PALACE AND MOSQUE
AT UKHAIḌIR
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY
HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY
PALACE AND MOSQUE
AT
UKHAIḌIR
A STUDY IN
EARLY MOHAMMADAN ARCHITECTURE
BY
GERTRUDE LOWTHIAN BELL
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1914
TO MY FRIEND
DR. WALTHER ANDRAE
IN GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION OF HAPPY AND PROFITABLE
DAYS SPENT IN THE FIRST CAPITAL OF ASSYRIA
WHICH HAS BEEN REVEALED BY HIS
LABOUR AND RECREATED BY
HIS LEARNING
PREFACE
I have attempted in this book to bring together the materials, so far as
they are known, which bear upon the earliest phases of Mohammadan
architecture, to consider the circumstances under which it arose and the
roots from which it sprang. No development of civilization, or of the
arts which serve and adorn civilization, has burst full-fledged from the
forehead of the god; and architecture, which is the first and most
permanent of the arts, reflects with singular fidelity the history of
its creators. Not only does their culture stand revealed in the
crumbling walls which sheltered them and in the monuments raised for
perpetual remembrance over their bones, but the links which bound them
to that which had gone before are therein confessed, as well as their
own contribution to the achievements of their predecessors, to
mechanical skilfulness, to utility, and to beauty. It is the nature and
the extent of this contribution which is of vital importance to the
student, and it is this which lends to architecture its keenest
significance. What, then, was the contribution of the first builders of
Islâm?
It must be confessed that the question admits of no very striking
rejoinder. The Mohammadan invaders were essentially nomadic; their
dwelling was the black tent, their grave the desert sands. The
inhabitants of the rare oases of western and central Arabia were
content, as they are to-day, with a rude architecture of sun-dried brick
and palm-trunks, unadorned by any intricate device of the imagination,
and unsuited to any but the simplest needs. Even the great national
shrine at Mekkah, the sacred house of the Ka’bah, was innocent of
subsidiary constructions. It is true that on the northern trade-route
the rock-cut tombs of Madâin Ṣâliḥ and of Petra bear witness to a higher
order of artistic impulse, but it was an impulse which borrowed its
power from without, from Hellenized Egypt and from Hellenized Syria. If
there were an indigenous Arabian architecture worthy of the name, it can
only have existed in the southern limits of the peninsula, where as yet
exploration has been too imperfect to afford data for argument, nor is
there evidence to show that in the seventh century of our era it can
have played a part in the development of the northern tribes. Upon the
northern frontiers the influence of the Byzantine and of the Sasanian
empires would seem to have been predominant, and when the invaders
established themselves in provinces which had been ruled from
Constantinople or from Ctesiphon, they employed Greek and Persian
artificers to fulfil their newly developed requirements and to satisfy
their newly developed taste for architectural magnificence. The palaces
of the conquerors were planned, constructed, and adorned by those whom
they had conquered; their learning and their civilization were borrowed
from them; even the ritual of their faith was shaped by contact with
older forms of worship. No more significant example of the debt which
Islâm owes to alien races can be cited than that which is afforded by
the history of the mosque. Out of the mud-built courtyard of the Arab
house, the open space for domestic and tribal assembly, Greek and
Persian builders created an architectural type which governed the whole
Mohammadan world. And the only contribution of the masters for whom they
worked was the demand for just such large and open spaces, easily
accessible, oriented in a certain manner, and partially shaded from the
rays of the sun.
It is therefore scarcely possible to say that a specifically Mohammadan
art existed during the first century after the Flight, though its germs
were latent in the welding together of Hellenized with un-Hellenized, or
barely Hellenized, regions under a single hand. The architecture of the
first century gives evidence of the formative character of this process
of compression; before the third century had ended it may be said to
have been completed. If the monuments of the first century are still a
faithful reflection of earlier and foreign creations, they hold the
promise of further and more definitely characterized growth. But in an
age and in lands where change was slow-footed, older conceptions
continued to hold the field long after the political conditions under
which they had arisen had vanished or had been baptized with other
names. As we now know, the Mesopotamian palace builders of the ninth
century of our era were guided by schemes which their Sasanian
forerunners had inherited from remoter times; while the mosque builders
had advanced little beyond the plan laid down in the camp-cities of the
conquest. But the interchange of workmen between East and West was
continuous, the intercourse unbroken; and from that intercourse, coupled
with the needs of the age and the prejudices of the Faith, the arts of
Islâm were born.
In the present study my eyes have been turned chiefly, and necessarily,
backwards. I have not been so much concerned with the offspring as with
the parentage of the buildings which I have passed under review. Of
these buildings the most important is the great palace of Ukhaiḍir on
the eastern side of the Syrian desert. I have given, also, the first
plans and photographs of three small ruins in its vicinity, Qṣair,
Mudjḍah, and ‘Aṭshân. If they do not belong to the same period as the
palace, they cannot be far removed from it in date. The problems
presented by Ukhaiḍir led me back to Sasanian architecture, and I
publish here new plans and photographs of two vast constructions at
Qaṣr-i-Shîrîn. I have, further, taken this occasion to publish the plans
of two mosques, the one at Diyârbekr, the other at Mayâfârqîn, both of
which belong to a later period. The first of these has been known to us
only through a sketch made by Texier, which I found to be inaccurate in
many significant points, as it is also incomplete. The second has not
previously been studied.
The palace of Ukhaiḍir was practically unknown until the winter of
1908-9, although it had been seen by European travellers as early as the
seventeenth century. Della Valle passed by it in June 1625 on his way
from Baṣrah to Aleppo, and described it as ‘a great ancient fabric,
perfectly square, with thirteen pilasters or round columns on each side
without, and other compartments of arches; within which were many
chambers, with a court of no great bigness and uncovered. The Arabians
call this fabric Casr Chaider. I could not conjecture whether it had
been a palace or temple or castle; but I incline to believe it a palace
rather than anything else.’[1] Pedro Teixeira’s account is doubtful. He
says:[2] ‘At eleven in the morning we came to a dry channel which in
winter they say has much water, and I thought it likely by the nature of
its situation and capaciousness. Over it, on a rising ground, is still
an ancient square fort, with twelve bastions, three on each side, made
of burnt brick and lime, strong and well built. Without it, at about
sixty paces distance, is a small Alcoran, or Tower, ten cubits high,
tho’ it appears to have been higher, of the same structure, all decay’d
with age; yet it appears to be a royal fabrick by its goodness and the
place it stands in, where it could not be raised without mighty cost and
much labour, and difficulty. It was done by an Arabian king, grandfather
to Xeque Mahamed Eben Raxet, whom I said before I was carried to see, to
secure the caravans going that way before the Turks possess’d themselves
of Bagdat and Bazora. The Arabs call it Alcayzar or Kayzar, which
signifies a palace or Cesar’s House, for so they call all that belong to
kings and princes. This they reckon the half-way from Bazora to Mexat
Aly, whither we were going. We found some small wells in this channel,
the water of them clear and fresh, but of an intolerable ill scent, yet
necessity prevail’d.’ The only item in this description which connects
Teixeira’s palace with Ukhaiḍir is the name. Teixeira reached Meshhed
‘Ali (Nedjef) six days after he had passed by Alcayzar and he gives the
situation of the palace as half-way between Baṣrah and Nedjef, whereas
Ukhaiḍir lies to the north-west of Nedjef. There is no ‘Alcoran’, i.e.
minaret, at Ukhaiḍir, neither could the building be described, even by
the least careful observer, as a square fort with three bastions on each
side. I am therefore inclined to suppose that there is another ruin
called Ukhaiḍir further to the south. We need not linger over the
derivation which he assigns to the name.
Scarcely more correct as to architectural features is Tavernier’s
allusion to Ukhaiḍir. There can, however, be no doubt that it is to
Ukhaiḍir that he refers, by reason of the geographical position of his
‘grand Palais’. Coming from Aleppo, he turned off at ‘Ânah into the
desert and after some twenty days of journeying he observes:[3] ‘Cinq
jours aprés que nous eûmes quitté ces deux familles Arabes, nous
découvrîmes un grand Palais tout de brique cuite au feu; et il y a de
l’apparence que le pays a esté autrefois semé, et que les fourneaux où
on a cuit cette brique ont esté chauffez avec du chaume: car à quinze
ou vingt lieües à la ronde il n’y a pas une brossaille ni un brin de
bois. Chaque brique est d’un demi-pied en quarré et épaisse de six
pouces. Il y a dans ce Palais trois grandes cours, et dans chacune de
beaux bastimens avec deux rangs d’arcades qui sont l’un sur l’autre.
Quoy que ce grand Palais soit encore entier, il est toutefois inhabité,
et les Arabes fort ignorans de l’antiquité ne me sceurent apprendre pour
qui il a esté basti, ny d’autres singularitez dont je m’informay, et
dont j’aurois bien voulu qu’ils m’eussent instruit. Devant la porte de
ce Palais il y a un étang accompagné d’un canal qui est à sec. Le fond
du canal est de brique, de mesme que la voûte qui est à fleur de terre,
et les Arabes croyent que c’a esté un conduit par lequel on faisoit
passer l’eau de l’Euphrate. Pour moy je ne sçaurois qu’en juger, et ne
puis comprendre comme on pouvoit faire venir de l’eau de si loin,
l’Euphrate estant éloigné de ce lieü-là de plus de vingt lieües. De ce
Palais nous tirâmes au nord est et après une marche de quatre jours nous
arrivâmes à un méchant bourg, autrefois nommé Cufa et à present
Meched-Ali.’[4]
The least inaccurate description of Ukhaiḍir is furnished by an
anonymous Englishman, quoted by Niebuhr.[5] ‘Ich habe’, says he, ‘in dem
Tagebuch eines Engländers, der von Haleb nach Basra gereiset war,
gefunden, dass er 44 Stunden nach Osten von Hêt eine ganz verlassene
Stadt in der Wüste angetroffen habe, wovon die Mauer 50 Fuss hoch und 40
Fuss dick war. Jede der vier Seiten hatte 700 Fuss, und in der Mauer
waren Thürme. In dieser Stadt, oder grossem Castell, findet man noch ein
kleines Castell. Von eben dieser verlassenen Stadt hörte ich nachher,
dass sie von den Arabern el Khader genannt werde und um 10 bis 12
Stunden von Meshed Ali entfernt sei. Sie ist ohne Zweifel gleichfalls
wegen Mangel an Wasser verlassen worden: und da man hier gar keine
Städte oder Dörfer in der Nähe findet, so ist dies wohl die Ursache,
dass man davon nicht alle brauchbare Steine weggebracht hat, wie von
Kufa und Basra, wo fast nichts mehr übrig ist.’ In the same volume (p.
236) Niebuhr gives the route from Baṣrah to Aleppo through the desert
and mentions therein Ukhaiḍir under the name of el Chäder, remarking
that it is the castle to which the Englishman referred. This Englishman
I conjecture to have been Mr. Carmichael, whose route is shown in a map
published by Ives,[6] and there called ‘the common route of the caravans
from Aleppo to Bassora over the great desert of Arabia, as described in
a journal kept by Mr. Carmichael in the year 1751’. Ukhaiḍir appears
upon it as ‘Alkader, the ruins of a most magnificent building’.
Major John Taylor saw it in June 1790 and dismissed it with short
shrift.[7] He too was following the desert road from Aleppo to Baṣrah.
On leaving Shethâthâ he says: ‘The camels being loaded at half past 6
this morning, we set forward over a barren flat desert. We crossed the
bed of a river and at 11 a.m. we passed to our left the ruins of a
small square fort, distant about half a mile, which the Arabs call Ula
Kayder.’
Ritter[8] gives a summary of all these notices by early travellers,
including that of Teixeira, which he accepts unquestioned, in spite of
the fact that Teixeira’s palace lies, according to his own account, at
least seven days’ journey to the south of the site of Ukhaiḍir.
M. Massignon was, however, the first to make any record of Ukhaiḍir. His
preliminary notes, together with a plan and some photographs, were
published in the _Bulletin de l’Académie des Inscriptions et
Belles-Lettres_ of March 1909, and in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ of
April 1909. The next visitor to the palace was myself. I left Aleppo in
February 1909 and reached Ukhaiḍir on March 25, travelling by the east
bank of the Euphrates and across the desert from Hît via Kubaisah and
Shethâthâ. I had no knowledge of M. Massignon’s journey, neither did the
Arabs, who were at that time inhabiting the place, give me any
information concerning him. I did not hear of his discovery until I
reached Constantinople in the following July. M. Massignon followed up
his observations with the first volume of his _Mission en Mésopotamie_
(published in 1910), which was concerned chiefly with Ukhaiḍir. I, in
the meantime, had published a paper on the vaulting system of the palace
in the _Journal of Hellenic Studies_ for 1910 (p. 69), and I gave a more
detailed account of the building in the following year (_Amurath to
Amurath_, p. 140). I returned to the site in March 1911, in order to
correct my plans and to take measurements for elevations and sections.
Going thence to Babylon, I found that some of the members of the
Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft who were engaged upon the excavations there
had been to Ukhaiḍir during the two years of my absence and were
preparing a book upon it. They were so kind as to show me their drawings
while I was at Babylon, and I had the advantage of discussing with them
my conjectures and difficulties, and the satisfaction of finding that we
were in agreement on all important points. Their book appeared in 1912
(Dr. Reuther, _Ocheïdir_, published by the Deutsche
Orient-Gesellschaft), and is referred to frequently in this volume. For
their generosity in allowing me to use some of their architectural
drawings, I tender my grateful thanks, together with my respectful
admiration for their masterly production.
I feel, indeed, that I must apologize for venturing to offer a second
version of the features of a building which has been excellently
described and portrayed already. But my excuse must be that my work,
which was almost completed when the German volume came out, covers not
only the ground traversed by my learned friends in Babylon, but also
ground which they had neither leisure nor opportunity to explore; and,
further, that I believe the time has come for a comparative study of the
data collected by myself and others, such as is contained in this book.
I must also thank M. Dieulafoy, M. de Morgan, Professor Strzygowski,
Professor Sarre, Dr. Herzfeld, Professor Brünnow, Professor Haverfield,
M. Velazquez Bosco, the Director of the Imperial Museums in Berlin, the
Council of the K. Akademie of Vienna, the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft,
and Messrs. Holman, Macmillan, Gebhardt and Bruckmann, for permitting me
to reproduce plans, drawings, and photographs prepared or published by
them. I have in every case acknowledged my indebtedness in the text of
this book. Dr. Moritz and Professor Littmann have been so kind as to
give me their views on the graffito in the palace, and their suggestions
as to its deciphering. Finally I should like to thank the Clarendon
Press for the care which has been expended upon the publication of my
work, and Sir Charles Lyall for the help which he has given me in
revising the proofs.
