half-Egyptian, half-Grecian character, which I have observed in the works of the Asmonean princes and of the Herods: they are merely Greek churches of the time of the decline of the arts.

The fourth class of monuments at Jerusalem consists of those that belong to the period of the taking of the city by the caliph Omar, the successor of Abubeker, and the head of the race of the Ommiades. The Arabs, who had followed the banners of the caliph, made themselves masters of Egypt; thence advancing along the coast of Africa, they passed over into Spain, and occupied the enchanted palaces of Grenada and Cordova. It is, then, from the reign of Omar that we must date the origin of that Arabian architecture, of which the Alhambra is the master-piece, as the Parthenon is the miracle of the genius of Greece. The mosque of the temple begun at Jerusalem by Omar, enlarged by Abdel-Malek, and rebuilt on a new plan by El-Oulid, is a very curious monument for the history of the arts among the Arabs. It is not yet known after what model were erected those fairy mansions, of which Spain exhibits the ruins. Perhaps the reader will not be displeased if I introduce a few words on a subject so new and hitherto so little studied.

The first temple erected by Solomon having been destroyed six hundred years before the birth of Christ, it was rebuilt, after the seventy years' captivity, by Joshua, the son of Josedek and Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel. Herod, the Ascalonite, wholly rebuilt this second temple. On his edifice he employed eleven thousand labourers for nine years; the works were prodigious, and were not completed till long after Herod's death. The Jews, having filled up precipices, and cut down the top of the mountain at length formed that magnificent esplanade on which the temple was erected to the east of Jerusalem, above the vallies of Siloe and Jehoshaphat.

Forty days after his birth, Christ was presented in this second temple, and here the Virgin was purified: here, too, at the age of twelve years, the Son of Man instructed the doctors; and hence he expelled the dealers. Here he was in vain tempted by the devil; here he remitted the sins of the adultress; here he delivered the parables of the good shepherd, the two sons, the labourers in the vineyard, and the marriage-feast. It was this same temple into which he entered amidst branches of palms and olive

trees: lastly, here he pronounced the words: Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's, and bestowed an encomium on the widow's mite.

Titus having taken Jerusalem in the second year of Vespasian's reign, not one stone was left upon another of that temple where Christ had done such glorious things, and the destruction of which he had predicted. When Omar took Jerusalem, it ap pears that the site of the temple, with the exception of a very small part, had been abandoned by the Christians. Said-EbenBatrik, and Arabic historian, relates that the caliph applied to the patriarch Sophronius, and inquired of him what would be the most proper place at Jerusalem for building a mosque. Sophronius conducted him to the ruins of Solomon's temple.

Omar, delighted with the opportunity of erecting a mosque on so celebrated a spot, caused the ground to be cleared, and the earth to be removed from a large rock where God is said to have conversed with Jacob. From that rock the new mosque took its name of Gameat-el-Sakhra, and became almost as sacred an object to the Mussulmans as the mosques of Mecca and Medina. The caliph Abd-el-Malek made additions to its buildings, and inclosed the rock with walls. His successor, the caliph El Louid, contributed still more to the embellishment of El Sakhra, and covered it with a dome of copper, gilt, taken from a church at Balbek. In the sequel, the crusaders converted the temple of Mahomet into a sanctuary of Christ; but when Saladin retook Jerusalem, he restored this edifice to its original use.

But of what nature is the architecture of this mosque,. the type or primitive model, of the elegant architecture of the Moors? This is a question which it is very difficult to resolve. The Arabs, in consequence of their despotic and jealous habits, have reserved their decorations for the interior of their monuments; and the penalty of death was denounced against every Christian who should not only enter the Gameat-el-Sakhra, but merely set foot in the court by which it is surrounded. It is much to be regretted that Deshayes, the ambassador, out of a vain diplomatic scruple, refused to see this mosque, into which the Turks offered to introduce him. I shall describe the exterior as it appeared to me, and give such particulars of the interior as we have learned from va rious travellers and historians,

The great square of the mosque, formerly the great square of the temple, may be seen from a window in Pilate's house. This square forms a court, about five hundred paces in length, and four hundred and sixty in breadth. On the east and south, this court is bounded by the wall of the city, on the west by Turkish houses, and on the north by the ruins of prætorium of Pilot and Herod's palace.

Twelve porticos, placed at unequal distances, and perfectly irregular, like the cloisters of the Alhambra, form the entrances to this court. They are composed of three or four arches, and these, in some instances, support a second row, producing, as nearly as possible, the effect of a double aqueduct. The most considerable of these porticos corresponds with the ancient Porta Speciosa, known to the Christians by a miracle wrought by St. Peter. There are lamps under these porches.

