34 GRANADA 



steeples which disturb the symmetry of the 

 decoration. 



" Outside this plan, absolutely classical, which 

 we may compare to a cross with the transverse 

 arm prolonged and cut at various distances by 

 perpendicular arms parallel to each other, but of 

 different length, the Spanish Arabs found no 

 other easy method of building, so that, while 

 diminishing or prolonging the arms of the axis 

 as much as the dependencies of the largest palaces 

 might require, they never departed from the 

 system, wherever they might build. . . . This, 

 then, is the true scheme of the Alhambra, and it 

 is quite other than that conceived by the classi- 

 cists of the eighteenth century, with its fagades, 

 angles, and squares." 



It must, however, be admitted that order is 

 much more conspicuous in the decoration than 

 in the ground plan of the palace. All Moorish 

 ornamentation is based on a strictly geometrical 

 scheme, and every design may be resolved into 

 a symmetrical arrangement of lines and curves 

 at regular distances. The intersection of lines 

 at various angles is the secret of the system. 

 All these lines flow from a parent stem, and no 

 figure or ornament is introduced at random. 

 Moslem ornamentation abhors irregularity and 

 rejects symbolism. The law of Islam which 

 forbade the delineation of living objects was not, 