With this I must take leave of a field of study which formed for four
years my principal occupation, as well as my chief delight. A subject so
enchanting and so suggestive as the palace of Ukhaiḍir is not likely to
present itself more than once in a lifetime, and as I bring this page to
a close I call to mind the amazement with which I first gazed upon its
formidable walls; the romance of my first sojourn within its precincts;
the pleasure, undiminished by familiarity, of my return; and the regret
with which I sent back across the sun-drenched plain a last greeting to
its distant presence. The unknown prince at whose bidding its solitary
magnificence rose out of the desert, the unknown lords who dwelt in its
courts, cannot at the time of its full splendour have gloried and
rejoiced in their handiwork and their inheritance more than I who have
known it only in decay; and, in the spirit, I part from it now with as
much unwillingness as that which I experienced when I withdrew, further
and further, from its actual protection.
GERTRUDE LOWTHIAN BELL.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. UKHAIḌIR 1
II. QṢAIR, MUDJḌAH, AND ‘AṬSHÂN 38
III. QAṢR-I-SHÎRÎN 44
IV. GENESIS OF THE EARLY MOHAMMADAN PALACE 55
V. THE FAÇADE 122
VI. THE MOSQUE 145
VII. THE DATE OF UKHAIḌIR 161
SUBJECT INDEX 169
INDEX OF NAMES 173
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES IN THE TEXT
FIG. PAGE
1. UKHAIḌIR, NORTH WALL OF PALACE, SHOWING ORIGINAL SCHEME 11
2. UKHAIḌIR, ARCH CONSTRUCTION 12
3. UKHAIḌIR, ARCH CONSTRUCTION 15
4. UKHAIḌIR, SOUTH SIDE OF COURT B 31
5. ZINDJIRLI 61
6. PASARGADAE 62
7. PERSEPOLIS, APADANA OF XERXES 63
8. PERSEPOLIS, PALACE OF DARIUS 64
9. PARTHIAN PALACE AT NIFFER 66
10. HATRA PALACE 67
11. RELIEF FROM QUYUNDJIK 77
12. MODERN ṬARMAH HOUSES 83
13. BALKUWÂRÂ 85
14. SCHEME OF POMPEIIAN HOUSE 87
15. PRIENE, HOUSE 33 88
16. PRIENE, HOUSE 24 88
17. PALACE AT PERGAMON 89
18. SMALL PALACE AT HATRA 91
19. CTESIPHON 95
20. KARKH 95
21. ROMAN FORT AT HOUSESTEADS 99
22. ODHRUḤ 100
23. LEDJDJÛN 101
24. DA’DJANIYYEH 102
25. BSHAIR 104
26. QASṬAL 105
27. LAGASH 107
28. ṬÛBAH 113
29. KHARÂNEH 114
30. PETRA, THE STORIED TOMB 129
31. HATRA, FAÇADE OF PALACE RECONSTRUCTED 138
32. MOSQUE AT RAQQAH 154
33. MOSQUE OF ABÛ DULAF 155
34. ASSYRIAN FORTRESS 157
35. UKHAIḌIR, GRAFFITO IN ROOM 44 163
MAPS
1. Syria and Mesopotamia }
} _at end_
2. Ukhaiḍir, map of site }
PLATES (_at end_)
1. Ukhaiḍir, ground-plan.
2. Ukhaiḍir, ground-plan of interior buildings.
3. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, first floor of palace. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, second
floor of palace.
4. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, Section _a-b_. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, Section _c-d_.
5. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, Section _e-f_. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, Section _g-h_.
Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, The Ḥammâm. Fig. 4. Qṣair.
6. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir from north-east. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, central court,
from south.
7. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south-east angle of palace yard. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir,
north-east corner.
8. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south-west corner. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, detail of
tower chamber. Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, decoration on north wall.
9. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south gate, interior. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, south gate,
exterior.
10. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, chemin de ronde of east wall, looking north. Fig.
2. Ukhaiḍir, north façade, showing loopholes of chemin de ronde.
11. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, north façade. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, north gate.
12. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, room 1, looking north. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, room 88,
south-west end of vault.
13. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, room 4, north-east portion of dome. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, room 4, south-west portion of dome.
14. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, great hall, looking south. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, vault
of great hall, looking south.
15. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, great hall, west side. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, great
hall, door of south-west stair.
16. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, great hall, looking north. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, vault
of south-west stair out of great hall.
17. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, corridor 5, looking west. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, north
end of corridor 20.
18. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south wall of mosque. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, miḥrâb.
19. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, east side of mosque. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, east side
of mosque, north end.
20. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south-east angle of mosque. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir,
south-west angle of mosque.
21. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, door of mosque. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, north end of
gallery 108.
22. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, north-east angle of court A. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir,
corridors 28 and 102 from corridor 100.
23. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, court H, north side, and north wall of mosque.
Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, second story, rooms 119, 120, and 121, from east.
24. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, second story, rooms to south and east of court.
Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, second story, showing doors of 132, 137, and 117.
25. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, gallery 134. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, squinch in
north-west angle of gallery 134.
26. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, north-west angle of central court. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, east door and south-east end of central court.
27. Ukhaiḍir, central court, east side of north façade.
28. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south-east angle of central court. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, fluted semi-dome, south-east angle of central court.
29. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, room 29 and south side of central court. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, south side of central court, showing door of room 31. Fig. 3.
Ukhaiḍir, south side of central court, door into room 42.
30. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, vault of room 31. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, room 31,
showing decoration in top of vault.
31. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south wall, east end, of room 32. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, room 40 from room 30. Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, south-west angle of
passage 36.
32. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, room 33, north-west column. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir,
groin in north-east angle of corridor 28.
33. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, court B, north-west angle. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, court
B, eastern half of north façade. Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, court C, north-west
angle. Fig. 4. Ukhaiḍir, court C, eastern half of north façade.
34. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south door of room 44. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, south
doors of room 45.
35. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south side of court B. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir,
south-west angle of court H. Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, west end of No. 78.
36. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, door between rooms 44 and 45 from room 44. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, court C, south door of room 55.
37. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, door from court C into palace yard. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, south-west corner of court E. Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, south side of
court H.
38. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, from south-east corner of chemin de ronde. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, from east gate.
39. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, south-west angle of court G. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir,
east annex, north-east end. Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, east annex, from north.
40. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, remains of stair. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, room 140.
41. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, room 141, north-west corner of groin. Fig. 2.
Ukhaiḍir, east annex, from south.
42. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, east annex from south, showing door of room 141.
Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, north annex, showing roof. Fig. 3. Ukhaiḍir, north
annex, detail of roof.
43. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, north annex, from north gate. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir,
from north.
44. Fig. 1. Ukhaiḍir, north annex, from west. Fig. 2. Ukhaiḍir, from
north-west.
45. Fig. 1. Qṣair, interior, showing apse. Fig. 2. Qṣair, detail of
apse. Fig. 3. Qṣair, exterior from south.
46. Fig. 1. Mudjḍah. Fig. 2. ‘Aṭshân.
47. Fig. 1. Mudjḍah. Fig. 2. Mudjḍah. Fig. 3. Mudjḍah, detail of lower
niches.
48. Fig. 1. Ṭâûq, minaret. Fig. 2. ‘Aṭshân, from north-east.
49. Fig. 1. ‘Aṭshân, north gate, exterior. Fig. 2. ‘Aṭshân, north gate,
interior.
50. Fig. 1. ‘Aṭshân, rooms 2, 3, and 5, from north. Fig. 2. ‘Aṭshân,
rooms 5 and 8, from north.
51. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, corridor 103, east side. Fig. 2. ‘Aṭshân,
west door of room 6, from west.
52. Fig. 1. ‘Aṭshân, room 8, from west. Fig. 2. Palace of Khusrau, vault
of room 71.
53. Qaṣr-i-Shîrîn, palace of Khusrau, upper level.
54. Qaṣr-i-Shîrîn, palace of Khusrau, lower level.
55. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, east end of hall 3. Fig. 2. Palace of
Khusrau, west end of hall 3.
56. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, vaulted ramp in corridor 12. Fig. 2.
Palace of Khusrau, court M, south antechamber, showing door leading into
corridor 42.
57. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, south-west corner of court M, showing
corridor 42. Fig. 2. Palace of Khusrau, east side of courts O and Q.
58. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, west side of courts Q and S. Fig. 2.
Palace of Khusrau, south-west corner of court S.
59. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, vault of room 73. Fig. 2. Palace of
Khusrau, corridor 43, looking west.
60. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, court V, looking west. Fig. 2. Palace of
Khusrau, gateway between courts U and V, west arch.
61. Palace of Khusrau, gateway between courts U and V, south-east angle
of room 82.
62. Palace of Khusrau, court W, with rooms 97 and 98.
63. Fig. 1. Palace of Khusrau, eastern double ramp. Fig. 2. Palace of
Khusrau, north buildings.
64. Qaṣr-i-Shîrîn, Chehâr Qapû.
65. Fig. 1. Chehâr Qapû, interior of east gate. Fig. 2. Chehâr Qapû,
niche in room 8. Fig. 3. Chehâr Qapû, squinch in room 6.
66. Fig. 1. Chehâr Qapû, niche in room 6. Fig. 2. Chehâr Qapû, squinch
in room 14.
67. Chehâr Qapû, court D and hall 54, from east.
68. Fig. 1. Chehâr Qapû, vault of room 31. Fig. 2. Chehâr Qapû, squinch
in room 39.
69. Fig. 1. Chehâr Qapû, hall 54, south-east corner. Fig. 2. Chehâr
Qapû, hall 54, squinch in south-west corner.
70. Fig. 1. Chehâr Qapû, hall 54, exterior of south door. Fig. 2. Chehâr
Qapû, hall 54, interior of south door.
71. Chehâr Qapû, hall 54, from south.
72. Chehâr Qapû, hall 54, from west.
73. Fig. 1. Qaṣr-i-Shîrîn, Qal’a-i-Khusrau. Fig. 2. Firûzâbâd.
74. Fig. 1. Sarvistân, small domed chamber. Fig. 2. Hatra, oversailing
vault in main palace.
75. Fig. 1. Kerkûk, Mâr Ṭahmâsgerd. Fig. 2. Hatra, vaulted passage in
so-called temple.
76. Sarvistân.
77. Sargon’s Palace at Khorsâbâd.
78. Fig. 1. Gate at Khorsâbâd. Fig. 2. Ḍumair.
79. Fig. 1. Kharâneh. Fig. 2. Kharâneh, gateway.
80. Fig. 1. Kharâneh, interior of court. Fig. 2. Kharâneh, interior of
audience hall.
81. Mshattâ.
82. Fig. 1. Petra, Corinthian tomb. Fig. 2. Petra, al-Dair.
83. Ctesiphon.
84. Fig. 1. Doorway of mosque, Ḥasan Kaif. Fig. 2. Gateway of mosque,
Ḥarrân. Fig. 3. Mayâfârqîn, north façade of mosque.
85. Ukhaiḍir, reconstructed north façade of central court.
86. Fig. 1. Parthian decoration, Assur. Fig. 2. Sasanian silver dish
(Hermitage, St. Petersburg, No. 2969).
87. Details of decoration from Medînat al-Zahrâ.
88. Fig. 1. Djebel Sindjâr, khân. Fig. 2. Ḥasan Kaif, mosque.
89. Fig. 1. Cairo, mosque of Ibn Ṭulûn. Fig. 2. Mosque of Abû Dulaf.
90. Diyârbekr, Ulu Djâmi’.
91. Fig. 1. Cairo, mosque of Ibn Ṭulûn. Fig. 2. Sâmarrâ, mosque.
92. Mosque of Ṣalaḥ al-Dîn, Mayâfârqîn.
93. Fig. 1. Diyârbekr, mosque, fragment of old wall. Fig. 2. Mayâfârqîn,
mosque.
CHAPTER I
UKHAIḌIR
THE fortified palace of Ukhaiḍir stands in the desert about three hours’
journey to the south-east of the oasis of Shethâthâ and some seven
hours’ south-west of Kerbelâ. Its exact site has been fixed by Sir
William Willcocks’s survey and it is upon his map that mine is based
(Map 1). Ukhaiḍir is not far from the south-west end of the low ground
which Sir William Willcocks has called the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression. The
southern part of this depression covers an area of 146 square kilometres
at a level of 46 metres above the Persian Gulf;[9] at its lower end it
still contains a lake of brackish water, the lake of Abû Dibs, the
water-level of which is 19 metres above the Persian Gulf. The northern
part is occupied by the Ḥabbâniyyeh Lake. That the whole area was once
filled with escape water from the Euphrates is shown by the fact that it
is covered at a level of 25 metres above the Persian Gulf by a thick
belt of Euphrates shells; at this level it extends over an area of 1,200
square kilometres. The oases of Raḥḥâliyyeh and Shethâthâ are situated
upon the edge of this ancient reservoir. Between Shethâthâ and Ukhaiḍir
a shallow valley, the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, makes its way up from the
south-west to the lake of Abû Dibs. I have been told that after heavy
winter rain a stream has been known to flow down the ghadîr, the
water-course, which winds through the sand and stones of the valley bed.
Whether this be true or no, a well of good sweet water exists in the
Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, fed, in all probability, by a spring, like the famous
water of Muḥaiwir in the Wâdi Ḥaurân, or the wells of ‘Asîleh in the
Wâdi Burdân. At no other point in the immediate vicinity of Ukhaiḍir is
fresh water to be obtained; whether you dig within the palace walls, or
without, the water, if water there be, is brackish and unfit to drink.
To the north of the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ the ground opposite Ukhaiḍir, sloping
gradually down to the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression, is intersected by gulleys,
narrow and steep, cutting through hillocks of gypsum, and among these
hillocks is the small ruin which the Arabs call Qṣair. Here, I take it,
the gypsum was obtained for the mortar which binds the masonry of the
palace, and its good qualities are attested by the excellent
preservation of wall and vault until this day. I have not visited the
quarries, but the Arabs told me that the stone had been brought from a
distance of about an hour to the south of Ukhaiḍir, where there are
traces of working ‘taḥt al-arḍ’, below the ground--not in a hill-side.
