Page images
PDF
EPUB

in black. It is surprising how quickly all this Oriental costuming comes to seem a matter of course. What would arrest attention on Washington Street, or Broadway, or Michigan Avenue, passes wholly unobserved by the foreigner in Cairo. Soft-footed camels are so common as to awaken no more interest than do the host of passing arabiyehs, the fourwheeled cabs of the city. In no city is it more easy to fall into the daily life and make it seem a matter of course, in spite of its enormous difference from the life of the Occident.

Of course Cairo boasts innumerable mosques, and equally of course the visitor within her gates must see most of these, if not all. They are all very much alike. In each case the Christian must cover his shoes with those flapping yellow slippers, lest his feet pollute holy ground. In every mosque there is the same open court, arcaded on each side, with the chief sanctuary always on the east. A deep niche in the wall, inlaid with magnificent mosaic, points the direction of the holy city of the Prophet, and enables the blind worshiper to feel his way to the only proper point for really efficacious prayer. Matting covers the floor in every direction. A magnificently carved pulpit rises from the midst of the main hall. Windows richly dight add to the effect. Backsheesh must be bestowed on leaving, and tickets are the rule at every

mosque that is much frequented. Each has its separate and distinct claim to notice, whether it be for the beauty of its exterior, the magnificence of its tiles, the age of its minarets, or the tombs of past greatness which it contains. Some are very old, like the grand mosque of Sultan Hassan, with its vast spaces, its aged doors, and its general flavor of mild decay. Others are merely magnificent, like that huge sepulchral alabaster church of Mohammed Ali on the Citadel. Others are graceful, like the tomb-mosque of Kait Bey. But in the main all are alike, and if not all can be visited there is a certain consolation to be derived from the fact.

I find it difficult to describe the mosques, even those which every one must see as a matter of course. They differ so little - yet are so different. Each has its especial claim to notice. They are scattered all over that crowded eastern quarter, and are in many cases so obscurely set that it is difficult to find them without the aid of the cabmen. I question the wisdom of an effort to hunt down every one that is mentioned in the books, and I shall certainly make no extended attempt here to recapitulate the manifold attractions which one may, by the exercise of persistence, find in these old churches of the faith.

It should be remembered that the Mohammedan treats the whole matter of worship differently from

the Christian. He makes less of formal congregations and more of individual prayer. Friday is his day of rest, and on that day Cairo shuts up shop. As for the mosques, they are built to the glory of Allah and the Prophet, or as pious memorials and votive offerings, and it makes little difference if no congregation of the faithful ever comes. Or they may exist chiefly as shelters for the tombs containing pious dust, in which case they are marked by domes.

Grandest and best of all the mosques in Cairo, though sadly ruined by time and now in the throes of restoration, is the huge and hoary mosque of Sultan Hassan. The Great Pyramid was robbed of its stones to build it. It lies to one side of the long street of Mohammed Ali just below the sharp rise of the Citadel, and its commanding situation on a shelving rock makes it a notable monument in any general view of the city. Time and the occasional earthquake have proved powerless to rob it of its intrinsic majesty; and its grim walls, crowned with massive cornices, frown steadfastly down on the babel of the narrow thoroughfare beneath.

You enter it from the street of Mohammed Ali, ascending a flight of steps to the great main door, a lofty arch, something more than eighty feet in height, and ornamented, as is so much of this ancient temple, with stalactite stonework high overhead. Few Mos

lem edifices succeed as well as does this in producing the impression of simple, austere dignity. Whatever was gaudy or bizarre has faded. The hand of the restorer has, as yet, failed to spoil it. Nor has the rapacity of the invader, even the great Napoleon, entirely removed the former glory of its inlaid doors.

From the gateway, where a handful of swarthy men slumber in the shade, and where the usual custodian demands a fee, you pass through an imposing and lofty vestibule, vaulted and gloomy; then through a lengthy corridor parallel with the street, which leads to the enormous central court which, as usual in such buildings, is open to the sky. On its four sides - as always are the "liwans," or covered courts; and in the centre is the inevitable fount for ablutions. Islam demands that if one be clean of body at no other time, at least one shall be so at the hour of prayer.

To most of the massive structure surrounding you it will probably be impossible to penetrate, nor will you care to. The building is mainly ruinous and its plan intricate. But in the eastern liwan, toward the Citadel and of course toward Mecca, you may freely wander, and here you will find a few faint traces of the magnificence of an earlier day. Here are the great wooden doors from which Napoleon filched much, yet spared a single portal of great beauty, inlaid with gold, silver, and bronze, as the guide points

out with immense satisfaction. Traces of elaborate mural decoration still survive. And in the innermost recess, beneath a graceful dome, reposes all that was mortal of Sultan Hassan himself, modestly entombed. But it is not the surviving detail that makes it the most noble religious building in Cairo; it is its grand tout ensemble, its massiveness, its venerable majesty. The story goes that Sultan Hassan, when he had looked upon his monument and beheld that it was very good, ordered his sword, and with it struck off the right hand of the architect that he might never again design another building to rival this. The Sultan, you observe, generally paid in full. Moreover his expedient would seem to have been efficacious, for no other mosque in all Egypt approaches this for grandeur of conception and execution.

A little study of the ground plan as it appears in the guide-books will suffice to show the development of the Mohammedan place of worship into something resembling the cruciform. Originally every mosque was merely a hollow square, open to the heavens, its sides arcaded as a protection to the worshipers. Until Mohammed made his unsuccessful attempt to convert the Jews, his followers all prayed toward Jerusalem. When the Hebrew nation rejected the teachings of the Prophet, however, Mohammed decreed that thenceforward prayer should be directed

« PreviousContinue »