t-Bey, the last specially noteworthy on
account of its beautiful internal decoration and its graceful minaret.

In Persia the finest mosques are the 13th century one at Tabrez known as
the Blue, and that at Ispahan dating from the 16th century, which has a
grand dome and noble gateways with pointed arches, whilst at Serbistan,
Firanzabad, Ukheithar, Kasir-i-Shirin, and elsewhere in the same country
are remains of palaces and other secular buildings, ranging in date from
the 4th to the 9th century, that give proof of great structural and
decorative skill on the part of the architects who worked for the
fire-worshippers, who, though they required no temples in which to
worship their gods, lavished vast sums on their own homes.

Beautiful as are the relics of Saracenic architecture in Egypt, Syria,
and Persia, they are excelled by many remarkable buildings in Spain,
where, after the conquest of the country by the Moors in the 8th
century, the style reached its fullest development. The most remarkable
examples of it are the Mosque at Cordova, begun in 786 by Abd-el-Rahman
and added to from time to time by his successors, with the result that
it affords an excellent illustration of the modification of details that
took place as time went on; the 12th century Giralda or Tower at
Seville, noteworthy for its fine proportions and effective surface
decoration, the 13th century Alcazar or castle in the same town, and
above all the Palace of the Alhambra, that dominates Granada from a
lofty height above the city, which was begun in 1248 by the Moorish
King, Ibn-l-Ahmar and added to by his successors. Of the original
buildings that, when first completed, must have been one of the grandest
and most finely situated groups in the world, all that now remain are
the towers of the north wall, in one of which is the vast hall of the
Ambassadors, and various colonnaded rooms and porticoes ranged round two
spacious courts, one called that of the Fishpond, the other that of the
Lions. The delicate grace of the columns and arches, with the richness
of their decoration and of every inch of surface, has never been
surpassed either in beauty of design or harmony of colour, whilst the
effects of perspective from the doorways and other points of view are
equally unrivalled. No single detail is superfluous or without its
special meaning in relation to the whole, and even what to the
uninitiated appear mere geometrical designs on the walls, lintels,