the neighbourhood of their

silent cities, startling the echoes with a melancholy, but not

unpleasing note, which recalls the tones of “Adria’s gondolier;” but

the words convey simpler thoughts, and a more devotional spirit. One

strain runs thus:

“Yalla wo yalla amili dinu yarbi;

Yalla wo yalla an azziz yarbi.”

O God! O God! Eternal art thou, O my Lord!

O God! O God! Dear to me art thou, O my Lord!

They also apply their incantation to the case, as it may be. The

traveller in Spain is often greeted by a change in the metre and

words of the song, and the salutation is conveyed in their simple and

pleasing extempore verse. The owner of a house visiting the work may in

like manner be welcomed with such a strain as this:

“Behold, Builder, the mortar is set!

The Lord of the dwelling will recompense us!

Behold, Builder, the mortar is set!

The Master of his workmen will cause them to rejoice!”

The distinction between the Aramean and the other primitive races

seems to have been maintained for a couple of thousand years; but at

the mixture of nations by the great conquests of the Macedonians and

the Romans, we find the use of lime extending to the others, and the

chiseled stones adopted by the Arameans. It is in the works of the

western or Moorish branch that has been preserved the type to our day;

and they have excelled all other people in the grandeur and durability

of their military architecture; and, with the exception of the

polygonal and cyclopic, they have embodied with their own every species

of ancient building.[359]

We thus identify with the Arameans, block walls, plaster of Paris,

bricks and lime; and while it is to be expected that these various

processes should be carried by them whither they emigrated, or taught

by them to the people among whom they established colonies, or whom

they instructed in the arts and sciences, still are we not to look for

these as combined in one general system, but as severally or partially

adopted according to the character of the surface of the country, or

the nature of its soil, or as associated with the kinds of masonry

already in use. In one country, however, the whole of the processes

which I have noticed are still to be found. Not one is wanting; and

they still possess that excellence of early structure which we have

lost in Europe. In the villages round Tangier the walls are built of

sunburnt brick exactly of the shape and dimensions of those of Babylon.

We have united in the origin as one whole, thick tapia walls, lofty

towers, and tesselated pavements. Pliny mentions the introduction of

the tesselated pavement after the third Punic war. The Greeks had

before them employed pavements; and this word which we associate

with stone[360] comes from _pavire_, to ram down, and could have no

reference to stone, but must have been the tapia of Canaan.

When these artificers removed to countries where the soil was no longer

aluminous, they would doubtless, although there were stones to build

with, cling to their own fashion, as their buildings and the apertures

would of necessity depend, not on the adjustment of the blocks, but on

the adhesion of the walls. They clung also to their lofty towers even

when they could build on strong and naturally defensible positions.

Thus we find the Jews gratified by being permitted to build lofty

towers, and these have been the work of predilection of the sovereigns

of Morocco and of Spain.

This ramming into cases explains also the rectangular forms of all

their buildings: round towers are very ancient and very Eastern: those

of the Hindoo were round. The primeval architecture, still preserved

in Sardinia, delighted in round towers, so also those of Ireland

were round. The vitrified forts[361] were round, so that this form

distinguishes the Arameans from the Hindoos on the East, the Celts on

the North, and the Aboriginal population of Europe on the West. The

early Mussulmans borrowed in the minaret the Minar of the Persians,

but in the _Sma_[362] of Barbary the original form was maintained. The

two are seen struggling and combined in the mosques of Cairo, as in

the early cathedrals of Europe. In Morocco bricks are used of all the

shapes, and in all the varieties in which we find them in the East. At

Carteia I found the grooved bricks of Ancient Arabia. Plaster of Paris

is in like manner used for building; and in Suez large portions of the

houses are set up at once, cast in moulds; and, lastly, there is the

block wall in all its varieties, from the earth rammed to the concrete

of mortar and earth, and of mortar and stones, exactly like that which,

constructed two or three thousand years ago, still stands as fresh as

upon the day of erection. In fact, these block walls are to-day as

perfectly Moorish as the horse-shoe arch, the arabesque ornament, or

the haïk.

The reason assigned by Herodotus for the selection of brick by Asychis,

the successor of Mycerinus, for building his pyramid--namely, that

it was more honourable than granite, as showing the power of earth,

has occasioned in our times no small astonishment, and has received

no explanation. After what I have said the explanation will be

self-evident; and it is not absolutely decided whether these structures

were raised by princes of Egyptian or Semetic blood. I think that the

inscription[363] and the story go further than any positive statements

of the Greek historian could have gone to give a shepherd origin to

them.

When the Hebrews returned to Canaan, the first obstacle they met with

was the walls of Jericho, an obstacle such as to baffle their natural

means and acquired skill; nor is it to be supposed that they were

destitute of the means of attacking such defences; but the walls of

Jericho were remarkable in a country of walled towns,[364] and the

name of “moon,” which Jericho signified, might have reference to their

height,[365] which a special interposition was required to overthrow.

The Jews built with stones, and with enormous ones, as the siege of

Jerusalem and ruins still extant attest; and they had also, as well

as the Canaanites, burnt bricks. David burnt the Ammonites in their

own kilns[366] at Rabbah. Ezekiel says,[367] “And one built up a wall,

and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar. Say unto them which

daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall. There shall be an

overflowing shower.” These words have to us no meaning, but they prove

that building in tapia or cob was the common practice of Judæa.

The great event in the early history of the Jews is the Egyptian

captivity. The representatives of the Arameans were here in contact

with the most remarkable builders of the other races. The task of

the Jews was building: it was not masonry--it was not hewing in

quarries or adjusting blocks, but building with earth: the expression

used in Scripture may be interpreted as applying either to small or

larger case-bricks, or entire walls. In the Egyptian paintings we see

Jews[368] or Arameans occupied in the performance of their task, and

the red men, the Egyptians, the task-masters over them. Here, however,

it is burnt bricks we see: the clay is weighed, beaten into moulds,

carried to the furnace blue, and brought back red. The Jews, therefore,

had introduced this method. The soil of Egypt was not adapted for the

block wall or sun-burnt brick, whilst the silex fitted it for burning.

Thus having got the materials, let us see how they were used in the

construction of their ordinary dwellings. The Greek Triclinium-room

was copied by the Romans. The Moors have also a form of room, but the

method is different. The Greek house, as the Turkish, was a variable

aggregate of integers, which were invariable. No light came from the

door or from the side in which it was, and by which the room adjoined

to the body of the house. From the side opposite to the door--that

is the top--came the light from contiguous windows, as in the oriel

windows of the Middle Ages. The rooms were, therefore, struck out to

catch the light, and the house was like a bunch of crystals, united

at the base, no account being taken, in building it, of the exterior

form, which depended on the accidental arrangement and size of the

rooms, the proportions of which were invariable.

With the Moors it is exactly the reverse. Their building was a square

of dead walls: the rooms were made to fit that form, and their light

came by the door and the door alone: the door is in the length of the

room, and divides it into two equal parts. Under the tent they were

encamped always ready to march--in their houses they were fortified,

ever in a state of defence. Their breccia they struck out into

archways, or pierced with open works; but windows were as little known

to them as stirrups to the Greeks or Romans. From this court, in the

centre, come the lights. I need not repeat what I have already said

respecting it, which the reader will find in the account of a Jewish

house at Arzela.

A Moorish house was made in the style of a cavern or grotto, and its

pendulous interior fret-work strikes every one as something resembling

the stalactites of a cave (πετρήρεφες, αὐτοκτίτ’ ἄντρα [petrêrephes,

autoktit’ antra]). The weight, therefore, of the roof, and the

deficiency of timber, conjoined to maintain that original structure of

long narrow rooms adjoining the court-yard, which originated in the

materials of their building and the necessities of their defence, and

which were admirably adapted to their climate, and suited to the habit

which it engendered of living in community.

