orientalcairocit00sladuoft

The Old Arab Streets of Cairo HS
one of a mosque in many ways—for example, in its porch, in
its portal, which has a glorious bronze door taken from a
mosque, and in its Hall of Fetes. Directly you get inside you
see a charming fountain at the head of the staircase, but the
two tours de force of the house are the Hall of Fetes and the
Hanging Garden. The former is perfectly delightful ; it is
built in the form of a fifteenth-century mosque, with a floor of
tessellated marble, sunk in the centre under a cupola. The
liwdn and the other recesses have deep soft carpets and
cushions ;
the walls have a panelling of rare old marbles taken
from mosques, the antique painted timber roof, as I was told,
has actually done duty in a mosque. At every point where it
could be applied, there is a lavish display of splendid old
mesJirebiya work. The cornice is covered with old Arabic
decorations ; the ivory inlaid doors were made from mosque
pulpits ; there are windows of platre ajoure, gemmed with old
stained glass, old mosque lamps a-swing from long chains, the
pendentives, which are the chief grace of Arab architecture, old
Arabic inscriptions of exquisite lettering ;
the inlaying of ivory
and mother-of-pearl, and antique Persian tiles, are used with
delightful effect. The music gallery, high up at one end, is
not well done when you examine it closely, but it has a good
effect from below, and is the best point for examining the
beautiful old fifteenth-century roof. Once upon a time the
Minister gave a fancy-dress ball in this hall, with musicians in
the gallery above. It is finer than the upper hall of the Zisa
itself ; it has all the picturesque little appurtenances of an
Arab mansion, such as the arched sort of altar called the
Suffeh, on which the water pitchers stand.
As charming in its way as the hall is the Hanging Garden,
with its tall palms and its sunk Arab fountain, and its lovely
gallery of old nieshrebiya, and panels of old plaster work and
old tiles let into the walls. Everything, to the flying gallery
round the top, is charming.
The fault of this house is that where old Arabic materials
are not used, there is no attempt to make the modern work
worthy of them. Some of it is very vulgar and poor. It
would pay the French Republic to take the house down and
lO