of the capital
affirmed. And Ctesias, who is not content with allusions, but enters into
minute details, tells us how the work was executed, and how its durability
was guaranteed. The modern buildings of Persia give us some idea as to the
appearance of those of Babylon. No doubt the plan of a mosque differs
entirely from that of a temple of Marduk or Nebo, but the principle of the
decoration was the same. If the wand of an enchanter could restore the
principal buildings of Babylon we should, perhaps, find more than one to
which the following description of the great mosque of Ispahan might be
applied with the change of a word here and there: "Every part of the
building without exception is covered with enamelled bricks. Their ground
is blue, upon which elegant flowers and sentences taken from the Koran are
traced in white. The cupola is blue, decorated with shields and arabesques.
One can hardly imagine the effect produced by such a building on an
European accustomed to the dull uniformity of our colourless buildings; he
is filled with an admiring surprise that no words can express."[373]

If we should set about making such a comparison, the principal difference
to be noticed would be that arising out of the prohibitions of the Koran.
The Persian potter had to content himself with the resources of pure
ornament, resources upon which he drew with an exquisite skill that forbids
us to regret the absence of men and animals from his work. The coloured
surfaces of the Babylonian buildings must have had more variety than those
of the great mosque at Ispahan or the green mosque at Broussa. But the same
groups and the same personages were constantly repeated in the same
attitudes and tints, so that their general character must have been purely
decorative. Even when they were combined into something approaching a
scene, care was taken to guard, by conventionality of treatment and the
frequent repetition of familiar types and groups, against its attracting to
itself the attention that properly belonged to the composition of which it
formed a part. The artist was chiefly occupied with the general effect. His
aim was to give a certain rhythm to a succession of traditional forms whose
order and arrangement never greatly varied, to fill the wide surfaces of
his architecture with contrasts and harmonies of colour that should delight
the eye and prevent its fatigue.

Were the colours as soft and harmonious as we now see them in those