CHAPTER V.PERSIA.

CONTENTS.

Historical notice—Tombs at Bagdad—Imaret at Erzeroum—Mosque at Tabreez—Tomb at Sultanieh—Bazaar at Ispahan—College of Husein Shah—Palaces and other buildings—Turkestan.

CHRONOLOGY.

Owingto a curious concatenation of circumstances, partly local, partly ethnological, the architectural history of Persia is nearly a blank for the first six centuries of the Hejira. Nothing remains of the ancient glories of Bagdad except a few fragments of the walls of the Madrissa, and perhaps one or two tombs. Bussorah and Kufa are equally destitute of any architectural remains of the great age of the Caliphs. Indeed, there seems scarcely to be one single mosque or important building now remaining between the Euphrates and the Indus which belongs authentically to the earlier centuries of the Mahomedan era, and in such a state as would enable us to say what the style of those days was, or how far it resembled or differed from the contemporary styles in the neighbouring countries.

From what we know from history of the age of Haroun al-Rashid, it is probable that no Moorish court ever reached a higher pitch of enlightenment and magnificence than that of Bagdad during his reign (A.D.786-809). It was also so far removed from the direct influence of the Byzantine style, that it is probable we should find in his buildings the germ of much which now comes abruptly before us without our being able to trace it back to its origin.

In the whole architectural history of the world there is scarcely so complete a break as this, and scarcely one so much to be lamented, considering how great and how polished the people were whose art is thus lost to us. Let us hope, however, that it is not entirely lost; butthat some fragments may yet be recovered by the first who earnestly searches for them.

1001. Plan of Tomb of Zobeidé, Bagdad. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

1002. Tomb of Zobeidé, Bagdad.

1003. Tomb of Ezekiel, near Bagdad. (From Texier and Pullan.)

Meanwhile there is one tomb outside the walls of Bagdad known as the tomb of Zobeidé,[167]the favourite wife of Haroun al-Rashid, which may belong to this epoch; and even if it should prove to be more modern is interesting from its presenting us with a new form of pyramidal roof. It is an octagonal building, 80 ft. in diameter externally and 61 ft. high, with an entrance porch on one side. The walls are of great thickness and contain a staircase leading to the roof. The internal diameter is 42 ft. and is covered over with a roof of pyramidal form 45 ft. in diameter and rising to 90 ft. above the roof of the main building. The Sassanian method of covering over such a space would have been to span it with an egg-shaped dome similar to that which we find in the central hall of Serbistan (Woodcut No. 259), which isof the same diameter. Here, however, a much stronger form of construction would seem to have been adopted; a series of slightly pointed headed niches sixteen in number were built, projecting slightly, on arches thrown across the alternate angles of the interior. Above these were built a second range with a less diameter and therefore overhanging a little the lower range, the sides of the upper range resting on the centres of the niches below. In this way six more stages were constructed all in brick, gradually diminishing the diameter of the central space. Then comes a break which is emphasized in the extreme by a cavetto cornice, above which come three more stages but with eight niches only in each row, the upper one covering completely the whole pyramid. The interiors of these niches (which range in size from 5 ft. diameter and 10 ft. high in the lower range to 1 ft. 6 in. diameter and 5 ft. high in the upper range) are decorated with tiles and mosaic. The exteriors, both of this tomb (Woodcut No.1002) and of that of Ezekiel (Woodcut No.1003), which is of similar design, are covered over with stucco. Lamps were probably suspended by chains from the centre of each of these niches to judge by the holes now visible outside. Somewhat the same form occurs also at Susa in the so-called tomb of Daniel, and generally seems to be so usual in the age of the Caliphs, and is so peculiar, that it must have been long in use before it could have become so generally diffused. The chief interest which is attached to it is the possibility of its having been the source from which that essentially Saracenic feature thestalactite vault has been obtained. It is not found in any other style, and although, in later work it is more often found in other materials, such as stone, plaster and wood, in these latter it has not the same constructional reason for its existence, in fact it has become a purely decorative feature.[168]On comparing the tomb of Ezekiel (Woodcut No.1003) with the pendentive shown in the porch of the ruined Mosque of Tabreez (Woodcut No.1006) the same superimposed niches will be recognised.