As the room of the Turks presents to us the Triclinium of the Greeks,

so do the houses of Morocco the dwellings of the Hebrews, and furnish

the explanation of obscure passages in the Scriptures: to the Moorish

houses as exactly applies every term having reference to houses or

buildings, as those having reference to clothing do to the Moorish

dress.

The Hebrews originally dwelt in tents. When they returned from Egypt

they found the Holy Land filled with fenced cities. They came from the

wilderness as the Arabs now do into Suez from the Sahara. They adopted

the settled manners of the people, but tribes identified with them,

such as the Kenites and Rechabites, continued to live under tents. The

domestic architecture of the Jews was thus properly Canaanitish, and is

in Morocco what it was in the Holy Land when the Jews entered.

The Arab under his tent, and the Breber in his solid house of tapia,

with its square towers, picture to the life the period of Caleb

and Joshua. This architecture, transferred to Morocco nearly three

thousand years ago, has here continued to subsist, while it has been

extinguished--utterly blotted out in Judæa. It required the protecting

mounds of ruins to preserve the fashions of the chambers of the

Assyrian kings, which have lived through all this course of ages

unharmed by the breath of heaven or the hand of man, in Tetuan and

Tangier.

Spain had not her tapia from the Saracens, as already shown; she

received it, and with it her architecture, from the same sources as

Morocco. We are informed by St. Isidore that, in the fifth century,

the Goths had adopted the same mode of building--of course from the

Iberians, who are the source of most things which we are so fond of

calling Saracenic in Spain, whether architecture, blood, manners, or

words. Like Judæa, Spain--though not to the same extent--had lost

her original type, and Morocco remained, at the time of the Saracen

conquest, the treasure-house of the ancient world, and the museum of

human history.

That Morocco did continue in the usufruct of this inheritance, may be

seen in the buildings they immediately commenced in Spain, and in the

accounts handed down of the splendour of the buildings of Morocco, in

the first days of Islamism.

If this architecture of Judæa can be understood and explained by the

existing buildings in Morocco, does the converse hold? Would the

description of Moorish architecture apply to the buildings of Judæa?

Do we, in fact, in looking upon the Alcazars and Alhambras, behold the

image of the Palace of Hiram or the Temple of Solomon? That question

I cannot answer in the affirmative. There is nothing described of the

buildings of Judæa that is not to be found in those of Morocco; but

there is that in those of Morocco which, had it existed in Judæa,

could not have failed to have been described. The descriptions of the

buildings in Spain, if they disappeared, would not correspond with

those of Judæa. The architecture of Canaan has undergone a change in

the West.

That which attracts attention to the Moresque and awakens enthusiasm,

is the tracery upon the walls, the pensile figures of the arches,

and the domes with their colours. To these no reference is made in

ancient writers, and of them no trace has been preserved; yet are they

embellishments too striking not to be observed, and too beautiful to

have been lost in such an age. Had there been an Alhambra at Jerusalem

or at Tyre, we should have found something like it on the banks of

the Nile, where the Jews raised their rival temple; in the Baths of

Lucullus or in the Palaces of Antioch. Greek Virtuosi then were spread

over all these regions, and there were the Ptolemies collecting all the

stores of art and literature, who garrisoned fortresses with the Jews,

and who were spurred on by envy of Tyre and rivalry with Carthage.

We have, then, two points most distinctly made out--first, that the

substance of the walls, and the structure of the edifices, the roofing,

the wood-painting, of Judæa, corresponded with those of Morocco.

Secondly, that the embellishments of vivid and varied colours, and the

delicate lace-work, known as Arabesque, did not exist in Judæa.

The latter constitutes, to our eyes, the Moorish architecture, but,

from what I have said, it will appear that it is but a garment over

it. When, then, was it added thereto? by whom was it invented? where

was it first applied? It is one of the greatest efforts that has been

ever made; it is enough to make an epoch. We must look for it in

some period of greatness, of some seat of empire, under some prince

pre-eminent in all the attributes which can command the admiration

of men. We turn to Damascus--to the Caliphat: we have no traces of

it there, and no relic. The earliest monuments eastward are found at

Alexandria, and then only in fragments; and there is neither the thing

nor the type. Did it, then, spring up on the soil of Spain, in that

favoured region? No. We find it in the very earliest monuments of the

Moors. When they entered Spain, it was already formed and complete.

It was, therefore, in Morocco, that the architecture of Judæa underwent

those changes, expanded into those graceful forms, and robed itself in

those rainbow colours.

There are natural features and primitive habits which suggest or

account for each of these modifications--features so striking that

they could not fail to be observed, and so beautiful that they must

have been copied: these I have described as they presented themselves

to me. The types which I found in nature or in practice are of the

stalactitic, dome, and arch,--the horseshoe arch, the tracery on the

wall, the diversified colouring of that tracery, the half-globe dome

upon the cube; and these, in fact, are the modifications that the

architecture of Judæa received, and by which it has been converted into

the Moorish.

On the material the system of architecture depended, and it is wholly

different from the classic. The great styles of antiquity depended,

not on the adhesion of the stones, but their form and weight, and by

science alone they obtained arches. Thus the perpendicular key-stone

of the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans, the horizontal and narrowing

circle of the Pelasgi, the massive rocks carved and transported by

the Egyptians, the inclining jamb of the Cyclops (Tyrius and Lamos),

the column and entablature of the Greek, all depended on mechanical

science, and, therefore, the form of the passage through a wall,

became a distinctive feature of a race. The tapia, by its adhesion,

constituted as it were a rock in the form of a dwelling; they required

no mechanical adjustments to obtain the openings,--they could make

them at pleasure; square, or with a semicircular or pointed arch or

a horse-shoe. They dug through the walls; so, in like manner, could

they carry them to any height, and build them for any number of ages.

Hence, the square, massive solidity of the Moorish structure; hence,

the absence of all exterior lines of architecture for embellishments;

hence, the ornaments of the material itself; hence, the bold facility

and the endless variety which they gave to their arches; hence, the

rich decorations and lightness of the interior contrasted with the

exterior rudeness and gravity; hence, the adornment of that interior by

tesselated pavements and variegated walls.

Here was architecture in its essence: the covering-in of the top, the

erecting of the wall, was the work of barrow-men. The carpenter, the

craftsman was required for laying on the beams, and making the terrace

water-tight. Within, the roof is as important as without; for as it is

upon the roof that depends the durability, and I may say, solidity of

the structure, so in the roof consists the chief embellishment of the

apartment.

Nothing is weak--nothing frittered away. Simple, but never rude;

unadorned, but never base; severe, and yet in the highest degree

attractive; the Æschylean Majesty of the Doric order is the very

highest conception that even Grecian art could realize. The

contemplation, even in the meanest engraving, of one of its matchless

porticos, in all the stern grace of the column, capital, and cornice,

is absolutely overwhelming. And this climax of pure dignity, this

expression of heathendom in its noblest form, this embodied καλὸν

[kalon], such as the Hellenic mind only could compass, we are gravely

told was borrowed from the hideous and unmeaning monstrosities of the

race who paid divine honours to the lowest vermin, and whom their

gardens supplied with appropriate objects of veneration![369]

Coleridge, by transferring into our language something of the verbal

chemistry of Kant, prompted combinations of terms as if they had been

compounds of simple elements; he did not give new substances, but

conferred the facility of travelling out of reality. Wordsworth, using

the objects of art and nature as suggesting devotional thoughts,

diverted the mythology of the Greeks to the service of the faith, and

thought it a conquest. Thus by peopling the forest, the cave, the

vault, and the spire with mystic beings, and supplying them with hidden

meanings, he contributed his part to theirs.

[344] “The Goths who conquered Spain in 470, becoming

Christians, endeavoured to build their churches in

imitation of the spreading and interlacing boughs of the

groves in which they had been accustomed to perform their

_pagan rites_ in their native country of Scandinavia,

and they employed for this purpose Saracen Architects,

whose _exotic_ style suited their purpose.”--WARBURTON.

