SARACENIC ARCHITKCTUKE. 



SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. 



IN 



gradually brought on it relaxation of discipline and a neglect of the 

 particular ilutiw for which the men were intended ; it U even said that 

 when detachment* were to be drawn from the companies for any 

 intended expe>lition. the engineer officer* who selected the men cent 

 inly thoM who were the least efficient, and that consequently, during 

 UK firat yean of the war against the French in Spain, the service 

 cuflered much from the inexperience of the troop* of this clan*. 



After the failure of the attack on Badajox, in 1811, it wa> proposed 

 to (elect aome oompaniea from the corps of Royal Military Artificers, 

 and to form them into a body expressly for the purpose of executing 

 field- work* ; and in the following year this |iroposal was carried into 

 eflect. Lieutenant-Central Mann, who was made inspector-general of 

 fortifications, obtained permission to have the name of the whole 

 corps changed into that of Royal Sappers and Miners ; and lord 

 Mulgrare then formed at Chatham the institution at which the men 

 hare ever since been regularly instructed in all the duties connected 

 with military engineering. The junior officers of engineers were at 

 the same time appointed to act as the regimental officers of the com- 

 panies. This institution has been from the first (April, 1812) under 

 the direction of Colonel, now General, Sir Charles Pasley, K.C.B., on 

 eminent officer, who as an engineer had previously distinguished 

 himself in the service of his country. 



A detachment, consisting of 300 men, was aent, in 1813, to perform 

 the duty of sappers and miners at the siege of St Sabastian, where 

 they rendered essential service. In 1814 a brigade of engineers was 

 attached to every division of the army ; each brigade consisted of a 

 company of sappers and miners, with horses and carriages sufficient to 

 convey the tools necessary for the work of 500 men ; and five com- 

 panies of sappers and miners served with the pontoon train, which 

 consisted of 80 pontoons, with the forges, waggons, &c. The whole 

 corps was under the orders of a brigade-major of engineers. 



From 1812 to the peace in 1814, the corps of sappers and miners 

 amounted to 2861 men ; and during the hostilities in 1815, it consisted 

 ni - 121 men. At present it consists of 36 companies, and 4387 men, 

 i re of officers ; and. besides the regular course of instruction in 

 sapping, mining, making gabions, fascines, Ac., the men are taught the 

 most elementary principles of fortification, the manner of drawing plans 

 and sections of buildings, and, to a certain extent, the art of land- 

 surveying. Several of the companies are employed in the colonies in 

 the exercise of their professional duties ; and of those which remain 

 in this country, some are engaged under the officers of engineers in 

 the mechanical operations connected with the ordnance survey of 

 Great Britain and Ireland which is being carried on by the war depart- 

 ment ; parties of the corps also regularly attend the Royal Academy 

 at Wooiwioh and the Military College at Sandhurst, where they assist 

 to execute, for the instruction of the gentlemen-cadets, the several 

 works connected with the practice of field-fortification. It ought to 

 be mentioned that the troops of the corps have invariably, in whatever 

 part of the world they have been employed, conducted themselves as 

 intelligent men and steady soldiers. 



8AKACENIC ARCHITECTURE, is the term usually applied in this 

 country to what would perhaps be better named Mohammedan archi- 

 tecture, since it embraces the architecture of all Mohammedan jieoples, 

 or Arabian architecture, from the race with whom it originated. But 

 though the style may be traced back to them, the Arabians cannot be 

 considered as themselves the inventors of it. They had in fact no 

 distinctive style of their own, when the rapid spread of the religion of 

 Mohammed and the conquest* of his followers rendered necessary the 

 erection of numerous religious edifices, and called into existence a new 

 style of architecture. Mohammed is -said to have built a mosque at 



Fl f . 1. 



Medina, but it was a structure of the simplest kind, and he left no 



others. Hence, as has been often pointed out and is now generally 

 admitted, the Mohammedans wherever they secured a standing adopted 

 the architecture of the subjugated race. Thus in Persia we may 

 clearly trace in Mohammedan buildings the older Persian type; in 

 India (as was observed under INDIA, Aiu inn .TTIIK of) that of the 

 Hindus ; in Spain the debased Roman or early Romanesque ; in Egypt, 

 Syria, and Turkey, the Byzantine ; but everywhere this native character 

 was modified and adapted, overlaid with a certain exuberant oriental 

 fancifulness, imbued with Mohammedan feeling : in short combined 

 with a new and foreign element, instead of being prosaically copied as 

 it stood; and thus was rapidly evolved a distinct and well-charac- 

 terised style. 



Wli.it may be regarded as the typical varieties of the earlier 

 Saracenic architecture are those which appeared in Spain in the 8th 

 century of the Christian era, and in Egypt somewhat earlier : its later 

 form appeared in Constantinople. In each of these a striking and 

 distinctive feature is the horse-shoe arch. But this though a peculiar 

 is by no means a constant feature of the style, or used to the exclusion 

 of other forms of arches. On the contrary there are several varieties, 

 and among them is the pointed arch, which is already a well-established 

 form in the mosque of Ahmed Ibn Tooloon, erected at Cairo in the 

 9th century, and is of frequent occurrence in other Mohammedan 

 structures erected in that city in the 10th century. The arch being so 

 essential a characteristic of the style we give a few of its various forms 

 in the annexed figures. 



Fi;i. 1 is an example of the horse-shoe fonn, having the centre t on 

 the diameter of the arch raised above the chord or spring of the curve 

 (the dotted line), and consequently the curve itself is greater than a 

 semicircle. The game figure further exemplifies some differences of 

 application, the side or half A showing the arch supported on columns, 

 the other without columns ; besides which it illustrates other varia- 

 tions ; for on the side B the head of the arch is closed over a square- 

 headed aperture not wider than the span or chord ; whereas on the 

 side A the opening between the columns is as wide as the diameter of 

 the arch itself in its greatest width through the centre c. 



P'uj. 2 is an instance of a pointed horse-shoe arch, it being struck 



Fig. 2. 



from two centres, which, as in the other case, are elevated above the 

 line of the impost, or spring, from which the curve commences. This 



Fig. S. 



~ ""l"ii mini, mm i ngiire aiso eiiuuiui iwo varieties ot decorations, both of them bv 



i the Koran for the guidance of his disciples in erecting scalloping; one half being scalloped on the intrados, or edge of the 



figure also exhibits two varieties of decorations, both of them by 



sr.illi minir r one half lipinir fumllnruwl mi tlm !r>ti,1/\o ,,.. ~A~~ ~t AU- 