Near the quarries there is said to be a well of good but not abundant
water; Shakhârîz is the name of the well. It is built of stone. Behind
it, some three hours’ journey from Ukhaiḍir, there is a low line of
hills, the Djebel Ḍaba’. From the castle walls the long levels of the
desert spread out invitingly to the hills, and I would gladly have gone
thither, but I had not time to spare during either of my visits.
Ukhaiḍir does not reckon security among its many charms. The plentiful
sweet water of the well in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ makes it a trysting-place
for raiding parties, and after four or five days’ sojourn it is best to
be gone, lest the news that a foreigner is lodged within the palace
walls should run too temptingly among the tribes. In 1911, the date of
my last visit, I came to Ukhaiḍir from Shethâthâ, having ridden straight
across the desert from Ramâdi, skirting the Ḥabbâniyyeh Lake and the
east side of the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression. When I left I did not follow
the usual way, by Abû Dibs to Kerbelâ, but rode almost due east, to the
foot of a cliff of sand and rock, which is the western limit of a flat
desert plateau that stretches eastward to the Hindiyyeh. An abrupt rise
of this nature is called in colloquial Arabic a ṭâr.[10] From Ukhaiḍir
the ground dropped gradually. After two hours’ riding (about six miles)
we reached the khabrâ of Wizikh. A khabrâ is a hollow bottom where rain
water lies and stagnates till it evaporates. The khabrâ of Wizikh, which
was dry and sandy, appeared to stretch along the foot of the ṭâr,
northward to Abû Dibs, and also southwards. My Arab guide, a sheikh of
the Zaqârît, which is a sub-tribe of the Shammar, informed me that there
were wells of brackish water in the khabrâ further to the south, the
Biyâr Slâm. The khabrâ was about a fifth of a mile wide. At the further
side we rode up the sandy gulleys of the ṭâr and in ten minutes reached
a well, the Bir Sbai’i, the water of which was brackish but drinkable.
From here to the Hindiyyeh there is no water of any kind. Another ten
minutes brought us to the summit of the ṭâr, whence we could see
Ukhaiḍir on the one hand and the tower of Mudjḍah on the other. The
bearings here were as follows: Ukhaiḍir (south-east angle of the castle)
300°, Mudjḍah 97°, central point of the Djebel Ḍaba’ 244°. Mudjḍah is a
solitary tower without any provision for the storage of water, or any
ruins round it. I think it can have served no other purpose than that of
a landmark on the line of the caravan track, which must have passed this
way from the great city of Kûfah to the oasis of Shethâthâ, or ‘Ain
al-Tamr, to give it its earlier name. From the top of the ṭâr to the
modern Kerbelâ-Nedjef road the desert is absolutely flat and
featureless, and we ourselves came near to losing our way across it. The
existence of a former caravan track across this waste is assured by the
ruined khân of ‘Aṭshân, half-way between Mudjḍah and the modern Khân
Ḥamâd.
Such are the characteristics of the country round Ukhaiḍir. The ṭâr,
standing over the low ground of the khabrâ, bounds the view to the east;
to the north-east, across the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, the gypsum hillocks lead
down to the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression; to the north-west a few shallow
desert wâdis cross the path to Shethâthâ; to south and west stretches
the immense expanse of the Syrian desert, broken only by the small group
of the Djebel Ḍaba’. It is, however, by no means certain that in the
seventh and eighth centuries, that is to say, at the period during which
it is probable that the palace was built, the local conditions were the
same as they are at present. It is indeed likely that the Ḥabbâniyyeh
depression contained at that time more water than it does now, that the
lake of Abû Dibs stretched across a considerable part of it, and that
its margin approached nearer to Ukhaiḍir. The scrub and reed round the
edge of the lake would have given cover for water fowl, for boar and
other wild animals, and the lords of Ukhaiḍir, when they went out to the
chase, would have had an ample supply of game. Moreover the oasis of
Shethâthâ was certainly a more important place then than it is at
present, for all its 160,000 palm-trees.[11] There can be no doubt that
it occupies the site of ‘Ain al-Tamr, famous in the days of the Persian
kings[12]--that same oasis which Khâlid ibn al-Walîd took and sacked in
the year A.H. 12. It is my belief that the Mohammadan invasion did not
diminish its importance, and in proof I would adduce the evidence
afforded by the khân of ‘Aṭshân and the landmark tower of Mudjḍah,
showing that from Kûfah to ‘Ain al-Tamr there must have been a direct
caravan road across the desert. Muqaddasi, writing in the year A.D. 985,
describes ‘Ain al-Tamr as a little castle;[13] Yâqût, who mentions the
name Shefâthâ as part of ‘Ain al-Tamr, praises its dry dates above those
of other towns,[14] and to this day they maintain that honourable
pre-eminence. Ukhaiḍir, then, with the marshy haunts of game a mile or
two from its gates, and a much-frequented oasis three hours to the
north, presented in the eighth century advantages which it no longer
enjoys now that the waters have retreated to the confines of the modern
Abû Dibs, and the traffic of Shethâthâ has shrunk to an occasional small
caravan of merchant and citizen passing along the Kerbelâ track, or the
visit of a ragged crew of Beduin date-buyers. Yet it is difficult to
conjure up any picture but that of isolation when, after a weary
struggle through sand or marsh, according to the season, the gaunt walls
and towers of the palace rear themselves out of the solitudes of the
desert--in all that barren waste sole vestige of mortal energy, of the
fleeting splendour of mankind. (Plate 6, Fig. 1).
The palace consists of a quadrangular area bounded by a wall which
measures 163·60 metres from east to west, and 175·80 metres from north
to south (Map 2). It is almost exactly oriented. The wall is provided
with round towers, projecting 2·70 metres from its face, and with a gate
in the centre of each side. At the north-west angle, at a distance of
13·25 metres from the palace wall, a building consisting of fifteen
vaulted rooms runs out due north. It has a length of 81·20 metres and a
width of 11·45 metres. To the west of the six southerly chambers lies a
rectangular court, 35·20 metres from north to south and 25·80 metres
from east to west, with round towers like those of the main palace,
projecting 2·75 metres. North-east of the palace there is a small
irregularly-shaped building, known to the Arabs as the Ḥammâm, the bath.
Its greatest length is 12·90 metres and its greatest width, including
the rectangular buttresses, 8·65 metres. With the exception of the
Ḥammâm, these edifices have been enclosed by a second stone wall, but
this wall cannot have been a considerable structure, for at the only
point where its width can be determined, north of the palace, it is but
1 metre thick. Its present aspect is that of a low mound of sand, and in
places even this mound is by no means clearly to be traced. Owing to the
very fragmentary character of the northern line of the outer wall, it is
not possible to fix the position of the north gate, though there can be
little doubt that a gate existed opposite the north gate of the palace,
at a distance of about seventy paces from it. South of the Ḥammâm the
wall is easier to make out. It runs parallel to the east wall of the
palace, and is broken by a gateway opposite the eastern palace gate. At
intervals large heaps of stones seem to indicate the presence of towers.
Two hundred and thirty paces to the south of the palace, this outer
towered wall turns to the west and runs parallel to the south wall of
the palace. Traces of a gate can be seen opposite the south gate of the
palace. From the south-west angle of the palace wall a second low sandy
mound runs down to join the outer wall, and immediately to the west of
this division wall there had been another gate in the outer wall, which
then ran on westward for two hundred paces. The west wall is not exactly
parallel to the palace; it was broken by a gate opposite the west gate
of the palace. The north-west angle of the outer wall is very nearly
obliterated. It turns off eastward almost at right angles and joins an
inner dividing wall which comes up from a point about twenty paces west
of the north-west tower of the palace, and seems to have been connected
with that tower by a cross-wall. At the point of junction between this
dividing wall and the outer wall, a mound runs out north-west for a
great distance into the desert. I did not follow it, but from the top of
the palace its course can be traced for more than a mile. The northern
outer wall then turns slightly to the south of east and passes close to
the south-east corner of the detached northern building, beyond which
point it is almost obliterated. Between the Ḥammâm and the north-east
angle of the outer wall there are some low sandy mounds wherein the
Arabs say that they have dug and found brackish water.
When I first visited Ukhaiḍir in March 1909 it was occupied by Arabs
from Djôf in Nedjd who were anxious to establish themselves there
permanently. To this end they wished to receive official recognition
from the Government, and they proposed to earn a livelihood by supplying
Baghdâd with camels bought from the tribes of the Syrian and Arabian
deserts. When I returned in 1911 they were gone, and Sheikh Ṣukhail, of
the Zaqârît, who was camped under the walls, could give me no account of
their departure, except that it had taken place some months previously.
Possibly they found Ukhaiḍir an unsatisfactory centre for commercial
enterprise, and there can be no question but that their project would
have been ill looked upon by the Beduin, who regard the sweet waters of
the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ as their peculiar property. Whatever may have driven
them forth, the Djôfîyîn had left no memorial of their residence save
heaps of filth and refuse in the halls and courts of the palace, new
stonework round the well in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, a meagre plantation of
half-withered palm-shoots close by it, and evidences of an equally
unsuccessful attempt to establish a few palm-trees within the palace
walls near the west gate, where there is a small deep well of brackish
water. And we, finding Ukhaiḍir untenanted, took possession of it and
pitched our tents in the central court.
The towered wall of the palace encloses a yard and a quadrangular block
of building which covers an area measuring 111·40 metres from north to
south and 68·50 metres from east to west (Plate 1). On three sides of
this block, rounded towers project 1·75 metres from the face of the
wall, while the north side is connected with the main wall. The northern
part of the building is three stories high, the upper story being on a
level with the chemin de ronde which runs round the main wall. The rest
of the building, 73·95 metres from north to south, is one story high.
The palace yard runs round three sides of the building. To the west and
south it is unoccupied by any structure; north of the west gate lies a
well of brackish water, and it was there that the Djôfîyîn had planted
their palm-shoots. This well I believe to be modern; it bears no mark of
antiquity. To the east, north of the east gate, the yard is blocked by
an edifice, a single story high, the chambers of which are numbered on
the plan 140-152. It is a later addition, as will be seen, to the
original scheme of the palace.
The main wall consists of a core of masonry 2·60 metres thick, rising
about 10 metres above the present level of the ground (section _e-f_,
Plate 5, Fig. 1). It is difficult to get absolutely accurate
measurements of height as the surface-level varies slightly according to
the depth of ruin strewn over it. Blind arcades on the interior and on
the exterior carry the chemin de ronde. On the interior, pilasters 1
metre deep are united by arches very slightly pointed (Plate 7, Fig.
1). The pilasters are without capital or impost, the arches springing
directly from them. The arches rise to a height of 8·50 metres, and
their span averages on the east wall a little under 3·85 metres, while
the width of the pilasters averages 1·55 metres. The arches are composed
of two rings of stone voussoirs, the inner ring laid vertically; i.e.
with the broadside showing, the outer ring laid horizontally, with the
narrow end showing. Dr. Reuther notices that in some instances the
horizontal outer ring is lacking. The walls and pilasters, like all the
walls of Ukhaiḍir, are built of thin irregular slabs of stone, very
roughly coursed, with a binding course laid through them at intervals.
In or above the binding courses are holes for wooden beams. There are
four such holes in each pilaster and one in the spandrel between the
arches. In the back wall of each arcade there are three holes up the
centre, and two level with the springing of the arch. Similar holes for
beams occur in all the walls of Ukhaiḍir. At a height of 1·50 metres
above the level of the arches, the wall is set back ·40 metre and broken
by windows, 11·80 metres above the ground, and 1·80 metres above the
floor of the chemin de ronde. As the authors of _Ocheïdir_ have
observed, these windows cannot have served any purpose of defence, since
they are so high above the floor. There was thus no means of attacking
from the wall a foe who had penetrated into the palace yard. Between
each pair of windows, shallow pilasters, corresponding to the pilasters
below, are carried up to the top of the wall. There are holes for beams
between the window arches on wall and pilaster, and also directly above,
along the top of the wall. On the exterior there is again a blind arcade
1 metre deep, consisting of two round arches between each tower (Plate
7, Fig. 2). The towers have a projection of 2·75 metres beyond the face
of the arcade. The exterior arches bear no relation to the arches of the
interior arcade. Two arches, with an average span of 3·85 metres,
separated by a pilaster 1·60 metres wide, stand between each of the
piers, 4·10 metres wide, against which the three-quarter round towers
are placed. There are five of these towers between gateway and angle
tower. They have a diameter of 3·30 metres, whereas the angle towers
have a diameter of 5·10 metres. The holes for beams appear as on the
inner side of the wall, but they do not correspond with the interior
holes. As in the interior arcade, the outer arches are slightly pointed
and spring directly from the pilasters. The top of the exterior arches
is ·30 metre above the level of the floor of the chemin de ronde. The
chemin de ronde does not occupy the whole width of the core of the wall
(Plate 3, Fig. 2). The passage is 1·90 metres wide. On the inner side,
the wall is 1 metre thick and broken by the above-mentioned windows
looking into the yard; on the outer side there is a series of recesses
covered by ovoid arches. Each recess, 1·45 metres wide and ·40 metre
deep, contains either a loophole window or a door. The loopholes, of
which there are four between each tower, open on to the exterior of the
palace and command a wide view of the desert. They are ·65 metre wide on
the inside and narrow outwards to ·20 metre. On the inside they are
covered by a lintel with an arched niche above it, on the outside they
have a triangular head with a single upright stone placed within it,
supporting the side stones of the triangle, and a small inverted
triangular aperture above (Plate 8, Fig. 3 and Plate 10, Fig. 2). Each
window recess is machicolated, there being an interval of ·20 metre
between the outer edge of the floor of the recess (which corresponds
with the outer face of the core of the wall) and the inner side of the
arches of the exterior arcade. Through this gap an enemy standing at the
foot of the wall could be attacked. Every fifth recess contains a door,
·75 metre wide, which gave access to a small round chamber hollowed out
of the thickness of the tower. In the whole circuit of the wall not one
of these tower chambers is intact, but enough remains to determine their
construction (Plate 8, Fig. 2). Each chamber was covered by an ovoid
dome, in the masonry of which there are traces of flat ribs. There was a
loophole in the walls on either side, from which the defenders could
cover the curtain wall between tower and tower, and it is reasonable to
suppose that there must have been a third loophole fronting the desert.