[345] “The soaring nave of a Gothic minster, in the

clustered and banded stalks of its lofty pillars, the

curling leaves of its capitals and cornices, the

interlacing arches of its fretted vault, the interminable

entwinings of its tracery, the countless hues that sparkle

from roof, and chapiter, and wall, and window, recall no

work of man, indeed--no tent, or hut, or cavern, but the

sublimest temple of natural religion, the awful gloom of

the deep forests of the north; the aspiring height of the

slender pine, the spreading arms of the giant oak, rich

with the varied tints of leaf and blossom, with the wild

birds’ song for its anthem, or the rustle of the breeze

in its waving branches, for the voices of the mighty

multitude, or the deep notes of the solemn organ.”--

FREEMAN’S _History of Architecture_, p. 15.

[346] The walls of Megalopolis in Greece were so

defended.

[347] “Thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster

them with plaster, and thou shalt write upon them all the

words of this law.... Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool

upon them.”--Deut. xxvii. 2-5. The stones were to be

covered, and were not to be touched with iron tool; and

yet all the law was to be written on them: it must, then,

have been on the plaster.

[348] “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me.”--

Exodus xx. 24.

[349] The Teucrian Girghis was, as I have shown elsewhere,

a colony of Gergashites. See also Selden, Diis Syriis: Syntag. l.

ii. c. 2.

[350] “Ex sabulone et calce et _favilla_.”--VITR. l. vii.

c. 4. In the Highlands of Scotland it is a tradition, that the old

lime, which stands so well, was used unslaked: the very same thing

has been told me in Andalusia. Recently in England they have

fallen on this process for building under water.

[351] Captivity of T. Phelps. London, 1685.

[352] “The name Thebes is corrupted from the 'Tápé’ of the

ancient Egyptians and Copts, which, in the Memphitic dialect, is

pronounced Thaba, easily converted into Θῆβαι [Thêbai], or Thebes.

Some writers have confined themselves to a closer imitation of the

Egyptian word; and Pliny and Juvenal have both adopted 'Thebe’ in

the singular number as the name of this city. In hieroglyphics it

is written Ap, Ape, or with the feminine article, Tápé, the

meaning of which appears to be '_the head_,’ Thebes being the

capital of the country.”--WILKINSON, _Thebes_, vol. ii. p. 136.

[353] Barrel is also derived from the Arabic--_bar_, earth;

_barril_, made of earth; which the Spaniards still apply to an

earthen vessel.

[354] The lexicographers derive ταφὸς [taphos]from θάπτω

[thaptô], and then they derive θάπτω [thaptô] from ταφός [taphos].

[355] Cybele is derived from κυβήβειν [kybêbein], _i.e._ κύπτειν

[kyptein], for she made her servants bow. Kύβη [Kybê], the head,

is derived from κύπτω [kyptô].

The word cupola is directly from the Arabic, _Cobbal_, which

from the form was likewise applied to the whole building, and also

to an umbrella: thus, the Mosque of Cordova was known as Cobbal al

Malik, or the King’s Cupola; and an office under the Mameluk

government in Egypt was entitled Cobbal u Thaïr, this functionary

carrying an umbrella, and bearing on his fist a hawk.

[356] I find in Richardson’s Sahara the word _marabit_. This

may, indeed, be a local term for tomb. In Richardson’s Dictionary

“marabet” is set down as _place of rest_. It has, however, no

connexion with “marabout,” or, properly, _amarabout_, from _amr_,

to command; whence _emir_ and _admiral_.

[357] Tomb, in Arabic, is _mukburea, medfanè gáber turbè_.

In Breber it is _agekka_.

[358] It was natural that the Phoceans should have adopted the

art, and given a name to it, as was their wont, from their own

language. The resemblance is too close to be accidental with

“Piazza.” _Piso_, in Spanish, is to stamp: it is also the floor of

a house, formerly made by ramming down, just as the walls

were--_Pistor_ in Latin. Their bread was better kneaded than ours;

so _piston_, _pestle_, &c.

[359] At Shemish, the most remarkable Phœnician ruin that

I visited, the Phœnician lime and mortar are conjoined with the

Hellenic blocks.

[360] The Carthaginians first used stones for paving their

streets and roads, so that from them was derived one of the

monuments that has mainly perpetuated the idea of Roman grandeur

and magnificence.

The same practice is of course used for floors in passages,

and leads naturally to the ornamenting of these in colour, and to

paving them in brick and pottery, as these arts took the place of

the rammed-down clay, or the sun-burnt brick.

[361] Vitruvius condemns square towers, as affording protection

to the besiegers rather than the besieged. The Moors first

invented flanking walls.

[362] An old Etruscan tower at Tosconella, is exactly of the

same make as the Moorish Sma.

[363] “_Do not despise me_, for when compared to the stone

pyramids, I am as superior as Jupiter to the other gods. For men,

plunging poles into a lake, and collecting the mud thus extracted,

formed it into bricks, of which they made me.”

There is here a contempt apprehended, and the highest estimation

expressed. The shepherd-king deprecates Egyptian censure, in

following his country’s fashion. Sir G. Wilkinson says:--

“Dr. Richardson justly asks, in what could this superiority

over stone pyramids exist? and suggests, that it points to the

_invention of the arch_ that roofed its chambers, which, provided

Asychis lived prior to the sixteenth and eighteenth dynasties, may

possibly be true.”

“The primeval builders of Egyptian stone pyramids must have

previously been earth-mound builders elsewhere, probably in

Asia.”--GLIDDON, _Otia Egyptiaca_, p. 36.

[364] “The cities are great and walled up to heaven.”--Deut.

vii. 28. “Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in and

possess thirty cities fenced up to heaven.”--Deut. ix. 1.

[365] So “moon sails,” “mountains of the moon.”

[366] 2 Samuel, xii. 31.

[367] Ezekiel, xiii. 10-11.

[368] Not indeed those in captivity in Goshen, and delivered

by Moses. The period is that of Thothmes III. of the

fifteenth dynasty.

[369] Freeman on Architecture, p. 106.

CHAPTER VII.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE FROM SPAIN.

That the grandest of styles should be known by the name of the rudest

of people--that architecture should be called after dwellers in tents

and tenants of huts--that the Goths should have ceased to exist before

the Gothic was invented is, indeed, a phenomenon. The word,

nevertheless, has served during many centuries all the purposes of a

name, and does not appear until these latter days to have been the

object of criticism or cavil. At last the word “Gothic” became a field

of literary debate, and immediately of religious discussion. Some

articles in a magazine, on the architecture of the Middle Ages,

connecting incidentally therewith contemporary practices and dogmas,

was the first symptom of the hallucination, out of which arose two

schools of mystagogues, theologians materializing dogmas, and

mathematicians idealizing forms. In these transmutations the gross did

not become ethereal, nor the airy, grave; but the solid melted into

air, and the spirit was turned to mud. Under this double perversion of

piety and science we had the progressive developements for the

structure of conscience, and an arch.[370] Gothic art and Christian

faith were deduced from Paganism by a “series of conversations”--

suppositions regarding the centre of a vault, were called

“tenets,”--the change of an ornament was a “manifestation”--finally a

cathedral was a “petrifaction of religion”--_Art_ was called

“_Christian_,” and then, of course, the Reformation could be re-argued

upon the plan of an architect.

It was truly a Pagan thought to call art-religions the appropriation

of art; it was the very life of Paganism, and justly did Quintilian

say, that the Minerva and Jupiter of Phidias “added something to

religion.”

But these things were for those without the veil. The initiated were

untaught art and its symbolism, and to them was revealed the

immaterial existence of the Godhead, his solitary being, and

omnipotent power. “That which was at first a gross symbol,” says De

Quincy, “became a sublime metaphor, because invested with the poetry

of art.” With us the external expressions of the feelings of a devout

age have been changed by the pedantry of a learned one into objects of

idolatry; and Christians direct Christians back to the mysteries of

Pagans unteaching the truth which Pagans knew, and pretend to reform

their own worship by transferring to the sanctuary the external images

in which the Pagans presented natural religion only to the

uninstructed crowd.