1004. Imaret of Oulou Diami at Erzeroum. (From Texier’s ‘Arménie et la Perse.’)

From these, which may belong to the age of the Caliphs, we pass at once to the Seljukians, who seem to have been possessed of stronger building instincts.

One of the earliest buildings of this race of which anything like correct illustrations have been published is the Imaret or Hospital ofOulou Diami, at Erzeroum—an arcade of two storeys, surrounding on three sides a courtyard 90 ft. by 45. It is broken in the centre by what in a Christian church would be called a transept. The woodcut here given (No.1004) shows the general appearance of the arcade, and also the upper part of two minarets which flank the external porch. This porch is ornamented in the richest manner of the style. Opposite to the entrance a long gallery leads to the tomb of the founder, a circular building of very considerable elegance, the roof of which is a hemispherical vault internally, but a straight-sided Armenian conical roof on the outside. These dispositions make the plan of the building so similar to that of a Christian church, that most travellers have considered it as one, mistaking the court for the nave, and the tomb, with the gallery leading to it, for the apse and choir. There can, however, be no doubt but that it was originally built by a Mahomedan, for the purpose of a hospital, or place of rest for pilgrims, during the sway of the Seljukian princes in the 12th and 13th centuries; and that its similarity to a Christian church in plan is accidental, though its details very much resemble those of the churches of Ani and other places in Armenia. This, however, only shows that the inhabitants of the same country did not practise two styles, but arranged the same forms in different manners to suit their various purposes.

There is another mosque of about the same age as this one at Ani, which would show even more clearly this close analogy; but it has never been drawn with sufficient correctness to admit of its being used for the purpose of demonstrating the fact now pointed out. But, indeed, throughout Armenia, mosques and Christian churches constantly alternate, borrowing details from one another, and making up one of the most curious mixed chapters in the history of the art; a chapter still remaining to be written by some one who may visit the spot with sufficient knowledge and enthusiasm to accomplish it.

The next building that may be chosen for illustration is the ruined mosque at Tabreez, which, when perfect, must have been one of the most beautiful in the country. Its history is not exactly known; but it certainly belongs to the Mogul dynasty, which, on the death of Mangu Khan the son of Ghengis Khan, was founded in Persia by Hulaku, the brother of Mangu. He and his sons generally retained the faith of their forefathers till Ghazan Khan, who succeeded inA.D.1204. Ghazan zealously embraced the Mahomedan faith, and it was apparently to signalise the conversion that he began this mosque; but whether it was finished by him or his successors is not evident. As will be seen by the plan, it is not large, being only about 150 ft.by 120, exclusive of the tomb in the rear, which, as a Tartar, it was impossible he could dispense with.

In plan it differs also considerably from those previously illustrated, being in reality a copy of a Byzantine church, carried out with the details of the 13th century—a fact which confirms the belief that the Persians before this age were not a mosque-building people. In this mosque the mode of decoration is what principally deserves attention, the whole building, both externally and internally, being covered with a perfect mosaic of glazed bricks of very brilliant colours, and wrought into the most intricate patterns, and with all the elegance for which the Persians were in all ages remarkable.

Europe possesses no specimen of any style of ornamentation comparable with this. The painted plaster of the Alhambra is infinitely inferior, and even the mosaic painted glass of our cathedrals is a very partial and incomplete ornament compared with the brilliancy of a design pervading the whole building, and entirely carried out in the same style. From the time, however, of the oldest Assyrian palaces to the present day, colour has been in that country a more essential element of architectural magnificence than form; and here at least we may judge of what the halls of Nineveh and Persepolis once were, when adorned with colours in the same manner as this now ruined mosque of the Tartars.

