[p.334] lower portions are polygonal, the upper cylindrical, and each terminates in a platform with a railed gallery carried all round for the protection of those who ascend.

And lastly, from the South-East angle of the Mosque, supposed to be upon the spot where Belal, the Apostle’s loud-lunged crier, called the first Moslems to prayer, [FN#72] springs the Munar Raisiyah, so called because it is appropriated to the Ruasa or chiefs of the Mu’ezzins.  Like the Sulaymaniyah, it consists of three parts:  the first and second stages are polygonal; and the third, a cylinder, is furnished like the lower two with a railed gallery.  Both the latter minarets end in solid ovals of masonry, from which project a number of wooden triangles.  To these and to the galleries on all festive occasions, such as the arrival of the Damascus caravan, are hung oil-lamps-a poor attempt at illumination, which may rationally explain the origin of the Madinite superstition concerning the column of light which crowns the Prophet’s tomb.  There is no uniformity in the shape or the size of these four minarets, and at first sight, despite their beauty and grandeur, they appear somewhat bizarre and misplaced.  But after a few days I found that my eye grew accustomed to them, and I had no difficulty in appreciating their massive proportions and lofty forms.

Equally irregular are the Riwaks, or porches, surrounding the hypaethral court.  Along the Northern wall there will be, when finished, a fine colonnade of granite, paved with marble.  The Eastern Riwak has three rows of pillars, the Western four, and the Southern, under which stands the tomb, of course has its columns ranged deeper than all the others.  These supports of the building are of different material; some of fine marble, others of

[p.335] rough stone, plastered over and painted with the most vulgar of arabesques,-vermilion and black in irregular patches and broad streaks, like the stage-face of a London clown.[FN#73] Their size, moreover, is different, the Southern colonnade being composed of pillars palpably larger than those in the other parts of the Mosque.  Scarcely any two shafts own similar capitals; many have no pedestal, and some of them are cut with a painful ignorance of art.  I cannot extend my admiration of the minarets to the columns-in their “architectural lawlessness” there is not a redeeming point.

Of these unpraisable pillars three are celebrated in the annals of Al-Islam, for which reason their names are painted upon them, and five others enjoy the honour of distinctive appellations.  The first is called Al-Mukhallak, because, on some occasion of impurity, it was anointed with a perfume called Khaluk.  It is near the Mihrab al-Nabawi, on the right of the place where the Imam prays; and it notes the spot where, before the invention of the Pulpit, the Apostle, leaning upon the Ustuwanat al-Hannanah-the Weeping Pillar[FN#74]-used to recite the Khutbah or Friday sermon.