Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/517

Bk. I. Ch. II. SYRIA AND EGYPT. 501 CHAPTER II. SYRIA AND EGYPT. CONTENTS. Mosques at Jerusalem — El-Aksah — Mosque at Damascus — Egypt — Mosques at Cairo — Other African buildings — Mecca. CHRONOLOGY. DATES. The Hejira a.d. 622 Caliph < )mar builds Mosque at Jerusalem 6;!7 Anirou — Mosque at Old Caiio 612 Abd el-Malek builds El-Aksah, at Jerusa- lem 6!»1 Caliph Walid builds Mosque at Damascus 705 DATES. Ibn Touloun at Cairo a.d. 876 p:i-Azhar 981 Sultan Barkook 1149 Kaloun 1284 Sultan Hassan 1356 AS before mentioned, the earliest mosque of which we have any record was that built by Mahomet himself at Medina. As, how- ever, it contained apartments for his wives, and other rooms for domestic purposes, it might perhaps be more properly denominated a dwelling-house than a mosque. Indeed sacred buildings, as we understand them, seem to have formed no part of the scheme of the Mahomedan dispensation. The one temple of this religion was the Kaabah at Mecca, towards which all believers were instructed to turn wlien they prayed. As with the ancient Jews — one Temple and one God Avere the watchwords of the faith. When, however, the Mahomedans came among the temple-building nations, they seem early to have felt the necessity of some material object — some visible monument of their religion; and we find that Omar, when he obtained possession of Jerusalem, in the 15th year of the Hejira, felt the necessity of building a place of prayer towards which the faithful might turn, or rather which should point out to them the direction of Mecca.' According to the treaty of capitulation, in virtue of which the eity was ceded to the Moslems, it was agreed that the Christians should retain possession of all their churches and holy places ; and no complaint is made of even the slightest attempt to infringe this article during the following three centuries. On the other hand, it was 1 J'or the particulars of the building of the mosque, I must refer the reader to my work on the "Ancient Topog- raphy of .Jerusalem,"' where he will find them stated at length.