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ARABIAN ORNAMENT.
PLATE XXXV.
Consists of different Mosaics taken from Pavements and walls in Private Houses
and Mosques in Cairo. They are executed
in black and white marble, with red tile.
Nos. 14-16 are patterns engraved on the white marble slab, and filled in
with red and black cement.
The ornament on the white marble on the centre of No. 21 is slightly in relief.
The materials for these five Plates have been kindly furnished by Mr. James
William Wild, who passed a considerable time
in Cairo studying the interior decoration of the Arabian houses, and they
may be regarded as very faithful transcripts of Cairean
ornament.
ARABIAN ORNAMENT.
WHEN the religion of Mohammed spread with such astounding rapidity over the
East, the growing
wants of a new civilisation naturally led to the formation of a new style
of Art; and whilst it is certain
that the early edifices of the Mohammedans were either old Roman or Byzantine
buildings adapted
Spandril of an aroh from Sta. Sophia.-SALZENBEUG.
to their own uses, or buildings constructed on the ruins and with the materials
of ancient monuments,
it is equally certain that the new wants to be supplied, and the new feelings
to be expressed, must
at a very early period have given a peculiar character to their architecture.
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