1005. Mosque at Tabreez. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

Though of course impossible adequately to represent this building in a woodcut, the view[169](Woodcut No.1006) of its principal portal will give some idea of the form of the mosque, and introduce the reader to a new mode of giving expression to portals, which after the date of this building is nearly universal in the East. The entrance-door is small, but covered by a semi-dome of considerable magnitude, giving it all the grandeur of a portal as large as the main aisle of the building. The Gothic architects attempted something of this sort, by making the outer openings of their doors considerably larger than the inner; in other words, by “splaying” widely the jambs of their portals. By this means, in some of the French cathedrals, the appearance of a very large portal is obtained with only the requisite and convenient size of opening; but in this they were far surpassedby the architects of the East, whose lofty and deeply-recessed portals, built on the same plan as the example here shown, are unrivalled for grandeur and appropriateness.[170]

1006. View of Ruined Mosque at Tabreez. (From Texier’s ‘Arménie et la Perse.’)

The mosque was destroyed by an earthquake in the beginning of the present century, but it seems to have been deserted long before that, owing to its having belonged to the Turkish sect of the Somnites, while the Persians have during the last five centuries been devoted Shi-ites, or followers of the sect of Ali and his martyred sons.

Mahomed Khodabendah, the successor of Ghazan Khan, the builder of the mosque at Tabreez last described, founded the city of Sultanieh, and, like a true Tartar, his first care was to build himself a tomb[171]which should become the principal ornament of his new city. Ker Porter[172]says that, being seized with as much zeal for his new Shi-itefaith as his predecessor had been for the Somnite, his intention was to lodge in this mausoleum the remains of Ali and his son Hossein. This intention, however, was not carried into effect, and we know that his own bones repose alone in their splendid shrine.

1007. Tomb at Sultanieh. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

In general plan the building is an octagon, with a small chapel added opposite the entrance, in which the body lies. The front has also been brought out to a square, not only to admit of two staircases in the angles, but also to serve as a backing to the porch which once adorned this side, but which has now entirely disappeared.

1008. Section of the Tomb of Sultan Khodabendah at Sultanieh. (From Texier’s ‘Arménie et la Perse.’) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

Internally the dome is 81 ft. in diameter by 150 ft. in height, the octagon being worked into a circle by as elegant a series of brackets as perhaps ever were employed for this purpose. The form of the dome, too, is singularly graceful and elegant, and much preferable to the bulb-shaped double domes subsequently common in Persian architecture. The whole is covered with glazed tiles, rivalling in richness those of the mosque at Tabreez, and with its general beauty of outline this building affordsone of the best specimens of this style to be found either in Persia or any other country.

1009. View of the Tomb at Sultanieh.

These works were, however, far surpassed in magnificence, though not in beauty, by those of the dynasty of the Sufis, who succeeded in 1499. The most powerful and brilliant sovereign of this race was Shah Abbas the Great (A.D.1585-1629), whose great works rendered his capital of Ispahan one of the most splendid cities of the East. Among these works, by far the most magnificent was the greatMaidan, or bazaar, with its accompanying mosque and subordinate buildings. The Maidan is an immense rectangular area, 2600 ft. by 700,[173]surrounded on all sides by an arcade two storeys in height, consisting of 86 arches on the longer and 30 on the shorter sides, richly ornamented, and broken in the centre of each face by a handsome edifice. The great mosque is at one end, opposite to which is the bazaar gate, and in the longer side the Luft Ullah mosque; facing this is the Ali Kassi gate, which, in its various storeys and complicated suites of apartments, is in fact a palace rather than a gateway as we understand the term.