The loopholes were constructed in the manner already described. It seems
probable that the towers exceeded the curtain walls in height; many of
the towers show fragments of masonry higher than the present summit of
the walls. The angle towers rose a story above the chemin de ronde and
contained a second round chamber above the chamber on the level of the
chemin de ronde. Traces of this second chamber remain in the north-east
and in the south-west towers (Plate 8, Fig. 1). A stair was placed in
each of the four angles of the castle yard (Plate 7, Fig. 1). The
stairs, which were vaulted in a manner which will be described later
(below p. 16), wound twice round the newel post before they reached the
gallery of the chemin de ronde, and thereafter rose one story higher in
order to reach the summit of the wall, and the upper chamber of the
angle towers. It is probable that the summit of the wall was given a
crenellated parapet in order to protect those who walked along it. Nor
was it only from the angles of the yard that the chemin de ronde could
be approached. It was accessible from the top story of the palace and
also by means of stairs which were situated on either side of the east,
south and west gates. None of these gates are well preserved and in no
case have the stairs escaped ruin, but the mark of the stair can be seen
clearly on the inner face of the wall (Plate 9, Fig. 1). The three
gateways are all alike (section _g-h_, Plate 5, Fig. 2). They are
flanked on the exterior by segments of towers (Plate 9, Fig. 2). The
outer archway, which contained the door, has in every case been blocked
up by the Beduin; it is therefore impossible to tell its exact depth,
though its width, 2·10 metres, can be determined. I omitted to note the
portcullis of which the authors of _Ocheïdir_ found traces outside the
door.[15] An inner arched niche, 1·45 metres long by 2·50 metres wide,
is visible from the interior, together with a portion of the chamber
into which it led. This chamber was 6·30 metres long by 3·10 metres
wide, and was covered by a pointed barrel vault oversailing the face of
the walls. Over the doorway on the inside, there is an arched niche
which communicated with the arch of the outer gate by a rectangular
funnel. It is impossible to imagine what can have been the purpose of
this funnel, which connected the bottom of the niche with the top of the
arch, unless it were meant to receive the bolt of the door, but I do not
think that even this explanation will hold. The authors of _Ocheïdir_
observed a similar communication between every niche placed over a
doorway and the arch below it. The construction is made clear in their
admirable drawing (_Ocheïdir_, Fig. 19). They offer no conclusion as to
its purpose, but since it occurs in archways which show no sign of
having contained a door, the idea that it was meant to provide space for
a bolt cannot be maintained. The inner wall of the gate-house, which has
in every case fallen, projected into the palace yard 3·50 metres from
the face of the inner pilasters of the enclosing wall. Besides the
vaulted passage or chamber in the centre, it comprised the
above-mentioned staircases. I detected traces of a door between the
gate-room and the staircase on either side. The stair wound once round
the rectangular newel post and reached a chamber on the first floor,
above the gate-room. The doors of communication between the stair and
this chamber are not preserved. The chamber is unusually low, 3·30
metres from the floor to the top of the vault. It is provided with a
large window, 2·50 metres high, in the outer wall, opening on to the
desert. The stair turned once more round the newel post and led into the
chemin de ronde, with which the upper chamber of the gate-house
communicated by doorways. The vaulting construction of the south
gateway, which is the best preserved (Plate 9, Fig. 1), shows that the
vault of the upper story must have cut across the vaults of the passage,
from which it was separated by transverse arches. A big window in the
outer wall opens down to the floor of the chamber and the learned
authors of _Ocheïdir_ place here, no doubt correctly, a hourd projecting
from the wall over the doorway below. There are small rectangular domed
chambers in the towers on either side of the gate, the domes being set
over the angles of the square on horizontal brackets. The gate-house was
probably carried up, like the angle towers, a story higher, and the
stairs must have communicated with the upper story, to judge by the
evidence afforded by the south gate-house. On the north façade, and
there only, the summit of the wall was given a decoration consisting of
a row of arched niches carried by small engaged columns (Plate 8, Fig.
3). The authors of _Ocheïdir_ describe these arches as horse-shoed; they
seemed to me to be merely slightly stilted and adorned with a double
fillet. Below the niches runs a band of lozenges. Between each niche is
set a larger engaged column, and these columns appear to have been
carried up higher than the arches and in all probability bore an
architrave, thus forming a rectangular frame to each niche, but the
exact nature of the decoration here is uncertain, since the wall has
broken away. The chemin de ronde was covered by a pointed stone vault,
most of which has fallen in (Plate 10, Fig. 1). Like all the vaults of
Ukhaiḍir it oversails the face of the wall. The lower part is built of
horizontal courses, while in the upper part the stone slabs are laid in
vertical rings so as to dispense with centering, and this is the
construction in all the vaults of the palace. At the springing of the
vault a wooden beam crossed the passage from wall to wall. The holes for
these beams are visible, and in some places a splintered fragment of
wood projects from the masonry. At the angles of the passage the vaults
from either side come together in a simple diagonal section, i.e. there
was no intersection of the vaults.
The principal entrance of the palace is the north gate (Plate 11, Fig.
1). Before the door there is an artificial platform thirty-two paces
from north to south by eighty-seven paces from east to west. The door is
placed in a rectangular tower, 15·70 metres wide, which projects 5·10
metres from the face of the wall, 2·40 metres from the face of the
towers. Between the west side of the gate-tower and the first of the
western round towers is stretched a vault 2·50 metres in depth (Plate
11, Fig. 2). Upon this vault rests a small platform, immediately below
the loopholes of the chemin de ronde, at the level of the second story.
On the east side of the gate-tower there are traces of a similar vault,
but this must have fallen at a period when the palace was still
inhabited, since the place which it occupied upon the wall has been
carefully plastered over. The pointed arch over the north door is a
later reconstruction. The door leads into a narrow room, No. 1, 5·95
metres by 3 metres, from which there is access to rooms 2 and 3. These
rooms are irregular in shape, unlighted, and built over vaults which are
now filled with débris. The authors of _Ocheïdir_ suggest that they may
have gone down to the water-level. I doubt it. The water-level in the
palace yard is considerably deeper than these vaults are likely to have
been, and the water there is too brackish to drink. It is more likely
that these subterranean chambers were dungeons. The vault over room 1 is
not continuous. It is composed of a series of seven transverse arches,
·65 metre wide, separated by spaces ·20 metre wide (Plate 12, Fig. 1).
These apertures enabled the occupants of room 88, on the first floor, to
pour boiling liquids on any foe who had passed through the door. Room 1
is bounded to the south by an arched doorway, oversailing the wall, as
is the case with all wide arched openings at Ukhaiḍir, beyond which lies
the smaller chamber No. 4, 4·15 metres long by 3·10 wide. A transverse
arch cuts off 1·05 metres of this space, leaving a square of 3·10 metres
to be covered by a fluted dome (Plate 13, Fig. 1).[16] The remaining
three sides of the chamber are broken by pointed archways which give
access to the great hall (No. 7), and to the passages Nos. 5 and 6. The
fluted circle of the dome is set upon a fillet which has a projection of
about 1 centimetre from the face of the wall below (Plate 13, Fig. 2).
The circle is accommodated to the square by a course of stones forming
at each corner a flat triangular bracket, rounded upon the inner side.
The upper part of the dome is much ruined. The curve must have been
ovoid and it is probable that an aperture was left at the summit, since
the dome, if closed, would have projected considerably above the floor
level of room 88. The hole in the upper floor, like the slits in the
roof of room 1, would have served for purposes of attack when the enemy
had forced an entrance.
The authors of _Ocheïdir_ have pointed out that the original scheme of
the castle did not include the present north door, nor yet the massive
enclosing wall with its towers and gates. As it was first planned, the
north door stood well within the existing entrance, between two segments
of towers. A part of these towers is visible in rooms 2 and 3. But when
the walls had been raised about 2·80 metres from the ground, the plan
was altered and the outer wall and north door added to it. The north
palace wall, with its round towers and gateway, was then incorporated in
the larger outer wall. A glance at Dr. Reuther’s plan will show how this
was effected (Fig. 1). Although the alteration took place while building
was in progress and does not denote a later period of construction, it
is yet of importance, as I shall have occasion to show later.
On the first floor the gate-tower is occupied by three vaulted chambers,
88, 89, and 90. The central room, 88, is 4·50 metres wide and therefore
wider by 1·50 metres than the passage room, 1, below it. Consequently
the slits between the transverse arches of 1 do not take up the whole
width of 88, but leave a passage along the wall on either side. The
chamber is low, measuring only 3·55 metres to the top of the vault. The
vault oversails the wall; the lower part is composed of stones laid
horizontally, the upper part of stones laid in vertical rings, with an
inclination backwards against the north wall. At the southern end a
space between the vertical rings and the south wall is filled in with
horizontal courses (Plate 12, Fig. 2). The arches of the side doors
break into the vault. In the north wall there is a large window, the
upper part of which has fallen away, though some of the lower part
remains. It is slightly recessed on the exterior (Plate 11, Fig. 2), and
Dr. Reuther gives the explanation of this recess. It contained the
groove of the portcullis, which has been obliterated below owing to the
rebuilding of the north door at a later period. In the south wall of
room 88 there are three arched windows opening into the great hall. The
central window is the largest; in all three the arch is surmounted by a
shallow arched niche. The narrow vaulted rooms 89 and 90 are approached
by round-arched doorways and lighted only by very small windows high up
in the north wall. In room 89 there is a staircase leading up to the
second floor. Rooms 89 and 90 open into long corridors corresponding in
width with the corridors 5 and 6.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. North wall of palace, showing original scheme.
(From _Ocheïdir_, by kind permission of Dr. Reuther.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 2. Arch construction. (From _Ocheïdir_, by kind
permission of Dr. Reuther.)]
The great hall, to the south of room 4, is the largest chamber in the
palace. It is 15·50 metres long by 7 metres wide, but its width is
increased on either side by arched recesses 1·40 metres deep and from
2·20 metres to 2·30 metres wide (Plate 14, Fig. 1). These recesses, five
on either side, are separated from one another by squat engaged columns
set against piers which are ·80 metre deep. The columns carry
rectangular impost-capitals from which spring the shallow slightly
pointed semi-domes, or calottes, which cover the recesses. The capitals
are very roughly constructed of small stones. There are traces of a
shallow abacus, while a cavetto moulded in plaster seems to have been
interposed between capital and shaft. At the corners a triangular stone
adjusted the circle of the column to the square of the abacus, and the
whole was no doubt covered with plaster. The abacus projection runs back
along the walls of the niche and above it the calotte springs from
another small projection (Plate 15, Figs. 1 and 2). The calottes are
bracketed over the angles, the construction being the same as that
described in the dome of room 4. All the niches of Ukhaiḍir are treated
in like fashion. The method employed in constructing the archivolts is
admirably described by Dr. Reuther.[17] The face of the arch is formed
by a permanent centering composed of gypsum and reeds. The vaulting
takes place, not above the centering but between the two centering
arches, the vault being built in vertical rings (Fig. 2). When the
arches are of wide span an outer ring of horizontal voussoirs is added
to the inner arch. This system is common in Mesopotamia to the present
day, and is found frequently at Ukhaiḍir. In the great hall there are
holes for wooden beams below the abacus of the capitals and in the
spandrels of the arches. The northern recess on the east side is open
and gives access to a ramp which leads to the first floor. The second,
third, and fifth recesses contain low doors covered by a segmental
arch. On the west side similar doors are set in the first, third,
fourth, and fifth recesses, the last named giving access to a stair
(Plate 15, Fig. 2). The calotte archivolts at their highest point are
3·50 metres above the present level of the floor. The wall is carried up
for another 1·25 metres, where there is a double outset from its face.
Above this outset the stone vault runs up perpendicularly for about ·80
metre and the remainder of the vault is of brick (Plate 14, Fig. 2). For
a height of about 1·50 metres the brick tiles are laid horizontally, but
when the curve of the vault increases the bricks are set upright in
vertical rings. The vault thus formed is built without centering; it has
a slightly pointed, ovoid shape and is much stilted. The north wall
remains intact and its scheme of decoration is instructive (Plate 16,
Fig. 1). The arched door, 3·50 metres high, is set back within a niche 1
metre deep. About ·90 metre above the arch of the door stands a very
shallow calotte covering the niche. The face of the calotte is recessed,
which enhances its decorative value by giving it a double outline. As
Dr. Reuther has observed,[18] the calotte is not ‘the segment of a
pointed dome, but its curve in horizontal section springs sharply back
from the face of the archivolt and flattens rapidly behind. Thereby the
effect of the shadow is strongly felt at the edge, and the calotte seems
to be deeper and more markedly vaulted than it is in reality’. At the
base of the calotte there is a small niche which has been broken through
owing to the partial ruin of the dome behind it.[19] In the wall on
either side of the calotte there is a shallow arched niche. The arch is
carried on pairs of engaged columns and is enclosed in a rectangular
label. Above the calotte are the three windows of the first floor room,
88, covered by segmental arches. The windows are framed by engaged
columns which carry stilted round-arched calottes. The south wall of the
great hall is partly ruined. The doorway seems to have been of the same
proportions as the door in the north wall, but it was not set back
within a niche. The small decorative niches reappear on either side, and
there were probably three windows opening into room 101 in the upper
story, indeed on the west side the window jamb can still be seen. Even
with these windows the great hall must have been most insufficiently
lighted, since neither its doors nor its windows open directly on to the
exterior of the building. To the south lay the small rectangular
chamber, No. 27, which was probably, as Dr. Reuther suggests, covered by
a dome similar to the dome of No. 4. It opens to east and west into the
vaulted corridor 28, and on the south into the central court.
Holes for wooden beams can be seen on the north wall of the great hall,
two on either side of the portal niche, one on either side of the
shallow decorative niches, and one on either side of the group of
windows. On the south wall they have been somewhat differently disposed,
one on either side of the door at the level of the arch, one almost
immediately above, higher than the top of the arch, and three higher up
still, following the curve of the vault (Plate 14, Fig. 2).
The masses of masonry on either side of the vault are lightened by the
tubes which are characteristic of the vaulting system of Ukhaiḍir
(section _a-b_, Plate 4, Fig. 1). One of these tubes pierces the wall on
either side, partly above the calottes of the recesses. On the east side
the opening of this tube can be seen high up in the wall of the corridor
28; on the west side the tube is not visible owing to the interposition
of a stair behind the corridor, but there can be no doubt that it
exists. Again towards the top of the vault there is another pair of
tubes. The western of these two can be seen through a breach in the wall
of the stair which leads from room 89 to the second floor; I infer its
eastern counterpart. The vault of the great hall is buttressed by the
vaults of the chambers of the ground floor and of the first floor which
lie at right angles to it.
