440 
MEDRESSY JEDDAH. 
doors made of solid brass, deeply embossed, and richly orna¬ 
mented with pure silver. On passing through them, and a 
vestibule with a dome roof, I found myself in a spacious square 
court, planted thickly with flowers, and overshadowed by lines 
of lofty trees. The roses were pf every hue and perfume ; and 
being now in their fullest blow, the air was one cloud of incense. 
The cloistered sides of the building which formed the square, 
were divided into arched compartments, covered within and 
without with variegated tiles, coloured in strange, fantastic pat¬ 
terns, intermixed with sentences from the Koran. In this prac¬ 
tice of writing the precepts of their religion “ on the posts of 
their houses, and on their gates,” both Mahomedans and Ar¬ 
menians appear to respect the Divine Law; which, with as much 
paternal tenderness, as beauty of language, commands the lessons 
of virtue to “ be bound, for a sign, upon the hand; and worn as 
a frontlet between the eyes: that it may be well with them, 
and with their children for ever !” 
A mosque occupies nearly the whole of one side of the qua¬ 
drangle. Its porch is supported by two high columns ; and when 
we enter, we find the whole in the freshest preservation of splendid 
decoration. The cupola-roof is of a fine form, brilliantly orna¬ 
mented in the Sefi taste ; and surmounted, on the outside, by 
three golden globes. Crescents, as a finish to this part of a holy 
building, I have not seen in Persia. About a hundred students 
are now the inhabitants of this college. They receive their edu¬ 
cation free of expense to themselves, the moullah who instructs 
them being paid by the government. And, while I contem¬ 
plated their regular habits, the seclusion of the place, and the 
serenity which reigned within its walls, I could not but feel with 
Mr. Morier, that here was the very sanctuary of study. Indeed, 
