Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/536

520 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. Part III. place in the Xorth of, Africa during the first centuries of the Hejira. The religious bigotry of the inhabitants of the Regency of Tunis is no doubt one cause why we know so little, but more may probably be owing to the indifference of travellers. The mosque at Kairwan is one of those buildings about which it would be esj^ecially interesting to know something. That city was longthe capital of the African provinces of the empire of the caliphs, and it was thence that they spread their religion into the centre of the great continent where it is located and conquered Sicily. The mosque wag erected, or at least commenced, in the 1st century of the Hejira, and was built principally from Roman remains found in the neighborhood, but is now considered so sacred that no Christian is allowed to set foot within its precincts; all that we know is that it is a worthy compeer of the contemporary mosques of Damascus and Cairo, while OAving to its secluded station it may probably be less altered than either of these great buildings, and may conse- quently convey a more correct idea of the architecture of the age than can be gath- ered from the mosques in great cities. Tunis possesses some noble edifices, not so old as this, but still of a good age ; but, except the minaret represented in the an- nexed woodcut (Xo. 969), 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 pos- sesses none of the grace or elaboi-ate beauty of detail of those at Cairo; but the beauti- ful propoition of the shaft, and the ap])ro- priate half-military style of its ornaments, render it singularly pleas- ing. The upper part also is well proportioned, though altered to some 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 Caii-o, proves tliat the Saracenic arcliitects were capable of expressing simple grandeur as well as elaborate beauty when it suited them to do so. 969. jMiiiaret at Tunis. (From Girault de Prangey.)