The wings of the three-storied block, of which the great hall forms the
centre, are bounded to the north by the two vaulted corridors 5 and 6
(Plate 17, Fig. 1), the western corridor, 5, being 34 metres long, and
the eastern, 6, 34·90 metres long. The vaults are constructed in the
usual fashion, oversailing the wall and built of thin slabs of stone,
laid vertically in concentric, slightly pointed rings. The corridors
lead into the palace yard. The door of the west corridor is much ruined.
The door of the east corridor is set in a niche surmounted by a shallow
calotte, of which the archivolt is slightly pointed. Below the calotte,
between it and the arch of the door, is a second small arched niche,
connected by the usual funnel with the top of the door arch. The calotte
is outlined by a singular decoration composed of a crenellated
motive.[20] The crenellated motive is common in the ornament of Ukhaiḍir
and elsewhere, but I am not acquainted with any other example of its
application to the archivolt.
To the south of the east corridor runs a vaulted ramp, a sloping passage
from the great hall to the first floor. To the south of the ramp lie two
groups of three vaulted chambers. In the inner group, Nos. 12, 13, and
14, the rooms are 7 metres long with an average width of 3·50 metres.
They are separated from each other by walls 1 metre thick, and
communicate with each other by doors covered by ovoid arches set back
from the jambs. Each room possesses a door into the great hall, but
since the position of these doors is determined by that of the recesses
in the hall, which do not correspond with the rooms behind them, the
doors are never in the centre of the rooms, and in one case, No. 13, the
side wall is narrowed to allow space for the door. The wall which
separates the rooms from the recesses of the great hall is 1·50 metres
thick. A door at the east end of each room leads into the corresponding
room of the second group. In this group the rooms 15, 16, and 17, while
they have the same width as those of the first group, are considerably
shorter, measuring only 4·80 metres. They communicate with each other
and with the vaulted passage, 20. Room 17 has further a door in the
north wall, which leads into the small vaulted room, No. 18, and this in
turn is connected with a still smaller room, No. 19. Nos. 18 and 19 lie
under the ramp, and No. 19 is in consequence extremely low. None of the
chambers above described are provided with windows; what light they
possess filters in through the doors. Nos. 12, 13, and 14 are therefore
exceedingly dark, and must have been darker still when the south wall of
the great hall was intact. Nos. 18 and 19 are totally unillumined, and
for this reason, and on account of the inconvenience of their low
vaults, it may be presumed that they were not used for dwelling
purposes.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Arch construction. (From _Ocheïdir_, by kind
permission of Dr. Reuther.)]
The arches of the doorways in these rooms, and in all other small
doorways in the palace, are constructed in a manner different from that
which has been detailed above. Again I borrow the description from Dr.
Reuther. A wooden centering has been placed upon the jambs; over this
centering was laid a band of gypsum mortar and small stones, irregularly
bedded, which, when it hardened, formed an inner arch of concrete (Fig.
3). When the span was narrow no other arch was considered necessary.
When it was wider an outer arch of voussoirs laid horizontally
encompassed the inner concrete arch. Not infrequently, besides the
wooden centering, a permanent centering of mortar and reed was placed on
either face of the concrete arch. When the wooden centering was removed
the concrete arch remained, set back from the jambs, whereas in all the
wide archways, such as those of room 4, the arch follows the principle
of the vault and oversails the wall.
The passage, No. 20, which is 12·25 metres long by 2·80 metres wide,
communicates by a door at its northern end with the small unlighted
room, No. 21. The construction here is of interest (Plate 17, Fig. 2).
The passage is finished by a shallow pointed calotte, standing out from
the face of the wall and spanning the angles in the usual fashion with a
horizontal masonry bracket. Below it, but not in the centre of the
passage, is the small doorway, which is covered by a masonry lintel. The
passage opens on to court A through an arcade of two pointed arches. The
arches spring from engaged columns and from a squat masonry column
placed between them. The rough capital and engaged capitals, from which
the stucco has disappeared, are constructed in the same way as the
engaged capitals in the great hall. On the opposite side of the court
there was once a similar arcade of two arches which has now fallen;
indeed, the arcade of No. 20 is the only free-standing arcade which
remains intact in the whole palace, with the exception of those in rooms
33 and 40. Court A, 10·70 metres by 6·25 metres, communicates with
corridor 6 by a vaulted passage, 1·90 metres wide and 4·25 metres high,
leading to an arched doorway 1·60 metres wide and 2·55 metres high. East
of this passage lies a vaulted room, No. 26, the door of which stands in
the ruined cloister, No. 25. Room 26 is lighted by two small windows in
the south wall, opening on to the court, and by a window-slit in the
east wall, opening on to the palace yard. To the south of court A lie
three chambers, Nos. 22, 23, and 24, which have a width varying from
4·05 metres to 3·85 metres and a length of 5 metres. They communicate
with each other and with the court, added to which No. 22 possesses a
third door leading into No. 20, and No. 24 a third door leading into No.
25. For the door leading from No. 24 into court A space has been
provided by removing a section of the dividing wall between Nos. 23 and
24.
The arrangement of the west wing of the three-storied block is
dissimilar from that of the east wing. Three chambers, 8, 9, and 10, lie
to the west of the great hall. They have an average width of 3·70
metres, but in length they are only 5·75 metres. They are lighted by
small windows high up in the west wall. They communicate with one
another by doors covered with ovoid arches set back from the jambs, and
with the great hall by small doors in the recesses. The vaults are
pointed and oversail the walls. South of No. 10, a stair leads up from
the southernmost doorway in the great hall to the first floor. The vault
over this stair, of which I give a photograph (Plate 16, Fig. 2), will
serve to illustrate the construction of all vaults at Ukhaiḍir over an
inclined plane. They are built in horizontal sections, which form
inverted steps; an unbroken rising vault is not to be found in the
palace. To the east of this group of rooms with its stair is the
cloistered court which I suggested, after my first visit, might be a
mosque.[21] The suggestion has been borne out by the discovery of an
arched niche in the south wall, which I believe to be the miḥrâb.[22]
The mosque (since I may now give it this title without hesitation) is
approached by two doorways from the west corridor, 5. These doorways
lead into an open rectangular court, the ṣaḥn, 10·30 metres from north
to south by 16 metres from east to west. To east, south, and west of the
court ran porticoes, or riwâqs, to use their Arabic name, which have now
fallen (Plate 18, Fig. 1). The engaged columns on the north side and the
south-east angle pier are, however, standing, and they determine the
width of the riwâqs. The southern riwâq was the widest (4·05 metres),
and this is the portion of the mosque which is known as the ḥaram. The
east and west riwâqs are alike 3 metres wide. The arcades, which
separate the riwâqs from the ṣaḥn, occupy a space 1 metre thick. On the
west side the arcade is entirely ruined, but on the east side part of
the arches at either end are still to be seen (Plate 19, Figs. 1 and 2).
From these fragments it is apparent that there must have been three
arches on the east and west sides, while approximately similar
proportions would allow five arches on the south side. (The span of the
south arches must have been about ·30 metre less than the span of the
east and west arches.) The north end of the east and west vaults rested
against the north wall, the south end against a transverse arch, in
order to avoid intersection with the vault of the ḥaram. The east vault,
which is best preserved, is a slightly pointed ovoid and oversails the
east wall. Below the spring of the vault can be seen the windows of
rooms 8 and 9; the window of room 10 opens into the ḥaram. Immediately
above the springing of the vault there are three holes for cross beams,
the decay of which has entailed the ruin of the vault. The fallen masses
of masonry columns and vault form heaps of débris on all three sides of
the court. At the eastern end of the ḥaram there is a low door, almost
blocked by ruin heaps, which gives access to a narrow blind passage
situated under the stair. The vault of the ḥaram has received an
elaborate decoration in stucco. It was divided into sections by nine
transverse arches, 1 metre wide. They cannot have had any correspondence
with the columns and arches of the arcade, nor was this necessary, for
they sprang from above the line of the vault and therefore from above
the summit of the arches of the arcade. The transverse arches were
decorated with lozenges (wards as they would be called in modern Arabic)
having a zigzag outline (Plate 18, Fig. 1). In the centre of each
lozenge there was a round hole, or rosette, recessed back in concentric
circles. Between the transverse arches the vault was worked in parallel
bars of stucco, the one oversailing the other. The bars begin at a
distance of about ·80 metre above the spring of the vault. It is evident
that this vault must have been constructed over a light centering, and
Dr. Reuther is of opinion that the singular ridged decoration was
suggested by the impression left by the centering boards upon the
plaster.[23] The top of the vault was probably treated as in room 31,
where a decoration similar to that of the ḥaram is more fully preserved.
Holes for cross-beams break the fourth and fifth stucco ridge between
each transverse arch. Between the terminal transverse arches and the
wall at either end of the ḥaram there is a space 1·60 metres long. It is
divided into two quarter-domes by a transverse arch which springs from
the back wall, at right angles to the transverse arches of the vault.
This arch is decorated in exactly the same manner as the others and must
have joined the first transverse arch at either end, at the summit of
the vault. The quarter-domes are covered with stucco ornament. At the
east end (Plate 20, Fig. 1) a fluted squinch occupies the two angles; on
either side of it are two shallow calottes. Three concentrically
recessed rosettes are set above each of the calottes, and there is a
like motive in the apex of the calotte. Above the squinch and calottes
there is a band of four isolated crenellations, the same motive which
appears on the archivolt over the doors of corridors 5 and 6. Above the
crenellations are vestiges of a decorated band, and above the band the
apex of the quarter-dome is fluted. At the west end there is a slight
variation in the proportions and in the motives of the lower register of
the quarter-domes (Plate 20, Fig. 2). The squinch, instead of being
fluted, is decorated with three concentric bands, sunk one within the
other. At its base lies one of the usual concentric rosettes. The same
rosette is placed on either side of each calotte and within the calotte,
the rosette above the calotte being omitted. The crenellated motive of
the east end is repeated at the west end, but the band between the
crenellations and the flutes of the quarter-domes is omitted.
The miḥrâb niche is not placed exactly in the centre of the south wall,
but a few centimetres to the east (Plate 18, Fig. 2). If there was any
stucco ornament upon it, it was all carried away by the fall of the
vault. The semi-dome which covers it is set over the rectangular niche
on horizontal brackets of masonry, like all other semi-domes and
calottes in the palace. The archivolt is constructed of a double ring of
voussoirs, the inner ring laid vertically, the outer horizontally. There
is no reason to doubt that the miḥrâb is contemporary with the wall. The
plaster which remains upon the interior of the semi-dome shows no sign
of decoration. Below the semi-dome the face of the walls of the niche is
much injured by the heavy masses of fallen masonry.
The angle pier which took the corner arches of the ḥaram and the east
arcade shows, on the sides facing the arcades, returns in the shape of
engaged columns. A third return is rectangular and corresponds with a
return on the east wall, the two carrying the transverse arch which
terminates the eastern vault. In the fragment of this vault which is
standing the principles of construction can be discerned unusually well
(Plate 19). The vault is built of thin slabs of stone, laid in rings,
with a marked inclination against the northern head wall. At the
southern end these rings fan out so as to meet the transverse arch.
One more detail remains to be noticed. The two doors from the west
corridor, 5, stand in recesses 1 metre deep. The recesses are covered by
a calotte, and round the archivolt is placed a stucco decoration
consisting of seven cusps (Plate 21, Fig. 1).
The first floor of the north gate tower has already been described. The
east door of room 90 communicates with the vaulted and unlighted room,
93. A thin dividing wall separates room 93 from room 94 (there is a
small aperture like a window in this wall). Beyond another thin dividing
wall lies room 95, with a window at its eastern end looking into the
palace yard. These three rooms, 93, 94, and 95, occupy the space above
the east corridor, 6. Room 107 is on a lower level; it is approached
from 93 by a doorway with steps and is wholly unlighted. The group of
rooms Nos. 103, 104, and 105 are on the same level as 107. They are
14·75 metres long and correspond in width with the rooms below them. At
their western end they are provided with a masonry divan, 1·20 metres
wide and raised ·55 metre above the level of the floor. The meaning of
this divan is apparent in the section (section _a-b_, Plate 4, Fig. 1);
it was needed in order to lift the floor of the three rooms above the
vaulted tube which lies parallel to the vault of the great hall. The
height of these rooms from the floor to the top of the vault is 4·20
metres. They communicate with each other and with the vaulted passage
108, and room 103 possesses further a door in the south wall leading
into room 102. The latter returns to the level of rooms 93, 94, and 95,
and consequently steps are placed in the doorway of 103.
At the north end of the passage 108 there is a door sunk below the level
of the floor and covered by an arch oversailing the jambs (Plate 21,
Fig. 2). It communicates with the ramp which comes up from the great
hall. East of this door there are the remains of an engaged column, and
it is obvious that the passage must have been flanked here by an open
arcade (Plate 3, Fig. 1). Steps in the doorway at its southern end lead
up to room 106, which is on the same level as 102. South of court A lie
three rooms, 109, 110, and 111. They are not as deep as the rooms below
them on the ground floor (4·40 metres as against 5 metres) since space
has to be provided for a narrow ledge above court A. On to this ledge
the north doors of the three rooms open. On the north side of court A
the ramp, after passing the doorway of 108, is continued upwards (its
windows can be seen in the wall of the court (Plate 22, Fig. 1)). A
wide doorway opens on to a stair, which will be described later, coming
up from the palace yard. The ramp is then carried on along the east side
of court A, and finally opens on to the roof of 111 and of the narrow
passage to the east side of it. The last portion of the ramp is ruined,
but traces of the vault which supported its floor can be seen in the
east wall of court A, together with the spring of the vault with which
it was roofed. Between the ramp and the vault of 25 there appears to
have been a vaulted passage, very low at its northern end, and lighted
by a rectangular window which overlooks the palace yard. It opened at
the southern end, through a narrow vaulted way, on to the roof of No.
47.
The outer stair from the yard is a later addition (Plate 40, Fig. 1).
The round tower at the northern end of the wall has been cut away to
receive it, and it was supported further by four rectangular piers, two
on either side of the tower, which were built up against the wall. These
piers were not bonded into the wall, and the northernmost has entirely
fallen away, but it can still be traced on the face of the masonry. The
communication with the first floor was effected, as has been mentioned,
by means of a door at the north-east angle of the ramp.