1010. Great Mosque at Ispahan. (From Texier’s Work.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

The dimensions of the Great Mosque, or Mesjid Shah, may be judged of from the following plan. As will be perceived, the Maidan not facing Mecca, a bend is made in the entrance, which, however, is far from being unfavourable to the general picturesque effect of the group.The mosque itself is a rectangular building, the internal dimensions of which are 223 ft. by 130, the centre compartment being surmounted by a dome 75 ft. in diameter and 110 ft. high internally; but being double, like most domes of this age, its external height is 165 ft., which is also the height of the minarets attached to the mosque. On three sides the mosque is surrounded by courtyards, richly ornamented, and containing fountains and basins of water for the prescribed ablutions of the faithful. The principal court measures 225 ft. by 170, and surrounded as it is on all sides by façades in the richest style of Persian polychromatic decoration, the brilliancy of its architectural effect is almost unrivalled by any other example of its class. Both in architectural forms and in the style of ornament this mosque is inferior to those at Tabreez and at Sultanieh; but for mass and amount of decoration it is among the most magnificent specimens of its class. Taken altogether, the Maidan Shah, and its accompanying mosques and gates—the whole the work of one king and on one design—present a scene of gorgeous, though it may be somewhat barbarous, splendour, almost unequalled in the whole world. Even now, in its premature decay, it strikes almost every traveller with astonishment, though the style is not one that looks well in ruin, owing to the perishable nature of the materials employed, and the tawdry effect of glazed tiles, when attention is drawn to the fact that they are a mere surface ornament to the walls.

The forms and peculiarities of this style will be better judged of—in a woodcut at least—by the representation of the Madrissa, or college, of Husein Shah (Woodcut No.1001), the last of the Sufi kings of Persia; and though erected at the end of the 17th century, while the great mosque was built in the beginning of it, but little change seems to have taken place in the interval: the minarets are of the same form, the double bulb-shaped dome is similar, and the double arcades that surround the court of the mosque are the same in form as those that encircle the Maidan Shah.

From the time of the Afghan invasion, which took place during the reign of the Sultan Husein in the beginning of the last century, Persia does not seem to have recovered herself sufficiently to undertake any great works; some palaces, it is true, have been built, and mosques of inferior dimensions, but nothing really remarkable of late years. The influence of the corrupt styles of Europe has become too apparent to enable us to hope that she will ever again be able to recover her place in the domain of art.

Although it was sometimes brilliant, and always truthful, the Persian Saracenic is hardly entitled to rank among the really great or admirable styles of architecture. Its chief historic interest rests on the fact of its being a modern reproduction of the style of the ancient palaces of Nineveh and Babylon, using the same thick wallsof imperfectly burned bricks, and covering them with the same brilliant coloured decorations of glazed and painted tiles and bricks, carrying this species of decoration to an extent never attempted in any other part of the world. This too constitutes its principal claim to interest in an artistic point of view, since it shows how far polychromatic decoration may be used, both internally and externally, not only without any offence to good taste, but with the most complete success in producing that beauty and splendour which is the aim of all architectural utterance.

1011. Madrissa of Sultan Husein at Ispahan. (From Flandin and Coste’s ‘Voyage en Perse.’)

The Persian princes showed almost as much taste and splendour in their palaces as in their mosques; but these were not from their nature so capable of architectural display as the others. An Eastern palace neither requires that mass of apartments and offices which are indispensable in Europe, nor does the climate admit of their being massed together so as to form a single group, imposing from its size. On the contrary, the Persian palaces generally consist of a number of pavilions and detached halls, and smaller groups of apartments scattered over a large space interspersed with trees and gardens, and onlyconnected by covered arcades or long lines of canals, the centre of which is adorned by fountains of the most elegant forms.

Individually these detached buildings are often of great beauty and most elaborately ornamented, and the whole effect is pleasing and tasteful; but for true architectural effect they are too scattered, and the whole is generally very deficient in grandeur.

The Throne-room at Teheran (Woodcut No.1012) is a fair specimen of these buildings, though, in fact, it is only a porch or deep recess opening on a garden, the front being supported or ornamented by two twisted columns. In front of these a massive curtain is drawn out when the room is used, and both for colour and richness of effect the curtain is virtually the principal feature in the composition.

