Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/112

82 Moorish Architecture. sacred niche (Mlhrab), towards which the faithful are bound to look when in prayer. Opposite the pulpit there is generally a desk for the Koran, on a platform surrounded by a parapet. The simplicity of the original mosques was gradually replaced by an infinite variety of arcaded courts, gateways, domes, and minarets, and frequently by the Fig. 41. — Ai'abian Gateway at Iconium. addition of a tomb sacred to some person of renown, the dome being in most cases the leading feature, although occasionally the wooden ceiling of the early Christian basilicas was adopted in its place. The Moors, however, introduced a ceiling, known as the stalactite, which is almost as distinctive a feature of their architecture as the