Room 106 occupies the vaulted space at the west end of 47 and has a door
to the south opening on to the roof of 45. To the west a door leads into
corridor 102, which lies above the eastern wing of corridor 28 (Plate
22, Fig. 2). It has a door to the south opening on to the roof, and is
lighted by narrow windows in the south wall. West of 102 was the small
room, 101, now ruined, and beyond it rooms 100 and 99 above the west
wing of corridor 28. The height of these rooms on the first floor is
only 3·55 metres to the top of the vault. No. 100 communicates by a door
and steps with the stair leading up from the south-west corner of the
great hall, and so with the first floor chambers of the west wing. These
can be approached also from the west door of room 89, which opens into
the passage room No. 92. In the south wall of 92 there is first a door
and steps which lead down to No. 96, secondly a door giving access to
the roof of the east riwâq of the mosque, and further west a narrow
window which overlooks the ṣaḥn. There are two similar windows in the
south wall of 91 and a door on to the roof of the west riwâq of the
mosque. (The windows and the door of the west riwâq can be seen in Plate
23, Fig. 1.) At the western end of 91 a window opens on to the palace
yard. Rooms 96, 97, and 98 lie above 8, 9, and 10. They are lighted by
narrow windows in the west wall, which can be seen in Plate 19, Fig. 1.
They communicate with each other by doors covered by ovoid arches set
back from the jambs and breaking into the curve of the vault, and each
has access through an arched opening in the east wall to a small room
·85 metre wide, lying at a higher level. The northernmost of these three
small rooms lies under the stair leading from No. 89 to the second
floor, and its vault slopes down at the northern end in order to leave
space for the stair. No. 98 opens by a door on to the staircase from the
great hall. At the west end of the staircase there is a door leading
out on to the roof of the ḥaram, and above it is placed a window. Both
door and window can be seen in Plate 19, Fig. 1. Opposite to this door
and window there is a large opening in the west wall of the great hall,
doubtless in order to secure a little additional light in that dark
edifice.
The stair and the ramp from the great hall were therefore the sole means
of approaching the first floor until the outer stair from the yard was
added. The second floor could be approached in a circuitous manner by
the upper part of the ramp and over the roof of rooms 111, 110, and 109,
or more directly by the stair leading out of room 89. But this stair
could only be reached either by the ramp and through rooms 105, 107, 93,
90, 88, and 89, or by the stair out of the great hall and through rooms
98, 97, 96, 92, and 89. The second floor could also be reached from the
yard, by the stairs in the north-east and north-west angles and thence
along the chemin de ronde.
The rooms on the second floor do not correspond regularly with those of
the floors below (Plate 3, Fig. 2). The second floor of the gate-tower
is much ruined. It is possible that, as the authors of _Ocheïdir_
suggest, it was originally divided into three chambers lying north and
south. Parts of the south wall remain, and there is clear evidence of a
door jamb near its eastern end. On the east side the doorways leading
into 117 and into the chemin de ronde are standing, together with the
south jamb of a doorway which undoubtedly gave access to the roof of the
vault between the gate-tower and the first round tower. The door into
the corresponding balcony on the west side is gone, the door of the
western wing of the chemin de ronde is much ruined, but the door into
No. 116 is still perfect. Neither of these walls, to east and to west,
shows any trace of a vault; the vault, if vault there were, covering the
gate-tower chambers must therefore have sprung much higher than the
vaults of the adjoining chambers.[24]
To the west of 116 is a small room, 115, with a door into the chemin de
ronde and a door into the open court, 114. A window in the south wall of
this court overlooks the ṣaḥn of the mosque (Plate 23, Fig. 1). Still
further west is a vaulted room, 113, presumably with a window looking
out into the yard, but the west wall is much ruined. On the opposite
side of the gate-tower, No. 117 opens into a small rectangular area,
118, where there is no sign of a roof; to the east of it lies an open
space embracing the roofs of Nos. 94 and 95 together with a part of 93.
Here, too, there is no trace of a vault in the north wall, nor of any
party walls. The series of rooms on either side of the gate-tower,
occupying the area over the corridors on the ground floor and of the
corresponding rooms on the first floor, are designated by Dr. Reuther
casemates because they were connected with the chemin de ronde and
probably played some part in the defence of the palace. In all of them
the vaults, which oversail the walls in the usual fashion, are slightly
flattened at the top.
A door in the south wall of No. 117 leads into an open court, 16·95
metres from east to west by 12·60 metres from north to south. It does
not lie in the centre of the three-storied block, but extends
considerably to the east of the central axis. The stair from the first
floor reaches the second floor at the north-west angle of this court.
The door into 119 opens awkwardly over the stair. On the east, south,
and west sides of the court stand groups of three chambers, the central
chamber opening into the court by a wide archway springing from engaged
columns, the side chambers by doors covered by ovoid arches set back
from the jambs (Plate 23, Fig. 2); and here we have an architectural
group which dominates all the courts upon the ground floor of the palace
that are yet to be described. The central chamber with its wide archway
is the lîwân or reception-room,[25] the side chambers are, in one form
or another, its invariable or almost invariable complement. I shall
henceforward speak of the whole as a lîwân group. As Dr. Reuther has
pointed out, the occupants of an oriental room seat themselves upon
cushions or dîwâns against the wall, the dîwân, cushion or carpet, which
is placed against the back wall, being the place of honour. In order not
to break up the company, the side doors of every room are situated as
far as possible from the back wall, and it will be noticed that this
rule holds good in every living-room of the palace. At Ukhaiḍir (though
this is not always the case) in every lîwân group the rooms communicate
with each other. It is common in oriental houses to build lîwâns facing
different points of the compass so as to secure a comfortable shade at
different hours of the day, and warmth or coolness at different seasons
of the year. The lîwân group, if such it were, over the gate-tower would
have served the purpose of a winter reception-room, for it faced south;
the group facing north would be used in summer.
In the lîwân group on the west side of the court the rooms are 5·95
metres long with an average width of 4 metres. The vaults here are all
standing, and the rooms are considerably higher than those on the first
floor, measuring 5·25 metres to the top of the vault. (It is difficult
to get exact measurements for the height of the rooms on the ground
floor owing to irregularities in the level of the ground, but I think
that a height of 5 metres to the top of the vault is not far wrong.)
Between the parallel barrel vaults are masonry tubes, which are visible
upon the façade in the form of small openings like windows between the
arches of the central and of the side rooms. To the south of No. 121
there is a small open court, 123, which is approached by a narrow
passage from the main court. A door from it leads into No. 122, which is
completely ruined. On the north side of the court, 123, there was a
stair which gave access to the flat roof of Nos. 121, 120, and 119. On
the north side of 119 a fragment of wall rises above the level of the
roof; it was probably connected with the high vault of the gate-house
chambers. In the lîwân group on the south side of the court, the rooms,
124, 125, and 126, are 7 metres long, but their exact width is difficult
to determine since the party walls have fallen (Plate 24, Fig. 1). It
must, however, have averaged about 4 metres like the width of the rooms
on the west side. On the east side of the court a vaulted passage runs
parallel to 137; the door into the court is standing and its arch
oversails the jambs, whereas the arches of all the other doors are set
back (Plate 24). Above the door there is a narrow window. A lîwân group
follows to the south of the passage (Plate 24, Figs. 1 and 2). The rooms
are 7·45 metres long; their width varies, as far as I could ascertain in
their ruined condition. According to my estimates No. 132 is 2·85 metres
wide, No. 131 is 3·95 metres wide, and No. 130 is 4 metres wide. Still
further south there is a small open court, No. 127, corresponding to No.
123. A door in the south wall opens on to a narrow parapet or balcony
which crowns the façade of the first floor. To the east lies an
irregular chamber, 128, which is totally ruined.
The passage, 137, leads into a gallery, No. 134, which was finished on
the east side by an open arcade (Plate 25, Fig. 1). Traces of an engaged
column remain at the north end of the arcade, and the vault was
constructed with transverse arches in the same manner as the vaults
round the ṣaḥn of the mosque. There was, however, no stucco decoration
in this upper gallery. At the angles stood quarter-domes over unadorned
squinch arches (Plate 25, Fig. 2). The gallery opens at its
south-eastern end on to the roof of No. 109. To the south of the gallery
there are two narrow chambers, one with a door into the gallery, the
other with a door on to the roof of 109. They are almost completely
ruined. Dr. Reuther places in them a stair leading by a double flight on
to the roof.
The main part of the palace, one story high, lies to the south of the
three-storied block. Except for a group of rooms in the east side of the
yard, which is a later addition, it is symmetrically arranged round a
central court. It falls into three divisions: two courts, B and C, with
their living-rooms on the east side; two exactly similar courts, G and
H, on the west side; a central court with a group of chambers to the
south of it, and further south a small court, E, with rooms on three
sides of it, and a subsidiary court, D, further east. The long vaulted
corridor, 28, which runs from east to west between the great hall and
the central court, turns at right angles and runs from north to south
between the central court with its chambers and the side wings. It is
then carried round to the south of the chambers dependent on the
central court, and runs from east to west between them and court E with
its chambers.
The central court is 32·70 metres from north to south and 27 metres from
east to west. It is surrounded to east, north, and west by a blind
arcade which forms part, on the north side, of the façade of the
three-storied block (Plate 6, Fig. 2). The arcade is 1 metre deep.
Engaged half-columns set against rectangular piers carry shallow
calottes, the archivolt of which is slightly horse-shoed (Plate 26, Fig.
1). The intercolumniation varies from 2·35 to 2·55 metres. All the
details were of stucco, which has now broken away. The columns, piers,
and walls are of stone masonry; the capitals, calottes, and archivolts,
together with the wall above them, are of brick. The capitals, which are
much damaged, are cubes formed of three courses of bricks; the calottes
are of brick laid in horizontal courses and carried over the angles of
the niches by horizontal brackets; the horse-shoed archivolts are
composed of an inner ring of brick tiles laid horizontally, and an outer
ring laid vertically. Of the outer ring only fragments remain. In one
case (the calotte immediately to the south of the east door) the tiles
are laid in rings, and the curve of the archivolt is not horse-shoed
(Plate 26, Fig. 2). The corresponding calotte on the west side has
fallen. In the centre of each calotte, and impinging upon the stonework
below, there is an oblong window which lights corridor 28. On the north
side of the court only two of the niches and calottes remain intact to
the east of the central door, and only one to the west of the central
door. In the centre the whole face of the wall has fallen, carrying with
it parts of the corridors on the first floor and part of the south wall
of the great hall. The small chamber, 27, which was probably covered
with a dome, is entirely ruined, together with room 101 above it. It is
therefore impossible to determine the exact form of the doorway which
led from 27 into the central court, but there is no reason to suppose
that it differed materially from the door on the east side of the court.
The nature of the horizontal decorations which govern the façade
preclude all idea of a large central door. The blind arcade of the first
floor is not so high as the arcade below it (Plates 27 and 85). Instead
of the half-columns and piers of the ground floor, the archivolts of the
first floor spring from a cluster of four small engaged columns which
must have been finished in stucco. Nothing remains of the capitals. In
the spandrels are placed oblong windows lighting the upper corridors,
100 and 102. On the face of the pointed arches of the arcade it is still
possible to trace a scolloped ornament in plaster, like that which
exists over the doors of the mosque. Within the large arches there is a
system of small blind arched niches flanked by slender engaged
colonnettes of which little trace remains. There are five of these
niches within each of the large niches, two below and three above, the
central niche in the group of three being the largest. There is a slight
error here in Dr. Reuther’s reconstruction, an error to which he himself
called my attention. He has placed only one small niche in the upper
register instead of three. The side niches can be seen in Plate 27. He
suggests that in the middle of the façade one or more of these small
niches must have contained windows in order to give additional light to
room 101, since it was from room 101 that most of the light in the great
hall was derived. Beyond the arcading on either side of the façade the
wall was finished by a solid pier, the surface of which was broken by
three projecting horizontal bars. The cornices are not preserved, but,
as I shall show later, they cannot have been very important. The
decoration of the façade ends on the level of the second floor and forms
a narrow balcony a little over 1 metre wide which runs along the face of
the building. The wall of the second floor is recessed a few centimetres
to give additional width to this balcony. On to it open the doors of
Nos. 123 and 127. These doors are not placed symmetrically with respect
to the façade; the west door is nearer the centre than is the east door.
The plain wall is carried up to the top of the door arches; above that
level there is a band of shallow arched niches which appear to have been
divided from one another by engaged columns, probably carrying an
architrave, like the niches on the summit of the outer north wall of the
palace.
To return to the central court. On the east side there is a doorway in
the third intercolumniation from the south end (Plate 26, Fig. 2). It
leads into corridor 28. The arch of this door is set back from the
jambs, but the upper part is ruined. The corresponding door on the west
side has disappeared, together with most of the south-west end of the
wall. On the east side the arcading is not carried into the angle of the
court. The southernmost archivolt ends against a quarter-column, beyond
which space is provided for the entrance of a stair which leads down to
a vaulted chamber below the level of the ground (Plate 28, Fig. 1).
Above this entrance there is a fluted semi-dome finished by a fillet
(Plate 28, Fig. 2). The semi-dome is set horizontally over the angles of
the niche in the accustomed manner. The actual entrance to the stair is
covered not by an arch but by a masonry lintel (compare the door between
20 and 21).
The south side of the court is also arcaded, but not in the same
fashion. The arcades are much shallower (·40 metre deep) and they are
differently grouped. In the centre of the south wall there was a wide
archway (4·20 metres wide) leading into room 29. This arch rose above
the level of the arcade on either side of it and the chambers behind it
were higher than the adjoining chambers (Plate 29, Fig. 1). On either
side of the entrance there is an unusually large engaged column; beyond
these columns there is a flat pier and an engaged quarter-column,
followed by a niche ·80 metre wide covered by a shallow calotte (Plate
29, Fig. 2). Three more recesses, measuring in width 1·95 metres, 2·10
metres, and 2·50 metres, and separated from each other by engaged
columns of about ·70 metre diameter, occupy the remainder of the façade.
In no case is the capital preserved, but it is noticeable that all the
columns swell outwards towards the top. The archivolts are ovoid, not
horse-shoed. The first niche on either side of the small niches contains
a door leading on the west side into No. 31 and on the east side into
No. 42. The third big niche on the east side contains another and a
smaller door which gives access to a stair leading to the roof (Plate
28, Fig. 1). The doors of Nos. 31 and 42 offer good examples of arch
construction (Plate 29, Fig. 3). The arch is set back from the jambs and
formed of an inner ring of concrete and an outer ring of stone voussoirs
laid horizontally. The calottes covering the niches are of brick, but
unlike the calottes on the other three sides of the court, the bricks
are set horizontally and vertically and used in half and quarter lengths
so as to form intricate designs which Dr. Reuther compares very aptly to
the Hazârbâf motives so common in oriental woodwork (Plate 29, Fig. 2).
