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| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 374 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_401.jpg |
| Transcript | 374 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. luxuriant Delta over which the Nile yearly spreads its fertilizing waters; for at the point where the narrow valley begins to expand, like a green fan, towards the broad embouchure, stands Cairo, the jewel in its handle. The country we have just traversed is interesting for its Biblical associations; the reign of the shepherd kings who welcomed Israel, and the sojourn and toil and exodus of the chosen people, render the land of Goshen beyond all things memorable. Cairo, on the other hand, is modern and Mohammadan. Yet even so it has its significance to the student of the Bible; for here, at least until European inroads laid waste the Arabian city, could the life and modes of thought of the Semitic race be studied at their best; and a study of the mind of the Muslim not seldom proved the best key to the thoughts of the Hebrew. Cairo is not merely the largest city in Africa, it is the most perfect example the world can show of a Mohammadan capital. In spite of the " Haussmannizing " tendency of recent days, and the attempt to raise it to the questionable dignity of a bastard Paris, Cairo is still the ideal city of the Arabian Nights. We can still shut our eyes to the hotels and restaurants, the dusty grass-plots, and tawdry villa residences of the modern bricklayer's paradise, and turn away to wander in the labyrinth of narrow lanes which intersect the old parts of the city, just as they did in the days of the Memluk sultans. And as we thread the winding alleys, where a thin streak of sky marks the narrow space between the lattice-windows of the overhanging upper stories, and dive under a camel here, or retreat into a recess there, to escape what seems imminent death at the feet of the advancing and apparently impassable crowd of beasts of burden, camels, asses, and horses, laden or ridden, we may fancy ourselves in the gateway of 'Aly of Cairo, and in that stall round the corner we may perhaps hear the story of the wonderful adventures of the six brothers, from the immortal Barber himself; within the grated lattice over the way, the Three Royal Mendicants may at this moment be entertaining the Portress and her fair sisters with the history of their lives ; and if we wait till night we may see the good Harun Er-Rashid himself (though he did live in Baghdad) coming stealthily to the house in his midnight rambles, with Ja'far at his heels, and black Mesrur clearing the way. A few streets away from the European quarter it is easy to dream that we are acting a part in the veracious history of the Thousand and One Nights—which do, in fact, describe Cairo and its people and life as they were in the fifteenth century, and as, to a great degree, they are still. In its very dilapidation the city helps the illusion ; the typical Eastern houses falling to ruins, which no one thinks of repairing, are of course haunted by the 'Efrits and other mischievous Jinn, who keep away all God-fearing tenants. But if in its ruined houses, far more in what survives of its mediaeval monuments does Cairo transport one to the golden age of Arabian art and culture. Among its mosques and the fragments of its palaces are the noblest examples of Arabian architecture which can be seen in all the wide empire of Islam. Damascus and Baghdad, Delhi and Gaur, Seville and Cordova, possess elements of beauty that Cairo has not, and serve to complete the history of Arabian art; but to see that art in its perfection, uncorrupted by the mechanical detail of the Alhambra, free from the distorted outlines of India, |