Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/534

518 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Part III. which occurred in 1399, the north and west sides were rebuilt in a more splendid manner by Barkook, Sultan of Egypt, whose mosque and tomb are illustrated, Woodcuts N"os. 963, 964. In 1500 El Ghoury, like- wise an Egyptian sultan of Memlook race, rebuilt the Bab Ibrahim. The next repairs were due to the Sultans of Constantinople, Selim I., in 1572, rebuilt one side, and in 1576 Murad effected a general repair of the whole, and left it pretty much as we now find it. It need hardly be pointed out that in arrangement it necessarily differs from all other mosques. The precept of the Koran was that all ■».viir.<i-ii^.vjJ.-.%i>r..iJ/Ai--ii:-«;;iv.^^^^^^ lit- a ,■ U- »l. b. l».|i..tl..'.ll.-l,. f/.^-ju lf-4-llJ ■y..-b. b.-lj. U. N..-C*. «-H--l!- tl-->i.-tl-.ll..'<l,. ■•■■^■■■iS--1'--"?r'*-jt"T( !< -i ij'f ^ ■-»--r^-«-_^r--iiri^4i-_'it.-_-ji_ i«- it Ji-. IS^ 968. Great Mosfiue at Mecca. (From a Plan by All Bey.") true believers when they prayed should turn to the Kaabah, and a mosque consequently became a mere indicator of the direction in which Mecca stood ; but in this instance, with the Kaabah in the centre, no mihrab or indication was possible. All that was required was a temenos to enclose the sacred object and exclude the outside world with its business from the hallowed precincts. The principal object in the enclosure is of course the Kaabah, a small, low tower nearly but not quite square in plan, the longer sides 39 and 40 ft. respectively ; the shorter 31 and 33 ft. ; its height is 36 ft. The entrance is near one corner, at a height of 6 ft. from the ground 1 To get it within the page, the scale of this plan is reduced to 200 French, or 210 English ft. to 1 in.