South of the central court lies a group of rooms of a ceremonial
character. In the centre of this group is the lîwân No. 29, 6 x 10·70
metres. It was covered by a barrel vault of brick, which has now fallen
in. The vault oversailed the wall and its point of springing is 4·30
metres above the level of the ground, instead of the 3·40 metres above
ground-level at which the vaults spring in the adjoining chambers to
east and west. It is therefore clear that the vault of 29 must
considerably have overtopped the other vaults, and as I shall show
later, it is usual to find the ceremonial lîwân higher and more
important than the remaining chambers of the group. I have followed Dr.
Reuther in giving it a rectangular frame upon the façade of the court
(section _e-f_, Plate 5, Fig. 1). Two large doors, 1·50 metres wide and
3·64 high to the top of the arch, open on either side of the lîwân, on
the east into rooms 41 and 42, and on the west into rooms 31 and 32,
which lie at right angles to the lîwân. At the south end a similar door
leads into No. 30, a chamber 6 metres square, which has been covered by
a barrel vault of brick running north and south, and doubtless the same
height as the vault of the lîwân. Doors of the same character, with
ovoid arches set back from the jambs, are placed in the middle of the
east, south, and west walls of No. 30. The fact that the high vaults of
Nos. 29 and 30 were not sufficiently buttressed by the lower vaults on
either side accounts for their fall.
Rooms 31 and 32 are distinguished by a plaster decoration more elaborate
than any which is to be found elsewhere in the palace, with the sole
exception of the mosque. The vault of No. 31 resembles the vault of the
ḥaram, and like the ḥaram vault it must have been built over a
centering. It is divided into two compartments by three transverse
arches, one spanning the centre of the chamber, the other two placed
respectively against the east and west walls (Plate 30, Fig. 1). These
transverse arches, which are ·95 metre wide, spring from a double outset
at a height of 2·80 metres from the ground. The vault between the arches
springs at a point ·25 metre higher. It is composed, like the ḥaram
vault, of narrow oversailing ridges worked in stucco. Along the top of
the vault are placed between each pair of transverse arches four square
stucco motives, some of which remain intact. They differ slightly from
each other, but all are variants of the same theme (Plate 30, Fig. 2).
The first from the east end consists of four squares within one another,
like a Chinese box, each sunk behind the other. In the centre there is a
circular rosette, doubly recessed. In the second a single recessed
square contains a saucer-shaped motive, the surface of the saucer being
covered with rings of small plaster excrescences. In the third the usual
recessed square is filled with a triply sunk diamond, with a recessed
rosette in the centre. In the fourth the recessed square frame is filled
with a recessed diamond, within the diamond is a recessed square, within
the square a second recessed diamond, in the centre of which is a
rosette. In the western compartment two of the motives consist of
squares sunk within one another, a third of a doubly sunk square
containing a triply sunk rosette, while the fourth is obliterated.
Finally high up in the east and west walls under the vault is placed a
small niche whereof the arch springs from engaged colonnettes.
No. 31 is connected with No. 32 by a door opposite to the door in the
central court. The construction of the roof in No. 32 is different from
any other example of roofing in the palace. It is divided into three
compartments by four heavy transverse arches which spring at a height of
2·85 metres from the floor, level and are set forward twice from the
face of the wall (Plate 31, Fig. 1). Between the arches small barrel
vaults are stretched across the chamber from north to south. In the
eastern compartment the north and south head walls are carried up to the
height of the vault. Immediately below the spring of the vault there is
a sunk band in the head walls decorated with three recessed circles or
rosettes. In the central and western compartment the vault terminates
against a semi-dome, set over the angles in one case horizontally, in
the other (the western compartment) by means of small recessed squinches
(compare the west end of the ḥaram). Below the semi-domes there are a
couple of narrow fillets, and below the sunk band of the eastern
compartment a single wide fillet. Below these, at the same level in all
the compartments, the head wall is decorated with pairs of arched
niches, the arches being supported by engaged colonnettes. The
colonnettes have no bases; a narrow impost serves them as capital. The
face of the arches is decorated in two of the compartments by fillets
and in the third (the western) by a zigzag motive. Within each niche
there is a spear-shaped ornament sunk in the wall. In the spandrel
between the arches there lies a recessed rosette. At a height of ·35
metre above the springing point of the transverse arches the head wall
is set very slightly forward, in imitation of the outset of an
oversailing vault. The arches of the doors rise higher than the level of
this outset, which is lifted in a rectangular label over them. The
barrel vaults between the transverse arches are variously treated. The
eastern vault is divided into sections by three short transverse arches,
each of which is decorated by a square sunk motive. The central vault
has the same number of short transverse arches, but these are
undecorated. The western vault is provided with a transverse arch
against the semi-dome at either end, while the remainder of its length
is decorated with stucco ridges. A pair of niches, smaller than those
upon the side walls, is placed in the east and in the west wall under
the transverse arches, but the spear-shaped ornament and the recessed
rosette of the side niches is omitted.
Rooms 31 and 32 are 10·05 metres from east to west and 4·90 metres from
north to south. Room 41, lying opposite to room 32, has an equal length
and the same system of doors, but no decoration. Room 42, which
corresponds with room 31, is only 7·25 metres from east to west, since
space had to be allowed for the two stairs leading out of the central
court, one to the roof and one to the underground chamber. In the
south-east corner of No. 42 there is a small door giving access to a
narrow passage behind the block of masonry which contains the upper
stair. It turns at right angles into a short passage lying above the
lower stair. The vaulted underground chamber corresponds in length and
width with No. 42 (section _e-f_, Plate 5, Fig. 1). It is lighted by
three small windows which are splayed upwards to the ground-level--one
of these can be seen in Fig. 3 of Plate 29. The room was filled with
débris, so that I cannot be certain of its height. In the west wall
there is an arched niche or ṭâqchah. In the intense heat of southern
Mesopotamia it is customary to provide all houses with underground
chambers, wherein the inhabitants spend the greater part of their day in
summer. They are known as serdâbs. To the authors of _Ocheïdir_ I am
indebted for an interesting observation with regard to the vault of No.
41.[26] It was built in sections over a movable centering which has left
its mark upon the concrete of which the vault was formed.
Rooms 32 and 41 communicated by doors in the south wall with the
columned chambers 33 and 40 (Plate 31, Fig. 2), which are exactly alike
in every respect, except that No. 40 is connected by a door with the
room to the south, No. 39, whereas there is no south door in No. 32.
Both 33 and 40 have doors, covered with ovoid arches set back from the
jambs, leading into the corridor 28, and both are divided into three
aisles by two arcades of three arches carried on two masonry columns.
The aisles run north and south. The innermost aisle in either case forms
part of the vaulted corridor, 36, which runs round three sides of No.
30. This aisle is only 2·50 metres wide, as compared with the 2·85
metres of the other two aisles. All the aisles are roofed with barrel
vaults. Though the columns are of stone masonry, the capitals, together
with the arches and walls they carry, and the segmental vaults, are of
brick. The columns are separated from one another from north to south by
a distance of 2·50 metres, but the distance between each column and the
wall behind it is only ·90 metre; hence the wide central arches rise
almost to the spring of the vault, whereas the side arches are from
their narrow span necessarily much lower (Plate 32, Fig. 1). The curve
of all the arches is a pointed ovoid, and the narrow arches are
considerably stilted. These last are built of concentric rings of small
brick tiles, the inner band laid vertically, the outer horizontally. The
large arches are composed of two concentric rings of voussoirs, both
laid vertically, the inner ring being of large tiles used in their full
size, the outer ring of half of the same tiles. The capitals are better
preserved than any in the palace, and from one of the capitals of No. 33
in particular, an excellent idea of the form of the impost-capital
commonly used at Ukhaiḍir can be obtained. (It is the capital seen in
Plate 32, Fig. 1.) The cube of the capital is adapted to the circle of
the column by placing an angle of brick under each corner. The capital
is composed of a shallow ovolo in moulded plaster surmounted by an
abacus which consists of a single course of bricks and carries an impost
formed of three courses of brick. Within the arches the impost slightly
oversails the abacus.
On the south side of corridor 36 the vault has fallen, together with the
columns between the engaged piers which must have supported the arcade
(Plate 31, Fig. 3). The spring of the arches can be seen against the
piers. From the fragments that exist, the barrel vaults do not seem to
have intersected one another but to have met diagonally at the angles.
At the east and west ends of No. 36 a door opens into rooms 39 and 34.
No. 34 communicates with a parallel chamber, No. 35, which opens
independently upon the narrow open court, F, between 36 and the corridor
28. The eastern side of this court was much ruined. In the south-east
corner was a stair which led up to the roof. To the north, and partly
under the stair, lies a small room, 38, communicating with another
narrow room, 37, which was not entirely vaulted over. That it was
intended to contain a fire is clear from the fact that the vault is
pierced by two terra-cotta pipes, the one 29 centimetres in diameter,
the other 12 centimetres, which must have served as chimneys. Similar
pipes occur elsewhere and will be mentioned later.
The long corridor, 28, which lies to east and west of the central court
and its group of chambers, turns at right angles and encloses the whole
central block. The corridor is covered by a semicircular stone vault,
oversailing the walls; at four points, however, it is left unroofed in
order to admit light and air. These openings are flanked by transverse
arches, springing a few centimetres lower than the spring of the vault.
The angles of the corridor are roofed with groined vaults, and groined
vaults occur in two places, towards the middle of each of the long sides
of the corridor. Moreover, a small extension of the east arm of the
corridor, No. 61, is also roofed with a groin. This last is the example
given by Dr. Reuther on Plate 13 of _Ocheïdir_; it is the only groin in
the palace which is built of brick. Where the groins do not rest on the
head wall, they are laid against transverse arches, springing from a
point lower than the springing of the vault. The lower parts of the
groin are built of stones laid horizontally and forming a bracket from
which spring the intersecting vaults (Plate 32, Fig. 2). The vaults are
also built of thin slabs of stone, cut in the shape of bricks, and laid
with a slight inclination backwards against the head wall or the
transverse arch. This construction demanded little or no centering. In
the north-east angle of the corridor there is a small door in the east
wall which gave access to a stair or passage running under the wall. It
was so much blocked by ruins that I could not penetrate into it.
From the corridor a door opens into each of the five courts, B and C on
the east side, forming the eastern wing of the palace, H and G on the
west side, forming the western wing, and E to the south. The courts have
no direct communication with each other. The chambers on the north and
south sides of these courts are all arranged in lîwân groups, but there
are differences in detail between courts B and H on the one hand, and
courts C and G on the other, while the position and size of court E has
led to further modifications. Court B (Plate 33, Figs. 1 and 2) measures
15·20 metres from north to south, and 17·60 metres from east to west,
but on the west side ·40 metre is occupied by a shallow blind arcade,
and on the east side 3 metres was taken up by an arcaded passage which
is now ruined. The blind arcade is composed of five arches carried by
engaged piers which have an average width of ·70 metre. The arches are
round and spring directly from the piers without the interposition of
impost or capital. In the central of the five intercolumniations is
placed the door from the corridor. To the north and to the south of the
court lies a lîwân group of three vaulted chambers. The lîwân opens on
to the court through an archway 2·60 metres wide flanked by engaged
columns and piers (Plate 34, Fig. 1). The side chambers communicate by
means of arched doorways with small antechambers, which in turn open
into the court through arched doorways 2·05 metres wide, flanked by
engaged columns (Plate 34, Fig. 2. The mass of brickwork which partly
blocks the doorway is a later addition). The antechambers are roofed
with barrel vaults running east and west, which are separated from the
outer end of the lîwân vault by transverse arches; thus the vault of the
lîwân is enabled to run through to the wall of the court (Plate 35, Fig.
1). Structurally, the antechambers are therefore distinct from the outer
end of the lîwân; practically the antechambers and the outer end of the
lîwân form a kind of narthex, the outer end of the lîwân being part of
the narthex and not an integral part of the reception-room. This fact is
accentuated by the position of the side doors in the lîwân. The sitting
space along the walls ends with these doors, and for practical purposes
the lîwân is no longer than the side chambers. The capitals of the
engaged columns are rectangular impost blocks of stone masonry. Between
the parallel barrel vaults there is the usual system of tubes (Fig. 4).
The tubes running north and south are carried over the transverse arches
of the antechambers, and their openings appear on the façade of the
lîwân groups. Where the façade has fallen, as, for example, on the south
side of court B, the construction can be clearly traced, and it is also
possible to observe that tubes ran from east to west between the wall
of the façade and the barrel vaults of the antechambers, as well as on
the inner side of the same barrel vaults. Perhaps these tubes were
connected with a tube running north and south parallel with the vault of
the corridor. The vaults are ovoid and are constructed of a single
course of stones laid vertically supporting a mass of stone and
concrete. In all the interior doors the arches are set back from the
jambs (Plate 36, Fig. 1) and constructed in the manner described on p.
15. Upon the plaster of the west wall of No. 44, south of the door
leading into No. 45, there is a graffito inscription in Arabic (see
below, p. 161).[27]
[Illustration: FIG. 4. South side of court B. (From _Ocheïdir_, by kind
permission of Dr. Reuther.)]
East of the lîwân group on the north side of court B there is a stair,
and still further east a narrow passage within the outer wall. A small
door in the north-east corner of the side chamber, 46, gives access to
an unlighted blind passage under the stair. The stair runs up to a
landing-place which is connected by a low doorway with a small chamber
situated above the eastern passage. Another door leads into a gangway
hollowed out of the thickness of the outer wall, and from this gangway a
door leads into a tiny circular room in the outer towers. I did not
determine whether the gangway in the wall runs on interruptedly from
court to court. On the whole, as Dr. Reuther has observed, this would
seem to be improbable since the strict isolation of the courts is in all
other respects preserved. Almost exactly above the entrance to the stair
(an awkward piece of construction) sprang the first arch of the arcade
which flanked the court from north to south. In every court this arcade
has fallen, but on the south side of court H a portion of the first arch
remains, together with the vault behind it (Plate 35, Fig. 2). I cleared
away the ruins at the south end of this arcade and found the remains of
the first column at a distance of 2·40 metres from the south wall. The
arcade must therefore have been composed of four columns carrying five
arches, corresponding with the blind arcade on the opposite wall. The
massive stone vaulting of Ukhaiḍir was not suited to free standing
arcades, and, as has been noticed in the mosque, when the wooden
cross-beams perished, their collapse was inevitable.
