either erected by Umayyad architects on Byzantine and Persian patterns or restored by them. Some no doubt were originally Roman fortresses. Many caliphal residences evidently had walled gardens in which wild game was kept for hunting.
For fully half a century after the conquest of Syria Moslems worshipped in converted churches and erected no special mosques. In Damascus they divided not the church itself, as tradition states, but the sacred enclosure. All Damascene worshippers entered through the same gate ; the Christians turned left and the Moslems right. The principal mosques of Hamah, Horns and Aleppo were originally Christian places of worship. First among the mosques built in Syria was the Dome of the Rock in Jeru- salem, erected in 691 by Abd-al-Malik. His purpose may have been to divefTthe current of Syrian pilgrimage from Mecca, then in an anti-caliph's hands, and to outshine the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Christian cathedrals of Syria. To this end Abd-al-Malik employed native archi- tects and artisans trained in the Byzantine school. The bronze doors, decorated with incrustation in silver — a dis- tinguished achievement of Byzantine artists — are among the oldest dated ones of their kind. Tiles and mosaics were lavishly used in the original structure and later in its renova- tion. East of this edifice stands an elegant small cupola called the Dome of the Chain, which served as a treasure house for the Rock.
Next in chronology and importance was the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. It was not until 705 that al-Walid I seized the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and converted it into this mosque, one of the sublimest places of worship in the world. Persian, Indian, Greek and Syrian craftsmen laboured for seven years to create its multicoloured mosaics and its murals of gold and precious stones. Rare marbles adorn its upper walls and ceiling. On its north side stands the oldest purely Moslem minaret in existence, while the two
