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178 Oriental Cairo
passed the tckkc, taking it for an ordinary mosque. Close
here, too, is the Mohammediya school, chiefly interesting to
strangers as having a lovely four-arched antique inak'ad or
court arcade. The exquisite little loggia on the street must,
I suppose, belong to the same house.
And soon after this you find yourself beside the gorgeous
new sebil of the Abbasides, the Khediviai family, and the
famous Chikkun mosque, which is now two mosques, though it
is spoken of as one. The southern building, though it is one
of the most charming and typical mosques in Cairo, is seldom
visited by foreigners.
It is very old, founded in the fourteenth century, and the
best portions of it have not been restored. Added to this it
is of an unusual form, it is a popular place of worship, and it
contains the best Dervish tekke left in the capital.
I loved it from the moment that, after threading a passage,
I entered its paved triangular courtyard, graced with a
tumble-down old fountain of clear water and shady trees,
and came to the long side of the triangle formed by the open
Ihudn, an adorable place, with deep colonnades of antique
stilted arches and an antique painted roof, which looked none
the less picturesque because it was left in its pristine state
and fading and perishing in parts. The long liwdn was richly
carpeted. My eye wandered from pulpit and viilirab to the
iron gates, through which one could sec the chambers of the
holy men— the old Dervishes. They had little furniture
except fine praying carpets, and their water-bottles. The
Dervishes inside, walking about and muttering (prayers I
suppose) or lying down, and resting on their elbows to read
the Koran, glared at us resentfully, looking like caged lions.
But it appeared that they had no objection to our seeing
over their quarters, for when we had finished with the mosque
the attendant who had provided us with ovcr-slippcrs asked if
we should like to see the tekkiya and conducted us through
the old men's little court and handsome viandara or reception-
hall to their chambers, where they received us with perfect
politeness but cold dignity. For an artist wishing to paint a
fine liivdn with a beautiful court, fountain, and trees and