LITERATURE OP THE ARABS. 113 



brated goddess whose worship among the ancients 

 was universal, was first adopted by the Arabs of 

 Syria, and invariably used in the edifices erected 

 by them during the reigns of the Ommiades. After 

 their dethronement the Abbassides, disdaining to 

 imitate their rivals, introduced at Bagdad an arch 

 resembling the section of an oval taken below the 

 transverse diameter. A similar form was adopt- 

 ed by the sovereigns of Granada ; but it is worthy 

 of remark, that so long as the house of Moawiyah 

 ruled in Spain, the arch of their Syrian ancestors 

 prevailed from the Atlantic to the Pyrenees. 



The Mohammedan religion was unfriendly to 

 what we usually denominate the fine arts. To the 

 first Moslems painting and sculpture were consider- 

 ed odious, as leading to idolatry and a breach of their 

 Divine law. Subsequently, however, these scruples 

 decreased as literature and the arts were introduced ; 

 and the caliphs, both of the East and the West, 

 evaded or violated with impunity the prohibitions 

 of the Koran. At first, as a substitute for pictorial 

 delineation, the orthodox artists patiently traced 

 those lineal ornaments of mosaic and network 

 which covered the interior of their mosques and pa- 

 laces. It was the same religious feelings that gave 

 birth to that peculiar style of embellishment, which 

 from the Arabs has been denominated the Arabesque, 

 and which rejects human or animal figures; the 

 subjects, whether painted or sculptured, consisting 

 wholly of imaginary plants, flowers, or foliage. In 

 later times the restraints of religion yielded more 

 and more to the progress of the arts. Some of the 

 Eastern caliphs caused their images to be stamped 

 on their coins. In Spain, Abdalrahman III. ven- 