To return to court B. The passage already mentioned, running parallel
with the outer wall, leads into an oblong room, 47, 3·55 metres wide,
which lies from east to west across the back of the lîwân group and the
stair. This room is vaulted at either end but is left open near the
centre (Plate 35, Fig. 3). The same oblong room is found behind the
southern lîwân group of court B, and behind each of the lîwân groups in
courts C, G, and H. In every case the vault next to the outer wall is
pierced by a pair of terra-cotta pipes similar to the pipes described in
No. 37. It is probable, as I shall show later (p. 82) that these rooms
were intended for kitchens. On the south side of court B there is no
stair; above the vault of the passage which leads into the oblong room,
51, there is a blind corridor accessible from No. 50 by a door placed in
the east wall, some 2 metres from the ground. This door must have been
approached by a wooden ladder or steps, but I climbed up into it over a
heap of ruins. On the west side the antechamber of No. 49 is provided
with a door into corridor 28. Immediately to the south of this door a
wall, broken by a doorway, has been built across the corridor. This wall
is a later addition; it is not bonded into the walls of the corridor,
and it does not occur in the corresponding west arm.
Court C differs from court B in the absence of antechambers to the lîwân
groups (Plate 33, Figs. 3 and 4). The lîwân opens into the court through
a wide pointed arch carried on engaged columns; the side chambers are
provided with doorways into the court, covered by ovoid arches set back
from the jambs (Plate 36, Fig. 2), and the façade thus formed
corresponds exactly with the façades of the court on the top floor of
the three-storied block. Near the south-east corner of court C there is
an arched doorway leading into the palace yard (Plate 37, Fig. 1). In
the oblong chamber, 60, behind the southern lîwân group, the south wall
is occupied by a blind arcade of four arches borne by piers 1·10 metres
wide and 1·05 metres deep. A similar blind arcade occurs in the
corresponding chamber of court G, and indeed, except for slight
variations in the measurements, the only difference between courts C and
G is that in the latter there is no door into the palace yard. In the
same way court H re-echoes court B save that in court H there is no
doorway between the southern antechamber, 82, and the corridor 28 (Plate
37, Fig. 3).
The arrangement of the rooms in court E is not symmetrical. On the east
side court E is curtailed by the small oblong room, 61, and an open
court, D. No. 61 is a continuation of the east arm of the corridor 28.
It measures 5·25 metres from north to south and 3·50 metres from east to
west. The square for the brick groin with which it is roofed is obtained
by laying a transverse arch to north and south. It opens by two arched
doors, divided by a pier, into court D, which measures 10 metres from
north to south and 9·20 metres from east to west. In the south wall
there is an arched doorway into the palace yard. To the east of court E
there is space for one chamber only (62) and a winding stair which leads
to the roof. On the west side there are two chambers, 67 and 68,
communicating with one another and with the court. To the south of 67
there is a narrow passage (Plate 37, Fig. 2) which leads into an oblong
room, 69, similar in all respects to the oblong rooms behind the lîwân
groups in courts B, C, G, and H.[28] Between the barrel vaults of 67 and
68 and the south arm of corridor 28 are the usual tubes. The doorways of
67 and 68 are covered with ovoid arches set back from the jambs, but the
opening into the narrow southern passage follows the line of the vault
and oversails the wall. Above the vault of the passage there is an
inaccessible passage or tube which exists for structural reasons only.
To the south of court E lies a lîwân with its side chambers, the lîwân,
64, opening into the court by a wide archway, the side chambers by small
doors, as in courts C and G. Finally, the space between 65 and 69 is
filled up by a fourth room, 66, which communicates with 65 and with the
narrow passage. Tubes are laid between all the barrel vaults of these
rooms.[29]
The whole building above described is enclosed on three sides by a wall
1·60 metres thick, set with towers 2·40 metres in diameter which project
1·80 metres from the face of the wall (Plate 38, Fig. 1).[30] Through
the upper part of the wall runs the low, vaulted, and unlighted gangway
which has already been mentioned (Plate 39, Fig. 1). It is no more than
a tube between the wall and the vaults that adjoin the wall, but it
serves to give access to the round chambers hollowed out of the towers.
Access to the roof can be obtained at three points, the stair at the
south-east angle of the central court, the stair at the south-east angle
of court F, and the stair at the south-east angle of court E. Further,
the three doors out of the first floor rooms 99, 102, and 106 open on to
the roof of the single-storied block. There are traces of a narrow
parapet round the edge of the roof, and the different courts seem to
have been divided from one another and from the corridor 28 by low walls
on the roof (Plate 38, Fig. 2).
One other building stands within the palace yard, the group of rooms
140-152 to the east of the main palace. It is a later addition, though
it resembles the rest of the palace too closely to admit of its having
been added after the lapse of any considerable period of time. The north
façade is prolonged beyond the chambers at either side, and is joined at
the east end to one of the pilasters of the outer wall and at the west
end to one of the towers of the inner wall, but it is not bonded in to
the pilaster or to the tower. The northern end of the palace yard is
thus divided off into a large court, which bears the same relation to
the east annex as does the central court to the ceremonial chambers to
the south of it. The stair to the first floor of the main palace was
placed in this court, and it was approached from the main entrance
through corridor 6. At the south-east corner the east annex does not
connect with the angle of the east gate staircase, but is divided from
it by an interval of ·30 metre.
The group of rooms 140-152 (the east annex) resembles in its main lines
the group 29-42, south of the central court, and must have been intended
for the same purposes. The north façade is decorated with blind arcades
projecting ·25 metre from the face of the wall (Plate 39, Fig. 2). The
ovoid arches, which contain very shallow calottes, are carried by
engaged columns having a diameter of ·40 metre. A recessed polygon was
placed in the spandrels. The arcade is best preserved at the west end,
and it is there possible to see that a narrow cornice, consisting of a
single course of stones, ran along the wall above the arches, and that
above the cornice the top of the wall was adorned with small arched
niches, borne on stumpy half-columns and separated from one another by
larger engaged columns (compare the top of the outer north wall of the
palace and the top of the north façade of the central court). At the
west end of the façade, in the first intercolumniation of the blind
arcade, there is a gateway 1·90 metres wide, covered by a pointed arch.
A similar gateway seems to have existed in the second intercolumniation
from the east end, but the façade here is much ruined. The north wall of
rooms 140, 142, and 145 has fallen (Plate 39, Fig. 3). There can be no
doubt that access was obtained to the lîwân, 140, by a wide archway, as
in the case of the corresponding lîwân, 29, south of the central court.
I saw no trace of a north door into chambers 142 and 145, though in all
probability it existed. The lîwân, 140, is 5·40 metres wide by 10·50
metres long. Like the lîwân 29, it has two doors on each side and a door
in the south wall. It is, however, vaulted in stone, not in brick, and
the vault does not rise above the level of those on either side. The
door-jambs are enriched with shallow pilasters, ·18 metre wide and ·4
metre deep, worked in stucco (Plate 40, Fig. 2). They do not carry an
arch over the archivolt of the door. In the side doors the archivolt
cuts into the line of the oversailing vault which is carried over them.
Above the south door there is a high narrow arched window, giving
additional light to room 141. On either side of the door is placed a
shallow arched niche, 1 metre wide and ·5 metre deep. The arch is filled
in with a calotte, the lower edge of which is sunk behind the face of
the wall. To the west of 140 are two vaulted chambers, 142 and 143,
communicating with one another and with a similar chamber, 144, lying
further to the south. The vaults of 142, 143, and 144 are set at right
angles to the vaults of 140 and 141, so as to form buttresses to them.
On the east side the same arrangement is observed in rooms 145, 146, and
147. These six chambers correspond to the more elaborate chambers 31,
32, 33, and 40, 41, 42 of the main palace. No. 141 (which corresponds
with No. 30) is provided with four doors, one in the middle of each
side. It was covered, not by a barrel vault, but by a stone groined
vault, which has now fallen (Plate 41, Fig. 1). The chambers east and
west of 141 (Nos. 144 and 147; compare the columned rooms of the main
palace) communicate with the yard on either side and also with the
vaulted passage or antechamber 148. Into this passage (Plate 41, Fig. 2;
compare No. 36 of the main palace) the south door of No. 141 opens. The
vault of the passage has fallen. It was no doubt carried on the south
side by columns and arches like No. 36. There are no chambers to east
and west of the passage, but on either side of the open space to the
south of it were two chambers, 149 and 150 to the west, 151 and 152 to
the east. They communicated with one another and with the yard to the
north, as well as with the corridor south of 141. Their vaults ran east
and west. No. 150 has fallen almost completely and No. 152 is much
ruined.[31] A doorway in No. 148 gives access to a stair which leads
down into an underground room lying beneath Nos. 144, 143, and 142
(section _e-f_, Plate 5, Fig. 1). It is lighted by three splayed windows
in the north wall; under the windows there is an arched niche or
tâqchah. To the west of No. 142 there is a ruined chamber which
contained a stair leading to the roof. Thus the analogy with the block
of rooms Nos. 29-42 is complete even to the serdâb and the stair to the
roof.
The vault construction in the east annex shows a variation from that of
the main palace. Instead of the long tubes running parallel with the
barrel vaults, the masonry between the parallel barrel vaults of the
annex is lightened by short compartments set at right angles to the
vaults. Plate 39, Fig. 3, shows this construction between the vaults of
143 and 146 and the ruined vaults of 142 and 145; Plate 42, Fig. 1, the
same construction between the vaults 144, 141, and 147, and the ruined
vault of the passage 148. This system is an improvement upon the tubular
scheme, inasmuch as it fills in the space between the vaults more
completely and gives greater solidity to the roof. Moreover, it has the
advantage of leaving no long inaccessible tubes to serve as a home for
birds and snakes. The decorative effect of the openings of the tubes is
lost, but it was not needed in the blank east and west walls of the
annex, nor yet in the arcaded north wall.
The fact that a similar system of small compartments is to be observed
in the building outside the palace to the north (though they are here
laid parallel to the barrel vaults) leads me to suspect that it must
have been built at about the same period, and is therefore a later
addition to the original plan. It is completely detached from the
palace, but it stands in line with the west wall of the palace and
parallel to the north wall (Plate 43, Figs. 1 and 2). It is separated by
a distance of 13·25 metres from the face of the arcades of the north
wall. It was itself constructed at two different periods. The older
portion lies to the south, nearest to the palace, and consists of a
large open court, J, 33·20 metres from north to south and 24·80 metres
from east to west, flanked on the east side by six vaulted rooms. The
southernmost of these six rooms, 153, is 9·55 metres from north to south
and 7·80 metres from east to west. It is separated from court J by a
wall 1 metre thick, but on the east side its wall is 1·90 metres thick
and shows upon the exterior traces of an outer stair, leading to the
roof, which passed over the wide arched opening in the east wall. The
vault, which must have stood two stories high, like the vault of the
great hall, has fallen. The remaining rooms, 154-158, have doors in the
east wall and small loopholed windows in the west wall (Plate 42, Fig.
2). The rooms are divided across the centre by a transverse arch and
vaulted in two compartments, the vaults running east and west. Court J
had a cloister upon the west side; it has entirely disappeared, but the
spring of its vault is visible on the inner side of the west wall.
Probably the vault was carried on the east side by columns and arches.
Four round towers project at irregular intervals from the exterior of
the west wall (Plate 44, Figs. 1 and 2); they have the same diameter as
the towers in the outer palace wall. The southernmost is about 3·40
metres from the southern angle of the court--an exact measurement is
difficult because the angle of the wall is ruined. The next tower lies
5·65 metres to the north of the first; an interval of 7·35 metres
separates it from the third tower, and the third tower is 10·70 metres
from the larger tower at the north-west angle of the court. The angle
tower contains a winding stair. The three smaller towers seem to be a
later addition to the wall; they bear no relation to the three doors,
and they block some of the windows. The windows are placed in groups of
three, two groups between the south-west angle and the first door, one
group between the first and second, and the second and third doors, and
two groups between the third door and the angle tower. There are traces
of a similar group in the north wall immediately to the east of the
angle tower, and the straight face at the east end of the north wall
gives reason to believe that there was a group of windows here also. The
north wall is much ruined, and the ruin heaps are covered with blown
sand. The arches of the windows are carried by engaged columns.[32]
To the north of room 158, and in a line with it, lie nine vaulted
chambers which were added at a later date (Plate 44, Fig. 2). They are
separated from No. 158 by a stair running up to the roof, with a doorway
to the west. At the east end there is a small room under the top of the
stair with a loophole window in the east wall. From this room, which is
accessible from No. 159, a stair, now completely ruined, led down into a
substructure. Nos. 159 and 160 are 4 metres broad; they are covered by
barrel vaults and have a door at either end. No. 161 opens by two doors
into No. 162. No. 162 is 4·80 metres broad and is divided across the
centre by a transverse arch. East of the transverse arch only half the
space is vaulted over. Besides the doors, there are two small windows
high up in the north and south wall. In the east and west walls there is
a wide archway instead of the usual doors. The five rooms 163-167
resemble in all respects Nos. 159-161. Except over No. 162, where the
vault is higher than in the other chambers, the roof of rooms 154-167 is
raised above small compartments lying over the barrel vaults (Plate 42,
Figs. 2 and 3), and the mass of masonry between the vaults was lightened
in the same manner. Slit-like windows appear high up in the east wall
between the vaults (not, however, in rooms 153-162), doubtless in
connexion with these compartments.
At a considerable distance to the north-east of the palace stands the
small building which is known as the Ḥammâm (Plate 5, Fig. 3). Unlike
the rest of the palace, it is not oriented. It consists of a long
chamber running slightly to the west of north (about 24°), 10·65 metres
long by 5·30 wide. It was covered by a vault which has now fallen. The
door is on the east side; in the north and south walls there is a deep
rectangular niche. A door in the north-east corner leads into a smaller
chamber, 4·10 × 3·30 metres. In this building the thrust of the vault
over the larger chamber is taken by outer buttresses, the only instance
of such construction at Ukhaiḍir. On the east side there is one buttress
·60 metre deep; on the west side three, 1·25 metres deep. A stair
leading to the roof ran up over the western buttress.