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JULY, 1918)
THE HINDOLA MAHAL AT MANDI
175
FORDI
Butler has also published a description of an exceedingly early mosque at Kusair al-Hallâbât.27 It measures 10.10 m. by 11.80 m. and is divided by two rows of five arches carried on columns and engaged piers (Fig. 5). The walls are levelled up above the arches and barrel-vaults are turned upon them. He suggests that it belongs to the eighth or ninth century. This mosque has a concave mihrab, which he expressly states was built with the walls, and not added afterwards. As the concave mihrab does not go back to the earliest days of Islam, this is important, as it gives us a clue to its date. According to Makrizi, the first to introduce the concave mihrab was 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-Aziz when he ACTVAL STATE
restored the mosque at Medinah by order of the Khalif Walid, A. H. 87-88 ( 705-706). The mihrab was copied from the Christian apse and for this reason was received with some reluctance by Islam, in fact it is defined as the least holy part of the mosque and the Imâm is earnestly warned not to
take up his station within SECTIONAB RESTORED it.28 In keeping with this (Fig. 5.)
statement, the exceedingly early mihrab in the mosque-courtyard of the eighth century palace of Ukhaidir is entirely without decoration, and is a simple rectangular recess roofed with a semi-dome set on horizontal brackets ; the archivolt consists of a double ring of voussoirs. Though the first Egyptian mosque was built by 'Amr ibn al-Å$ in A. D. 642 it was not given a concave mihrib until its thiril enlargement in A. D. 710. The mosque at ķu air al-Hallábât must therefore have been built after A. D. 706 at the earliest. On the other hand, it is scarcely likely to be later than the early part of the ninth century, as it has not a distinctively Muhammadan appearance, and we know from ninth-century buildings at Samarrâ, and from the mosque of Ibn I'úlûn at Cairo (A. D. 876-879), that strong individuality had been acquired by that time.
The last early instance toat I shall quote occurs in the palace of Ukhaidir, discovered by Massignon in 1908, and by Miss Bell, independently, in 1909. Au interesting example of our valilting system is found in one room (Miss Bell's Room 32) in which the windows are not pierced, but simply blocked out (Plate III, A. and Fig. 6). This palace may be placed c. A.D. 750.
The finest and most beautiful example to be found in the Middle East is undoubtedly Khan Orthma at Baghdad (Plate III, C), which will at once be recognised as having the closest possible affinity with the Hindola Mabal, indeed it would be difficult to find anywhere two interiors so nearly identical. Dienlafoy and General De Beylié?o attribate this building to the twelfth century, and Baron von Oppenheim says that it doubtless belongs to the times of the Khalifate30 (ended A.D. 1258). I find, however, that Commander J. E. Jones, who saw it in 1846, states that it bears the date 758 (A.D. 1356-7).31 This is
27 Ibid, pp. 74-77 and Appendix xvii-xix. 29 Bell (G. L.). Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir, pp. 147-151. 29 Prome et Samarra, p. 33.
30 Vom Mittelmeer zum Persisches Gold, Band II, p. 241. 31 Memoir on the Province of Baghdad. Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government,
XLIII-New Series, p. 315.