In the religions of the ancient world, Fetichism lay at the bottom:

the gods of the country were raised into deities, or these were

brought down as patrons of the spot. It was an honour and a security

to address them; there was no idea of proselyting the arts; the wealth

of the votary or the stranger was expended on their service.

Christianity presented a new character, the reverse of all that

preceded it; men were to be saved from craft and its devices, from art

and its enchantments, from vice and its seductions, from the world and

its wisdom. It was a religion of proselytism, repentance, and

abnegation. It was preached by fishermen and addressed to babes. It

thus stood the very antithesis of Polytheism, and the association of

art and religion was as essentially an un-Christian, as it was

essentially a Pagan thought.

Architecture has given rise to these aberrations only because its

history is unknown. The architecture of Europe, as revived

subsequently to the eighth century, was from the Saracens: they

communicated to Europe the impulse which retrieved her from that

lethargy, or, as M. Guizot calls it, that death by the extinction of

every function which came upon her after she had made experience of

Rome and her greatness--Christianity and her light--the Barbarians and

their vigour. They furnished also the models and the first workmen.

Had it been known that ecclesiastical architecture came from a

Mussulman source, surely we should not have heard of “the Gothic

springing from the Bible,” and like foolish speeches.

Of kinds of excellence, or periods of greatness, architecture has

furnished the fewest. How many are the admirable languages, systems of

government, and epochs of splendour! The whole human race, during

thousands of years, have brought forth scarcely more than two or three

distinct styles of architecture. Language is learnt unconsciously; it

survives under every vicissitude. A political system a founder may

plan. In science, by the discovery of one, all benefit,--painting or

sculpture arises when a few excel. Architecture belongs to the

circumstances, no less than the genius of a people, the climate under

which they live, the soil on which they dwell, their customs, and

their belief. The knowledge or taste from which it springs must be

universal, so also the habits it engenders.

Buildings are raised for man’s necessities, by his labour: they are

the creatures of his hand; they are the most permanent, the most

essential of the types of his race; they have embraced and protected

the lowliness and weakness of his origin; they have expanded with his

growth, hardened themselves in his danger, swelled into magnificence

in his pride, or arisen to sublimity in his adoration. Architecture

has laboured itself into life by long trial and patient progress. Like

no other art, it is within the grasp of no individual genius: the

materials are of the rudest kind, the labour is conducted in the

people’s eye, the poor man is the workman, and the embellishments are

of the commonest nature. Architecture is as identified with the

people, as the nest with the bird, or the honeycomb with the bee.

How, then, should architecture have come into being in the midst of an

unlettered race, without a previous traceable conception and

gestation; and how should it at once be applied on the grandest scale

to the noblest monuments, without previous practice and adaptation in

private uses to common life? Yet this must have been the case, had an

original architecture arisen among the inhabitants of the North,

whether Saxons or Normans. Nor is it a science standing by itself; it

is the application of many other sciences previously pursued and

thoroughly understood. Mathematics and dynamics must prepare the way,

by calculation of the pressure of weights and the power of supports;

and above all is such preparation requisite in that style which

combines height, solidity, lightness, and symmetry, depending upon the

proportioning of shafts, the inclination of buttresses, the curve of

arches, and the groining of vaults. How should perfection in all these

have been attained, by tribes emerging from their forests, or landing

from their hide-covered boats? To-day, amidst the wonderful progress

of all other sciences--with models before us--with the greatest zeal

and opportunities--seeing the enormities which result from every

architectural plan--shall we suppose that it should have sprung at

once to perfection among a people inexpert in other arts and ignorant

of every science?

There were, indeed, before the tribes that overthrew the Roman empire,

the models of classical antiquity; but they, when they began to build,

built in another style. It is very easy in the varieties of times and

places, to trace here and there coincidences and adaptations, which

theorists, by the aid of analogies and similes, may connect. It is

easy to draw scales of lines and forms, which shall show an insensible

progression from the Erechtheum to Westminster Hall; but the style

that then arose was as distinct from the Greek and Roman, as these

from the Egyptian, the Chinese, or the Hindoo. But had they restored

the classical, would the mere existence of the models explain the

fact? They had Cicero and Homer, without being orators or poets, and,

though England was filled with Roman masonry, the making of bricks was

a new discovery a thousand years after their departure. The sight of

masterpieces does not suffice, even for copying them--that is a new

invention. Man requires living teachers, and these were no more to be

found in the organic remains of classical architecture than in their

own unfashioned thoughts and uncultivated faculties.

Independently of these _à priori_ reasons, we find this architecture

not springing up at any definite moment, or at any particular spot,

but arising simultaneously amidst a variety of tribes, such as would

occur if derived from a foreign and a common source. Where, then, are

we to look for that source, if not amidst the almost fabulous people,

which at that very time appeared in the South?

It is no novel idea that Northern architecture was derived from the

Saracens; but our supposed intercourse with that people is confined to

the Crusades, which, coinciding, indeed, with, or shortly preceding,

the Gothic style, followed by centuries the Saxon and the Norman; and

as the three are so intimately associated that they do in reality

constitute but one style of architecture, the admitted obligation is

reduced, so to say, to nothing, by the great effort of the first

invention being attributed to ourselves: or rather we lose sight of

the greatness of the effort by supposing it to have been made where

faculties equal to it had no existence, and we fall into this

necessity by not seeing how, if not of our own invention, we could

have borrowed the first steps.[371]

But the intercourse of Northern Europe with the Saracens preceded the

Crusades by four or five centuries, and the intercourse of England

with Africa preceded Islamism. The first architectural movement in

England, in the age of St. Winifred, followed by half a century the

erection of the mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, one of the noblest

monuments in the world. The Lombard style arose in the south of Italy

after these people had come in contact with the Saracens, and learnt

their arts, and employed their artists. The second architectural age

in England was that of the Normans: it was preceded by their conquests

in Calabria and Sicily, inhabited by the Saracens, who excelled--as

the ruins left behind them attest--in the very highest branches of

this art. The Gothic arose in Europe, when the Goths of Spain were

regaining power in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and they

could emulate the arts and command the services of their Moorish

competitors; and the Spanish peculiarities of the style passed into

Europe with their name, precisely in the same manner as that of the

Norman or the Lombard before them.

The most common and primitive style of Moorish arching is the flat

wall cut into the semicircle, supported without entablature on wall or

column. That is exactly the Saxon: it was only known to them after

they had crossed the seas: they did not find it in England--they must

have acquired it in the course of their maritime enterprises; and they

were familiar with Western Africa, then inhabited by Christians.

Hadrian, the counsellor of Alfred, who first brought Greek letters to

England, was from Africa. African Christians, as recorded in old

Spanish charters, built churches in the north of Spain, where the

Mussulmans never penetrated. By Domesday Book we find Africans settled

in England at the time of the Conquest. Constantinus Afer was founder

of the school of Salerno; and the old British bards mention African

princes as the allies of their Saxon invaders.[372] The Saxon race

came in contact with the Saracens in the earliest times of Islam by

pilgrimages to the Holy Land--they served in the armies of the Greek

emperors. From the time of Constantine, an uninterrupted connexion of

the Arabs and Northmen, during four centuries, is attested by twenty

thousand Saracenic coins in the Cabinet of Stockholm, found in

Gothland and along the eastern coast of Sweden.

Having thus established the improbability of an original architecture

among our Northern forefathers; having shown in the previous chapter

the existence in western Barbary of the style which had descended from

the earliest antiquity, and having now indicated the channels through

which it might have passed thence to Europe, and the links between

Africa and each of the races who were distinguished for any of its

varieties, I shall now proceed to the internal evidence the buildings

themselves afford.

The present buildings of Africa are doubtless exactly what they were

in the time of Mahomet, and before the conquests of the Saracens. They

contain the rudiments of the Gothic, Saxon, and Roman styles. The tomb

is a cube, surmounted by a half-globe vault. The door-way is an arch,

horseshoe form, semicircular or pointed; it is shouldered by a

spandrel. Exactly the same are the tombs of India--the great monuments

of Jehangir and Akbar, which by some, from a mistake in the date, have

been considered as the type and the model of the Gothic.

