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The Characteristics of the Gamia 155
El-Mas. The worshippers frequently use the other colonnades
as well as the sanctuary, which is called the liwdn. In the
medresa, with arched courtyards, the liwdn (sanctuary)
is a deep hall open to the west. In the other type of
medresa this hall is sometimes divided into aisles by a
forest of columns supporting arches, which may or may not
have cross arches. The mosque of Amr, the oldest of all
in its foundation, is a good example of this, though its
present buildings belong to a late restoration. Where there
are no cross arches, wooden rafters stretched from column
to column may take their place, as at the mosque of Amr.
They were used of course for suspending the crystal lamps,
which are now, if of fine workmanship and in good condition,
worth a thousand pounds apiece. One mosque formerly
had eighteen thousand of them. The few survivors are the
pride of the Arab museum of Cairo. Hundreds of chains
for suspending them still hang from the roof of Sultan
Hassan's liivdn.
In the east wall of every liwdn near its centre is the
I'ttihrab, the empty recess sometimes called the kiblaJi, because
it marks the direction of Mecca ; and near it is the minibar
or pulpit. The mihrab, which is a little apse about the height
of a door, often has a text from the Koran in the beautiful
Arabic writing round it. Sometimes it is quite plain, but
it is generally decorated either with mosaics, or with the
plaster carvings in which the Arabs delight, or with tessellated
marbles. The introduction of mother-of-pearl into the
mosaics, and tiny engaged columns of turquoise-blue faience
are constant features. In the miniature arcading used as a
decoration the trefoil-headed fourteenth-century arch employed
is almost exactly like our trefoil-headed arch of the
period.
The inimbar is a curious-looking affair. It consists of a
very narrow steep stair leading up to a canopy only just wide
enough to contain the preacher, and generally surmounted by
a large ball. The space between the staircase and the floor is
always filled in with panels of hard, dark wood, generally
inlaid with ivory, or mother-of-pearl. The balustrade itself is