987. Plan of Great Mosque of Kerouan.
987. Plan of Great Mosque of Kerouan.
987. Plan of Great Mosque of Kerouan.
There may be—no doubt are—many buildings erected by the Moslems in the countries between Egypt and Spain; but, strange to say, with their love of art, and opportunities for investigating them, the French have not yet made us acquainted with their peculiarities. Even if not magnificent in themselves, they must form a curious linkbetween the styles of the East and the West. The recent annexation of Tunis by France, however, has enabled us at last to obtain plans and drawings of the great mosque at Kerouan, so that we can trace, according to Mr. Carpenter (seeR.I.B.A. Transactions, 1882-83, from whence the particulars here given are borrowed) the parentage of the Mosque of Cordoba and other work in Spain which seemed, when this work was first written, to be cut off from all connection with the East and to stand utterly alone.
988. Main Entrance in Court of Great Mosque of Kerouan.
988. Main Entrance in Court of Great Mosque of Kerouan.
988. Main Entrance in Court of Great Mosque of Kerouan.
The mosque of Kerouan was founded by the Emir Akhbah in 675A.D., and was rebuilt and extended in the succeeding three centuries. The plan of the mosque (Woodcut987) is somewhat irregular, being wider at the south-eastern end by about thirty feet.It covers an area of a little over 100,000 square ft. of which about one-third is covered over and forms the prayer chamber. The great court measures 220 × 176 ft. with double-aisled corridors on the east and west side; other buildings partially enclosed on the north side, with a lofty tower, thirty feet square, in the centre and surmounted by a small dome. In this tower is a marble staircase, with Roman fragments of the time of Trajan and Aurelius Antoninus.
The prayer-chamber is entered from the court by thirteen archways, all circular and horseshoe. The central entrance (Woodcut988) to the principal aisle consists of a lofty horseshoe arch of two orders, with a square low tower and surmounted by a fluted dome. The prayer-chamber consists of a central aisle with eight aisles on each side, all running in the direction of the Mecca wall, with cross-arcading at various intervals. The aisles are separated one from the other by columns all taken from earlier buildings, carrying horseshoe arches, the columns in the central aisle being twenty-two feet high, and occasionally coupled together or in triplets; those of the aisles being fifteen feet high. The capitals are mainly taken from Roman buildings; some, however, are Byzantine, and are carved with birds and flowers. The arches are all tied together by wooden beams and iron rods. The mihrab is surmounted by a fluted dome on hexagonal base, containing richly coloured glass windows, and the mihrab niche is lined with marble and Byzantine mosaic and flanked by porphyry columns. The chief entrance is through a porch on the west side and is carried up as a tower, and there are four other minor entrances.
989. Minaret at Tunis. (From Girault de Prangey.)
989. Minaret at Tunis. (From Girault de Prangey.)
989. Minaret at Tunis. (From Girault de Prangey.)
Tunis possesses some noble edifices, not so old as this, but still of a good age; but except the minaret represented in the annexed woodcut (No.989), none of them have yet been drawn in such a manner as to enable us to judge either what they are or what rank they are entitled to as works of art. This minaret is one of the finest specimens of a particular class. It possesses none of the grace or elaborate beauty of detail of those at Cairo; but the beautiful proportion of the shaft, and the appropriate half-military style of its ornaments, render it singularly pleasing. The upper part also is well proportioned, though altered tosome extent in modern times. Unfortunately neither its age nor height is correctly known. It is probably three or four centuries old, and with its contemporary the Hassanee mosque at Cairo, proves that the Saracenic architects were capable of expressing simple grandeur as well as elaborate beauty when it suited them to do so.
Algeria possesses no buildings of any importance belonging to any good age of Moorish art. Those of Constantine are the only ones which have yet been illustrated in an intelligible manner, and they scarcely deserve mention after the great buildings in Egypt and the farther East. I cannot help suspecting that some remains of a better age may still be brought to light; but the French archæologists seem to be wholly taken up with the vestiges of the Romans, and not to have turned their attention seriously to the more modern style, which it is to be hoped they soon will do. In an artistic point of view, at least, it is far more important than the few fragments of Roman buildings still left in that remote province.