The building next in importance is the tower, which is composed of

these cubes placed one above the other: the inner tower rises at the

top higher than the outer one. In their domestic architecture they use

flat roofs; but in the mosques they employ rows of gable roofs,

supported below by columns and arches. There are sometimes double rows

of arches, and intersecting arches. Their dwelling-houses are enriched

with a great variety of details, which may be compared to miniature

representations of the embellishments of our religious edifices, such

as niches, small pointed windows, pierced spandrels, mouldings, and

cornices. The same style pervades every kind of building, ornament,

and utensil,--their tombstones, their cushions, the wood-work of their

apartments, their trays, their stools, the latter of which might be

taken for small models of Gothic buildings.

It was impossible to behold daily these objects, and not perceive that

Morocco, whence issued the people who raised the great monuments in

Spain,[373] had been the native country of the Gothic. The long vault

and taper spire, indeed, were wanting; nor were there any buildings to

which, as a whole, the title of Saxon, Norman, or Gothic could be

applied. But then it occurred to me, that these modifications might be

traceable through the Saracens, and in their various settlements in

Europe, down to the historical period of the art in its European

sites. To pursue such an investigation appropriately would require a

lifetime. However, I have examined buildings in sufficient numbers to

trace, and I think establish, the connection.

The Saracens were established, not in Spain only, but also in the

important island of Sicily, and the southern extremity of Italy. These

were conquered at an early period by the Normans, and the Saracens

continued for half a century under them, working for them, building

chapels, churches, palaces, and cathedrals.[374] These Normans were in

continual intercourse with their native country on the British

channel. Passing constantly through France, they soon afterwards

conquered England. It was this people who gave the great impulse to

architecture in the eleventh century in England and France; and thus

arose the style known by their name; not merely raising those

buildings by the wealth they possessed in Normandy, or acquired in

England, but even by contributions made from the booty of Calabria,

and the spoils of Sicily. It is a remarkable fact, that a connexion so

well authenticated between the Normans and the Saracens, should be

passed by unnoticed by the writers upon architecture. For my own part,

when I stood within the north transept of the Cathedral of Winchester,

where the Norman portion has remained undisturbed, I should have been

sure of that connexion, had no records of it been preserved.

Theophilus cites the Arabs (of course of Sicily) as excelling in a

branch wherein we have least acknowledged their merit--the working of

metals: he particularizes its various branches, casting, hammering,

and chiseling.

“The Arabs,” says Vasari, “have given their name to a species of

ornament, which they have invented in obedience to the precepts of

their Prophet, and which is composed only of fruits and flower

foliage, and embranchments.” May not this description, so unlike the

Arabesque as we know it in the Peninsula, be derived from the chased

works of the Arabs in Sicily, where, out of their alliance with the

Greeks, a character sprang very distinct from that to which their

union with the Moors gave birth in the West?

The oldest of the specimens we have in Sicily, is the Capella

Palatine, built, soon after the conquest of the island, by Roger. It

approaches to that square form adopted by the Eastern churches, to

which Sicily then belonged, after there had ceased to be catechumens,

and so consisted of the solea and meroi, to the exclusion of the

elongated _naos_ or nave.[375] The chapel is small, but it is one of

the most perfect--if not the most perfect--pieces of workmanship in

the world. The floor, roof, and walls, are completely inlaid, or

incrusted, with marble or mosaic. There is a wide band running round

the apse in Arabic characters. This led to its being supposed to be a

mosque. The inscription, however, is a long string of honorary

epithets applied to Roger.[376]

From the succeeding reign we have the Cathedral of Cefala, the Church

Dell, Amigralio, that of Jerusalem, the Royal Chapel of St. Peter’s,

and the splendid Hall of William I., all in like manner the work of

the Saracens. There is no single instance among them of a horse-shoe

arch. There is no vaulting of the roof; but in the Cathedral of Cefala

there is a perfect Norman arch, bevelled or chamfered, and exactly the

same as we see them in the north of Europe. This edifice bears a Latin

inscription attributing to a Saracen the honour of the construction,

“_Hoc opus musei factum est_;” but these buildings were greatly

surpassed by the Cathedral of Montreale, erected by William II. It is

adorned with arches, traced upon the walls without, and they are all

Gothic; the floor of the Solea is laid down in marble in Arabesque

figures; the walls are encrusted with marbles or mosaics, or covered

with paintings; the gates are in bronze chased; the doors and

windows--many of them, at least--are in the old classic style of

Greece; the outline of the building is also classical and rectangular,

but ornamented with intersecting Gothic arches, which spring from the

jamb unbroken by cornice, capital, or entablature. On the whole it

presents in dimensions, height, richness of material, elegance of

design, variety and adaptation of styles, an object of art unique. It

is singular that this greatest work of the Normans in the South should

have in it no trace either of that style which we call Norman,[377] or

of that which is the peculiar feature of the Moor, the horse-shoe; and

the two styles that are there united, and which nowhere else are so

found, are the Greek and the Gothic. At the time of its erection this

cathedral was esteemed the masterpiece of architecture, and as

surpassing at once St. Sophia, and the St. Peter’s, of that day. Pope

Lucius says of it: “_Simile opus per aliquem regem factum non fuerit

ab antiquis temporibus._” The Duke di Sara de Falco, who published at

Palermo, in 1838, elaborate and beautiful engravings of it, has

collated with some of its ornaments, fragments from Owen Jones’s

“Alhambra;” but it is as Moorish as the Alhambra itself. The towers

are divided into stories, and each is somewhat smaller than the one

beneath, so that they have the appearance of buttresses without being

really so. The Sicilian author and artist says:--

“While this temple was building there arose in Palermo the magnificent

Duomo, and the Church of the Holy Ghost in Messina, the Cathedral and

the Church of St. Mary, at Raudazzo, and so many others that it is

needless to cite. We have ascertained that the artists employed at

Montreale were neither Italian nor Greek, but Sicilians; and that is

rendered more manifest by the Mosaic work, and the details of ornament

and construction so largely drawn from the Arabs, which certainly did

not come from the Greeks of the East, but from those who, long

familiarized with the Saracens, had imitated their manner; and that a

school of these workers in mosaics existed in Sicily is demonstrated

by the variety of composition, the fertility of genius, and the power

of design in those days, and they all agree with the workmanship of

Montreale.”

He then proceeds to claim for his country the honour of introducing

chasings and carvings into Italy, and Gothic architecture into Europe:

the former he deduces from the ancient Greek arts of Sicily, the

second from the Saracens.

In Spain the Goths were as entirely the pupils and followers of the

Saracens as were the Normans in Sicily. The variation of style from

the Moresque to the Spanish, or Gothic, was connected with the

difference of the social habits of the people. The Moors in Spain

remained constituted by tribe,--as much so as in the Desert, although

without its space. The feuds of the different tribes of Yemen were

transferred to Cordova and Seville; and a fray between two uleds

bordering on the Great Desert might suddenly produce bloodshed in the

narrow lanes and thick villages of Andalusia. There were also the

frequent ruptures and the permanent animosity between Brebers and

Arabs, and thus their buildings of necessity retained externally the

ponderous and castellated form, while their perfection in the various

arts of decoration embellished them internally with stuccoes,

carvings, gildings, paintings, enamel and mosaics. The Spaniards, as

they recovered the country, were on the one hand, relieved from these

sources of continual alarm; and, on the other, were destitute of those

arts of interior decoration: hence a more aspiring exterior, and a

more gloomy interior; and upon the stones was concentrated the care

which the Arabs had to give to so many other materials.

