These gesta dei per francos have been fittingly studied by French scholars; and the works of de Vogüé, Riant, Rey, and the more recent studies of PP. Vincent and Abel, O.P., are indispensable for the student of this period.
Moslem Architecture in Palestine.—That Palestine is rich in examples of Moslem architecture is not surprising. That it is not very much richer is because the country has suffered from many wars and many inroads of destructive barbarians. The natural constitution of Palestine and the building aptitudes of its inhabitants favour the production of noble works of architecture; but the situation of the country on the high road between continents has always endangered their permanence. Hence periods of great prosperity are followed by and are sharply contrasted with periods of great disaster. But newcomers, if they chose, could always profit by the building skill and building traditions of the population, and were able to use materials from the ruined works of former generations.
At the time of the Arab conquest in the seventh century A.D. there were in Palestine many workers skilled in all the building crafts. There was also a wealth of already wrought material; and, moreover, of material that was available for use without having recourse to the destruction of buildings then standing. In the year 636 A.D. the Arabs captured all the cities of Palestine from Gaza to Nablus. In the following year Jerusalem capitulated (cf. Part I., § 4). Twenty-two years earlier the country had been invaded and a large proportion of its buildings had been destroyed by the Persians. The land, when the Arabs arrived, was doubtless still covered by the ruins caused by that invasion. Dismantled walls of wrought stone, fallen columns, slabs of marble and other remains of ruined Byzantine or earlier structures were plentiful, and provided a supply of exceptionally fine materials that could only be exhausted by many years of intense building activity. The Arabs were not barbarians, nor was architecture an art altogether strange to them. They were a people of great taste and liberality as well as of not a little political sagacity. They fully
