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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
JULY, 1915)
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Fig. 25.
Fig. 26. The framework referred to above is only required in consequence of the outward bulge of the dome, as stated. The inner shell of these domes as well as all ordinary (single shell) domes in Persia are constructed without centreing, a most important point in a country where wood is extremely scarce. Chardin, 85 C'Donova1,86 Biddulph,87 Mərsh, 8 Ferrier,$9 and Fowler90 have described this feature, which is the rule in Persia from the dome of a peasant's hut (Plate I. E.) to the large dome at the intersection of two galleries in the bazaar (Chahr Su), and the inner shell of the chief dome in a mosque.3fter the completion of the pendentives, the successive rings of the dome are completed one by one, and as they set rapidly the workmen have no hesitation in leaning on them almost immediately, reaching over and plastering the interior as far as they can. The exterior is plastered also, and as no scaffolding is used as a rule, half bricks are omitted at intervals, into which the bricklayers insert their feet and climb about as they wish.
Dome construction without contreing is not confined to Persia, but is found pretty nearly all over Islam. Egypt is no exception, and Mr. Somers Clarke in his recent book, 01 describes the construction by two men of a dome of a house he had built. This dome rested on an octagon pierced by windows, one in each face, and after the completion of the octagor (which itself rested on pendentives over a square room), a punt pole was borrowed from a neighbouring dahabeah and laid diagonally across. A centre point was found by taking a piece of string the full diameter of the octagon and doubling it. To this centre point the string was tied, and a knot at each end of it established the radius. Each workman took one end, which fixed the outline of the dome, except the apex which approximated to a conical form. Mr. Somers Clarke concludes: “There are in Egypt hundreds of domes built in the manner above described and many of them are several hundred years old, but it would be difficult to find a builder in Europe who did not require for the work
85 Travels, (Lloyd's translation) II, p. 278. 86 O'Donovan (E.), The Merv Oasis, I, p. 476. 87 Biddulph (C. E.), Four Months in Persia, p. 59. ** Marsh (H. C.), A Ride through Islam, p. 89. 19 Ferrier (J. P.), Caravan Journeys, p. 174. 90 Fowler (G.), Three Years in Persia, I, p. 82. 91 Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley, pp. 28-30.