There has been a great destruction in Spain of Moorish buildings. We

do possess, indeed, but two remarkable ones; the one the fragment of a

palace raised within latter days, the other a mosque, the first in

fame, but also the first in date, being now 1300 years old. It does

not, therefore, afford us the opportunity of judging of the progress

of the art. There subsist, however, some smaller specimens of a later

date, which might almost be taken for Gothic buildings.[378]

The characteristics of the Gothic are--the pointed arch; the arch

resting on the column without entablature; vaulting; arched gateways;

splayed windows; buttresses; the spire tower, or belfry. These may

severally be traced to the Saracens.

THE POINTED ARCH.

This is to be found from the first moment of the appearance of the

Arabs, in countries the most remote from each other, and in structures

destined to the most diverse purposes. I may instance:--

The Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, the first building of the Saracens,

commenced A.D. 637.[379]

The Mosque of Amrou, at Cairo, the first Mussulman building in Africa,

commenced towards A.D. 650. That of E’Naser Mohammed, A.D. 698.[380]

The Nilometer (lancet-niches), A.D. 700. Shella, in Morocco, date

uncertain, probably anterior to the Mussulman era.[381] The Tower of

Alcamo, in Sicily, the earliest Mussulman building in Eastern

Europe.[382] The Tower of Gibraltar, A.D. 745, which contains a

regular Gothic church window, though now built up. The Cathedral of

Montreale, A.D. 1174, where the arch springs unbroken from the jamb.

In fact, whenever the Saracens appeared, they brought the arch we call

Gothic. It is found in universal use by them, and was so used by no

people before them. When used by any people, the connexion with them

may be traced. In Morocco or Spain may be found all known arches--the

elliptical, the four-centred, the horizontal, the surbased, the

lancet, the angular--if I may so describe one unknown to us, and

formed like a truncated triangle. They had the stilt arch, the ogee,

and, at Seville, is to be found a specimen of our recent invention,

the skew arch; they had the trefoil, the pentifoil, as ornaments, with

a multitude of unclassed and unnamed forms, which may, in our terms,

be characterized as pensile, stalagmitic, serrated, cusped, fanned,

dentiled. These may be studied in Jones’s Alhambra.

CHAMFERING OF THE ARCH.

I am not aware that this modification exists on the soil of Africa

to-day, unless in a fragment described in the Pentapolis, by Dr. Shaw:

this is the modification of the Norman upon the Saxon, and is to be

found in the Cathedral of Cefala, and the tower of Gibraltar.

VAULTING.

This portion of modern architecture is Roman; but it in no way

suffices to say that the Roman had vaults to account for our having

them: the models of a dead people do not introduce a new art; the

Saracens did not copy the classical models. The Moors had, indeed, the

half-sphere, as the Romans; but they had not the elongated vault. The

pointed and elongated vault, with its intersections, was, therefore,

original in the Gothic, and may have been constructed by the Saracens,

in Spain. To it there was the closest approximation in their pointed

arches, doorways, and windows. The gable form of their mosque roofs

would suggest the pointed and not the semicircular vault. Whenever

they covered these in stone, here was the point--where their original

material, the tapia, failed, it could rise from four sides into a

dome; but elongated vaulting, and its intersections and groinings,

depended upon the mechanical adjustment of the separate stones. When

they came to build in this fashion in Spain (as in Egypt, Syria,

Sicily, &c.), their mathematical skill would be called into play, and

they must, of necessity, have thrown stone roofs over the large

churches and cathedrals which they were employed by the Christians to

build.[383]

ARCHED GATEWAYS.

This is one of the most remarkable features of the Gothic, so unlike

the doors of any other style, giving such grandeur to the edifices,

and suggesting, even at once, its whole designs. And here the

identification is complete--the entrance to every Moorish room is like

the porch of a cathedral, and the massive portals that close them with

the wicket, presents in every Moorish court the gateway of a monastery

or a _college_.

WINDOWS AND STAINED GLASS.

From the want of windows in Moorish houses and mosques, and from the

great dimensions, elaborate structure, and important office of windows

in our churches and cathedrals, it might be supposed that here we

should be at fault in tracing the connexion; but the Moors afford us

the most interesting rudiments of the stone-framed figures of our

window, and the painted glass with which they are embellished.

Above and beside the door in Moorish rooms, there are small apertures

for air rather than light, generally narrow, with a trefoil head.

Two, four, or more of these may be placed side by side, and over them

a circular figure pierced in like manner. In some of the Spanish

cathedrals--and I again quote Toledo--there are windows which represent

these openings in the wall, and _are glazed_. In the Alhambra, the

Alcazar of Seville, and every other Moorish structure in Spain, there

are to be seen the pierced work in stucco, in the form of Gothic

windows;--the patterns of these correspond with the tracery on the

walls, which being in colour, it was natural to continue the patterns

in colour to the open spaces; and to effect this, where the exposure

required it, bits of painted glass are stuck into the plaster while

fresh. A colder climate would suggest the extension of the glass, the

reduction of the stucco, and the substitution of stone for stucco.

Glass for windows was peculiarly a Spanish art; it was already known in

England and France in the seventh century:[384] the staining of glass

commenced in Spain, though it was carried to the highest perfection

in France. Two of the colours and substances were designated Spanish

at a time when few original colouring matters were employed.[385] The

Saracens were, besides, proficients in the making of glass, whether

transparent or coloured. The first I accidentally fell upon in the

Mosque at Cordova--they used coloured glass for the mosaics; but it

was opaque;--they also understood enamelling, and in encaustic tiles

they were unrivalled. Stained glass is, to this day, of universal use

among the Easterns, who have spread more to the northward, and have

adopted external windows. A Turkish room is a miniature cathedral,

with its ascending floor; its entrance opposite to its lights, and its

clerestory windows,--for there are two rows of them--the lower one

rectangular like ours, and furnished with curtains, the upper one of

every variety of shape, and in stained glass, and made to correspond

with the ornaments of the corresponding panels of the apartment.

The apertures in the Moorish tapia thus became Gothic windows, and

the pierced patterns of the stucco mullions and transoms, with cusped

trefoils and foliage in stone, with the intervals glazed in stained

glass: the adjoining portion of the wall must then have been pared

away and bevelled out. The Moors were the first people to adopt this

process, as applying it to military architecture: they adopted it for

their loopholes and embrasures, while bows and arrows were yet in use.

Their first external windows were embrasures--churches were built for

defence as well as devotion. The bevelling in their walls is on both

sides less without than within, exactly as it is practised in Gothic

windows.

BUTTRESSES.

Next to the arch itself the buttress has been considered essential to

the Gothic.[386] This member is supposed to have its origin in the

North, and to have been requisite for the passage from the Norman to

the Gothic, and from the tower to the spire. The buttress is to be

found among the Arabs, as early as the pointed arch, and as

universally known, though not so commonly used.

The square building at Gibraltar, used as a magazine, and with a sort

of pyramidal roof, is strengthened by powerful and expanding

buttresses, irregularly placed on the angles, A.D. 749. Specimens are

abundant at Jerusalem, in Cairo, and in Sicily.

I have met with no instance of flying buttresses: these, however, may

be seen in Spain, carried to a width unknown elsewhere;--as for

instance, in the Cathedral of Seville.

THE TOWER AND SPIRE.

The early English towers are copies of those of Morocco. The Moorish

tower stands apart from the Mosque: so do our early belfries and the

Campanile of Italy. The spire has been naturally suggested by the

minaret, which may be connected with the obelisk, being the only

instance of the kind in the ancient world; and the minaret having been

first adapted to Saracenic buildings in Egypt, where it was engrafted

on the _Sma_ or square tower of the Moors--together they constitute our

spire, as seen in the half tower, half minaret of Egypt.

If any one will turn over successively the pages of Roberts’s Holy

Land, Costes’ Egypt, Hope’s German Churches, Sara de Fulco’s Sicily,

and Gally Knight’s Italy, he will recognise the features of the one

in the other, and trace the resemblances just as if turning over the

grammars of various languages derived from a common source.

CLOISTERS.