In the midst of this court is a smaller, raised like a terrace, without balustrade, six or seven feet above the former. This second court is, according to the general opinion, two hundred paces long and one hundred and fifty broad; on each of the four sides there is an ascent to it by a flight of eight marble steps.

In the centre of this upper court stands the famous mosque of the Rock, Close to the mosque is a cistern, which receives its water from the ancient Fons Signatus, and at which the Turks perform their ablutions before they go to prayer. Some aged olive-trees and cypresses are thinly scattered over both courts.

The temple itself is an octagon: a lantern, which has likewise eight sides, and a window in each, crowns the edifice. This lantern is covered with a dome, formerly of copper, gilt, but now of lead: a pinnacle, in a very good style, terminated by a crescent, rises at the top of the whole structure, which resembles an Arabian tent pitched in the middle of a desert. Father Roger gives thirty-two paces for the measure of each side of the octagon, two hundred and fifty-two for the external circumference of the mosque, and eighteen or twenty fathoms for the total height of the building.

The walls are lined externally with small tiles or bricks, painted with different colours: these bricks are covered with arabesques, and verses from the Koran, inscribed in letters of gold. The eight windows of the lantern are adorned with circular panes of

stained glass. Here we already discover some original features of the Moorish edifices in Spain: the light porticos of the court, and the painted bricks of the mosque, remind you of different parts of the Generalif, the Alhambra, and the cathedral of Cordova.

Let us now proceed to the interior of this mosque, which I have not seen, and which it was impossible for me to see. I was strongly tempted to run ev ery risk in order to gratify my love of the arts; but was deterred by the fear of involving all the Christians at Jerusalem in destruction.

The most ancient author that has described the mosque of the Rock, is William of Tyre; who could not fail to be well acquainted with it, since it had but just been wrested out of the hands of the Christians at the period when the sagacious archbishop wrote his history. He speaks of it in the following terms:

"We have said, at the beginning of this book, that Omar, the son of Caled, erected this temple; a circumstance which is evidently proved by the ancient inscriptions engraven both within and without this edifice." The historian then proceeds to the description of the court, and adds: "In the angles of this court were extremely lofty towers, from the top of which the priests of the Saracens were accustomed at certain hours to summon the people to prayers. Some of these towers remain standing to this day, but the others have been destroyed by various accidents. No person was allowed to enter or remain in this court otherwise than with his feet uncovered and washed.

"The temple is built in the middle of the upper court; it is octagonal, and adorned both internally and externally, with squares of marble, and Mosaic work. The two courts, both the upper and the lower, are paved with white flag-stones to catch in winter the rain-water, which falls in great abundance from the buildings of the temple, and runs very clear, and without any mixture of mud, inte the cisterns below. In the middle of the temple, between the inner range of columns, is a rock of no great height, and at the foot of it a grotto hewn out of the same stone. Upon this rock sat the angel, who, as a punishment for David's inconsiderate numbering of the people, slaughtered them till God commanded him to return his sword into the scabbard. This rock previously to the arrival of our armies, was naked and uncovered, and in this state it remained for fifteen years; but those to whose

care this place was afterwards entrusted covered it again, and erected upon it a chapel and an altar, for the performance of divine worship."

These details are curious, because it is almost eight hundred years since they were written; but we learn from them very little respecting the interior of the mosque. The most ancient travellers, Arculfe in Adamannus, Willibald, Bernard the monk, Ludolph, Breydenbach, Sanuto, and others, speak of it only from hearsay, and apparently not always from the best authorities. The fanaticism of the Mussulmans was much greater in those remote ages than it is at present; and nothing could induce them to reveal to a Christian the mysteries of their temples. We must therefore pass on to modern travellers, and pause once more at Deshayes

This ambassador of Louis XIII. to Palestine, refused, as I have observed, to enter the mosque of the Rock; but the Turks gave him a description of this temple.

"It has," says he, "a great dome, supported within by two ranges of marble columns, in the middle of which, is a large stone, upon which, as the Turks believe, Mahomet ascended when he went to heaven. On this account they hold it in high veneration; and those who possess the ability, leave money to keep a person after their death, to read the Koran near this stone on their behalf.

F "The interior of this mosque is quite white, except in certain places where the name of God is inscribed in large Arabic characters."

This account differs not much from that given by William of Tyre. Father Roger will furnish us with more information, for he seems to have found means to obtain admission into the mosque, at least so we may judge from the following explanation:

"If a Christian were to gain access into the court of the temple, whatever prayers he might offer up in this place (according to the notion of the Turks) God would not fail to grant, were he even solicited to put Jerusalem into the hands of the Christians. For this reason, besides the prohibition issued against. Christians not only to enter the temple, but even the court, uponpain of being burned alive or turning Mahometans, they keep a