1012. Throne-room at Teheran. (From ‘Nineveh and Persepolis Restored.’)

The next example is taken from the palace of Char Bagh, or the “Four Gardens,” at Ispahan, and shows the general picturesque form these buildings assume. It is by no means so favourable a specimen as the last, though this may arise more from the nature of the building than from any defect on the part of its architect. Many of the pavilions in the same palace are of great lightness and elegance, though, most of them being supported by wooden pillars, and being of very ephemeral construction, they hardly belong to the higher class of architectural art.

The Caravanserais form another class of buildings, not peculiar, it is true, to Persia, but which, from the character of the traffic in merchandise, and the general insecurity of the roads along which it is conducted, has received a great development in that country. Internally,their usual form is that of a square courtyard, surrounded by a range of arcades generally two storeys in height, each arch opening into a small square cell at the back. Externally they present only a high plain wall, surmounted by battlements and flanked by towers at each angle, and sometimes also by additional towers in the longer faces. The principal architectural ornament is lavished on the gateways, which are almost always higher than the contiguous walls, and often display great beauty of design combined with considerable elaboration of detail.

It is not, however, only in these larger monuments that the Persians show an appreciation of the beautiful and a power of expressing it. As in most Eastern nations, the feeling seems innate, and all the minor objects they fabricate exhibit it, as well as the more important ones, and it is to the former that we must probably look in future for examples of Persian art, for her political position is such that she will hardly be able soon to attempt anything great or important in architectural art. There are still, however, resident in that country remnants of those races who built the palaces of Babylon and Nineveh; and if an opportunity were afforded them, they might still do something, if allowed to do it in their own way. It is to be feared, however, that European influence is extending through that country too fast for art; and that if they attempted anything, it will be only in the bastard Italian style, which, with the round hat, seems destined to make the tour of the globe.

1013. Palace at Ispahan. (From ‘Nineveh and Persepolis Restored.’)

Turkestan.

1014. Pavilion in the Khan’s Palace at Khiva. (From a view in ‘The Graphic.’)

The progress of the Russians in Northern Asia has recently opened up whole regions that hitherto have been hidden from the light of European research, and the beautiful paintings of Verestchagin have rendered us familiar with the splendour of the capital of Timur the Lame. Unfortunately, however, no photographs have yet been published of Samarcand, and no plans of the buildings of that far-famed city. We have not seen any such detailed descriptions as would enable us to speak with anything like certainty of their affinities or difference with other buildings of the same age. All that can be said with certainty is that the great Mosque and Tomb of its founder at Samarcand are erected in the same style as the mosque at Tabreez (Woodcut No.1006), and the tomb at Sultanieh (Woodcut No.1009), and other buildings in Persia and Armenia, with only such slight differences as might be expected from their more northern locality. The whole façade of the mosque, together with minarets and domes, is covered with painted tiles—so far as can be ascertained—of extreme beauty of design, and the tomb is surrounded by screens of marble trellis-work very similar to what we find afterwards in the works of Timour’s descendants at Agra and Delhi. The great interest, in fact, that attaches to these buildings arises not so much from their own intrinsic value as because they form a connecting link between the style of Persia and that of the Great Mogul dynasty in India, and,when properly investigated, they will serve to explain much that is now obscure in the history of the art in that country.

The buildings of these Northern capitals will probably also prove interesting as historical indications in another direction, as they retain traces of a modern style of architecture which, notwithstanding the distance in time, seems to be traceable back to the palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis. Verestchagin’s paintings gave several illustrations of this style, which in a modified form is found in the oldest cave temples in India. Its most marked peculiarity is the elongated bulbous form of the shaft, rising from a broad shoe-like base, and supporting a small bracket capital. The sketch on the previous page of a pavilion at Khiva explains its general features, but its merits as an architectural form arise from the beauty of the carved details with which it is ornamented, which cannot be expressed in so small a scale.

We probably know enough now of Northern Asia to render it probable that we can hardly expect to find there any buildings of great antiquity, or any of greater magnificence than those of Samarcand; but it seems equally, or more clear that, when properly investigated, these buildings will supply many missing links in our history, and explain a great deal that now seems mysterious.

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