The quadrangle with the columns sustaining the advanced building of

the first story, over an open corridor below, is as Moorish as if the

models had been sent from Morocco.[387] The court of the Monastery

of Bellem at Lisbon, is the most beautiful specimen I know. It is at

once purely Gothic and purely Moorish; each style seeming to have

taken something from the other to heighten its effect. In the centre

is a fountain, and on each side lines of tanks for water, intersected

with stages for plants, which are lined with coloured tiles around:

there are Gothic arches, filled with the screen or stonework of

windows--without the glass, as in the Campo Sancto of Pisa. In the

angles of the quadrangle, the limbs of a projecting and wider arch

seem to embrace and protect a sharper arch within. This may be seen in

Moorish works, and also in the porch of the Cathedral of Rouen. The

church belonging to this monastery presents an interesting field for

studying the influence of the Moors upon European architecture, and it

is in every way a building not less original than beautiful.

A connexion between Africa and England is traceable in a point where

we might least expect it, and at a very early period--and that is

fire-places. “Chimneys,” says Mr. Hallam, “which had been missed

by the sagacity of Greece and Rome--a discovery of which Vitruvius

never dreamed--was made perhaps in this country by some forgotten

barbarian.”[388] He refers to Coningsby Castle, supposed to be of a

date prior to the Conquest, to prove the existence of chimneys, before

the alleged date of the discovery in the fourteenth century. Had he

inspected the chimney in question, he must have perceived a peculiar

and unique method of joining the key-stones of the flat arch that

supports the front in lieu of a mantelpiece. This process, unique in

Europe, is common amongst the Moors.

Whoever has visited the East must have been struck with the

original character of the fireplaces and chimney-pieces; they are

an embellishment to the room, in what we should term the Decorated

Gothic style. Whoever has looked down upon the city of Lisbon from its

garden-fortress, cannot fail to observe the contrast between the small

neat rows of apertures that serve for chimney tops, and our unsightly

and grotesque expedients for the same purpose. Whether in the mode

of placing the fire, in the embellishment of the portion of the room

appropriated to it, or in the elegance of chimney tops (so as to

change them from a blemish to an ornament), we have yet to learn and

borrow from the Moors. These chimney tops and appliances are not to be

seen indeed in Morocco; but the traces subsist further north, where

they adapted themselves to the necessities of the climate. The general

resemblance of feature is also to be traced in the names, many of which

I have already mentioned, such as, house-door, barbican, dairy; but and

ben, and cabail of the Highlanders; roof, stable, gypsum-house, garret,

and even burgh, which we have been content to take from the Greek πύρος

[pyros], is after all an Arabic word, in common use for pigeon-house,

when built in the form of a tower.[389] In conjunction with these we

must take so many terms and usages, exhibiting an intimate connexion

between Africa and England, dating from the decline of Roman power.

In these observations I neither propound a new theory nor agitate a

settled question. I present the good and valid reasons upon which

our ancestors adopted a title, which we use with disgust and are

endeavouring to discard. I trace our architecture back to the people

to whom it properly pertains, and through them to an antiquity

venerable in itself and deeply interesting from its association with

the inspired writings. But it is more particularly the means of its

introduction into Europe that it is useful to establish; for this, if

anything, might diminish the _odium theologicum_ which has sprung from

this source. A more perfect antidote there cannot be than that this

“Christian” art, this weapon of proselytism, by which no religious

community achieves conquests, but by which all faith is smitten, should

be itself Mussulman, and that we should owe the architecture (if there

were any ratio between the supposed cause and the effect) which we

attribute to the Bible, to the Koran.

What would have been the reply of the early Christians, had such a

mania then prevailed, to those who argued the truth of polytheism,

from the temples that had been raised in its honour, or the statues

with which they were adorned?[390] What, again, would those have said,

whose works are now taken as models, had they been told that in a

future age of light and freedom their walls and arches should become

steps in the ladder of conviction, shibboleths in polemics and lists

of orthodoxy![390] In the long and vehement contests between the

Christians and the Mussulmans in Spain, both reciprocally used the

temples of the other, which were sometimes even divided between them.

“Men have before now been led to adopt Romanism by its fancied

connexion with poetry, or painting, or Gothic architecture; and if such

men had lived while the mythologies of Greece or of Rome were living

systems, they would with equal reason have forsaken Christianity for

heathen religions, in which art had arrived at its highest conceivable

excellence. The adoption of religious views, merely because they are

in some way connected with what is gratifying to our senses or our

feelings, and without primary reference to the evidence for their

truth, is a proceeding which seems indicative of a practical disbelief

in the evidence of any revealed truth, or of any religious truth

whatever.”[391]

The inhabitants of England, who first introduced it in the North,

did not call themselves Goths, but Saxons: nor were the followers of

William, Goths, but Normans. The Gothic name had disappeared from

Europe as the designation of any country, and the later modification

of the style appeared, and the epithet was applied. But there was one

country in which the name of the Goth was still preserved, and that

was Spain. That name would have disappeared in Spain as elsewhere, had

it not been for the Saracen conquest. The Goths had not originally

appeared in Spain as ravagers or conquerors; they _came_ in the name

and with the authority of the Roman empire to drive out the Vandals,

to put an end to anarchy, to protect property, and to sustain the

laws. The people of Spain had evidently been disinclined to espouse

the quarrel of the Goths against the Saracens; but, in subsequent

attempts to throw off the Saracen yoke, the Goths must have been their

leaders; and in fact to be a Goth was to be a freeman, and no longer

tributary to the Mussulmans. As the Christians reacquired strength,

they could neither take the title of Andalusians, nor of Murcians,

nor of Castilians, far less of Spaniards, for these names belonged as

much to the Mussulmans as to themselves. They took, therefore, that of

Goths, an ancient and a noble name, and associated at once with their

national independence, the traditions of Rome, and the authority of

the Christian Church; and to this day the peasant of Spain, when he

points out a great monument, will say, “_Obra de los Godos_.” Gothic

is to them synonymous with heroic--the Gothic times, the Gothic kings,

Gothic courts, Gothic laws, Gothic glory. It marks in Spanish history

the period of struggling and triumphant freedom. It is the period which

contrasts in all things with that known as “Catholic.”

[370] IDEAL STRUCTURE OF AN ARCH.

“The _introduction_ of the arch _undermined_ the Grecian

_system_ of entablature, _and introduced_ a double plane of

decoration: the _ruin_ of taste and art _supervening_ upon

this, _broke up_ still further the Roman _traditional

arrangement_; caprice, and the love of novelty, introduced

new _forms_ of _members_ and ornaments into this incoherent

_mass_; arches of various shapes were invented or borrowed;

the Byzantine dome was _added_ (!) to the previous forms of

Roman vaulting. _So far all is a proof of disorganization._

But then comes in a new _principle_ of _connexion_ first,

and of _unity_ afterwards: the _lines of pressure_ are made

the prominent _features_; the compound arches are

distributed to their props; the vaults are supported by

ribs; the ribs by vaulting shafts, the _upright meeting_ of

the end and side is _allowed to guide_ the neighbouring

members. Finally, the _general authority of vertical lines

is allowed_; the structure is distributed into compartments

according to such _lines_, each of these being

_symmetrical_ in itself. The _continuity_ of _upright

lines_ being _established_, the different _planes_ of

decoration _glide_ into tracery and feathering, and THE

GOTHIC SYSTEM IS COMPLETE.”--WHEWELL.

STRUCTURE OF AN IDEAL CONSCIENCE.

“We are now, then, able to see with some distinctness the

_fundamental maxims_ of the _philosophy of faith_.

Conscience, viewed _in abstract_, has no power of

discovering _more than the immutable principles of

morality_. _But_ in proportion _as it is pure_ and _well

disciplined_, it discriminates and appropriates _moral and

religious truth_, of whatever kind, and disposes the mind

to listen to _this external message rather than that_;

while each new truth thus brought before it _from without_,

in proportion as it is deeply received, and made the

subject of religious action and contemplation, elicits a

deep and hitherto unknown harmony _from within_, which is

_the full warrant and sufficient evidence of that truth.

Viewed then in the concrete_, as found in the devout

believer, we may regard _conscience_ and _faith_ to be the

one and the same _faculty_. Considered as submissively

bending before external authority, and ever deriving more

of doctrinal truth, we call it FAITH; considered as

carefully obeying the precepts of which it has knowledge,

and as laboriously realizing and assimilating the truths of

which it has possession, we call it CONSCIENCE.”--WARD.

[371] “The Anglo-Norman cathedrals were perhaps as much

distinguished above other works of man in their own age, as

the more splendid edifices of a later period. _The science

manifested in them is not however very great_, and their

style, though by no means destitute of lesser beauties, _is

upon the whole an awkward imitation_ of Roman architecture,

or _perhaps_ more immediately of the Saracenic buildings in

Spain.”--HALLAM, _Middle Ages_, vol. iii. p. 431.

As we become philosophical--that is, as the habit grows of

accounting for everything--we must of course deny what we

cannot account for.

[372] Gormound, who fell at the battle of Derham, on the borders

of Gloucestershire, about 570; Gulfred, Ranulph, and others.

[373] “Has the attention of architects, or of writers on

architecture, been directed sufficiently to Spain? A

comparison of the genuine Saracenic remains in the

Peninsula, with the earliest specimens of Spanish

architecture, in their details might do more to illustrate

the connexion of the two schools, and the history of the

pointed style, than has been effected, or is likely to be

effected by elaborate theories on the subject.”--FOSTER’S

_Mahometanism Unveiled_, vol. ii. p. 252.

[374] For instance, the Cathedral of Coutances, finished twelve

years before the battle of Hastings.

[375] I cannot help referring to that new absurd term Naology, so

perfectly pagan that it was even excluded by the Greeks, in

adapting their own terms to the Christian worship (see

Simeon of Thessalonica), (Leon, Allazzi, De Solea Goar,

Rituale Græc.). Whewell is at the same time endeavouring to

exclude the term “nave,” where we have got the thing,

substituting for it, “_centre_ aisle.”

[376] Ugon Falcandus, in Carusi Bib. Sicul., b. i. p. 487. This

inscription corresponds with that upon the Dalmatic, which

was supposed to have been the imperial robe of Charlemagne.

Tyschen has, however, made it out to be the work of the

Arabs of Palermo, A.D. 1132. A baptismal font at

Caltabellota bears an Arabic inscription, which is

interpreted by M. Lanci--“Office (workshop) of Ben Messid,

son of Nain.”

[377] In the Norman buildings the pointed arch occurs. Mr.

Whewell, observing the fact, instead of concluding that the

various styles were contemporaneous, gets rid of the fact,

as usual, by a theoretical explanation.

[378] “At the place where we breakfasted to-day (Naval

Carnero) there is a really beautiful church of the

Arabesque order. It has two Moorish towers, with the sphere

and globe: the interior is most devotional. I thought the

Moorish arches of the nave quite equal for devotional

effect to the Gothic, which it much resembles. Nothing

could be more chaste. The interior besides was very neatly

kept, which, in these days of revolution and robbery, is no

slight matter. If it had not been in Spain, I should have

thought that I was in a Gothic church.”--_Extract from a

MS. Journal._

[379] “A large square plinth of marble extends from the

top of one column to the other, and above it there are

constructed a number of arches all round, which support the

inner end of the roof or ceiling, the outer end resting on

the walls of the building. This is composed of wood or

plaster, highly ornamented with a species of carving, and

richly gilt.”--RUSSEL’S _Palestine_, p. 500.

Dr. Richardson speaks of it as the most beautiful building

he had ever beheld; but gives no description.

Ali Bey observes, that “the great centre nave of the mosque

Al Aksa is supported on each side by seven arches lightly

pointed, resting upon cylindrical pillars, in the form of

columns, with foliaged capitals, which do not belong to any

order: the fourth pillar to the right of the entrance is

octangular and enormously thick, called the Pillar of Sidi

Omar.”--P. 501.

On the conclusion of this work, there was a letter from the

architects to the calif, as given by Jellal Addin, which

may be read in our days with perhaps some profit, or at

least surprise:--

“_God hath brought to an end_ that which the Commander of

believers hath commanded us respecting the erection of the

chapel of the sakhra, the sakhra of the Holy City, and the

mosque Al Aksa. _And there remains not a word to be spoken

about it._ Moreover there remains _some surplus above the

money granted_ us by the Commander of believers to that

end, after 100,000 dinars have been expended thereon. Let

the Commander of believers convert it to the object he

likes best.”--_Temple of Jerusalem_, p. 186.

[380] “It is remarkable for an elegant doorway, with clustered

pillars in the European or Gothic style, such as might be

found in one of our churches, and therefore differing in

character from Saracenic architecture. Over this door is an

inscription, purporting that the building was erected by

the Sultan Mohammed, son of the Sultan El Melek El Munsoor

E’deen Kalaoón E’Salehee. The date on the lintel is 698

A.H. (or A.D. 1299), and on the body of the building, 695.

The minaret which stands above this Gothic entrance is

remarkable for its lace-like fretwork, which calls to mind

the style of the Alhambra and of the Al Cazar at Seville.”

“The pointed arch was evidently employed in Egypt previous

to the accession of the Fatimite dynasty, and consequently

long before it was known in any part of

Europe.”--WILKINSON’S _Thebes_, vol. ii. pp. 241, 288.

[381] It is supposed to have been the capital of the

Carthaginian colonies. It is held a place of peculiar

sanctity, and no Christian or Jew was allowed to enter it.

It has been in ruins since the twelfth century.

[382] The pointed arch is here merely in the substance of

the wall, placed to strengthen it above the windows, with a

low or four-centred arch. The same is to be found in the

gates of Jerusalem.

[383] “An entire side of a chapel of the cathedral of

Toledo, opening out of the southernmost nave, is ornamented

in the Arab style, having been executed by a Moorish artist

at the same period as the rest; and not (as might be

conjectured) having belonged to the mosque, which occupied

the same site previously to the erection of the present

cathedral.”--WELLS’S _Antiquities_, p. 128.

[384] Du Cange, v. Vitrea.

[385] The fine colour then given to stained glass in Europe

was derived from the old mosaics, which were pounded and

laid upon the glass, and thus passed into the furnace. See

Theophilus _Divers, Artium Cedula_. Immense must have been

the destruction of ancient relics through this practice, to

which the Moorish mosaics were subject, as well as those of

Rome and the glass of the Phœnicians.

[386] “In Gothic works the arch is an indispensable and

governing feature; it has pillars to support its vertical,

and buttresses to resist its lateral pressure: its summit

may be carried upwards indefinitely by the jamb thrust of

its two sides.”--WHEWELL _on German Churches_, p. 20; 3rd

edit.

[387] In one of the faces of the old font in Winchester

Cathedral, belonging to Saxon times, there is a

representation of a building which might be taken for a

Moorish house.

[388] Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 425.

[389] Wilkinson’s Thebes, vol. ii. p. 18.

[390] The Wickham brotherhood, an association of Catholic

Mystagogues, headed by Pugin, voted those uncatholic, in

an architectural sense, who did not believe in the Gothic

of the thirteenth century.

[391] Palmer on the Doctrine of Developement and _Conscience_,

p. 86.

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Transcriber’s Note

This book was written in a period when many words had not become

standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling

variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been

left unchanged. Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by

underscores, _like this_.

Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of

the chapter. Footnote [390] has two anchors. Footnote [370] was

reformatted from two columns to one, so that text of right column

follows that of the left column. The word “Hebrew” was added at

the beginning of Footnotes [6], [176], and [241] so that the entire

note would align left.

Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, missing or

partially printed letters, were corrected. Final stops missing at the

end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Duplicate words were

removed.

Two pages of advertisements were moved from the front to the end

of the book. Transliterations are provided within [brackets]

following words or phrases in Greek.