Читать книгу Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir: A Study in Early Mohammadan Architecture - Gertrude Lowthian Bell - Страница 4

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The fortified palace of Ukhaiḍir stands in the desert about three hours’ journey to the south-east of the oasis of Shethâthâ and some seven hours’ south-west of Kerbelâ. Its exact site has been fixed by Sir William Willcocks’s survey and it is upon his map that mine is based (Map 1). Ukhaiḍir is not far from the south-west end of the low ground which Sir William Willcocks has called the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression. The southern part of this depression covers an area of 146 square kilometres at a level of 46 metres above the Persian Gulf;[9] at its lower end it still contains a lake of brackish water, the lake of Abû Dibs, the water-level of which is 19 metres above the Persian Gulf. The northern part is occupied by the Ḥabbâniyyeh Lake. That the whole area was once filled with escape water from the Euphrates is shown by the fact that it is covered at a level of 25 metres above the Persian Gulf by a thick belt of Euphrates shells; at this level it extends over an area of 1,200 square kilometres. The oases of Raḥḥâliyyeh and Shethâthâ are situated upon the edge of this ancient reservoir. Between Shethâthâ and Ukhaiḍir a shallow valley, the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, makes its way up from the south-west to the lake of Abû Dibs. I have been told that after heavy winter rain a stream has been known to flow down the ghadîr, the water-course, which winds through the sand and stones of the valley bed. Whether this be true or no, a well of good sweet water exists in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, fed, in all probability, by a spring, like the famous water of Muḥaiwir in the Wâdi Ḥaurân, or the wells of ‘Asîleh in the Wâdi Burdân. At no other point in the immediate vicinity of Ukhaiḍir is fresh water to be obtained; whether you dig within the palace walls, or without, the water, if water there be, is brackish and unfit to drink. To the north of the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ the ground opposite Ukhaiḍir, sloping gradually down to the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression, is intersected by gulleys, narrow and steep, cutting through hillocks of gypsum, and among these hillocks is the small ruin which the Arabs call Qṣair. Here, I take it, the gypsum was obtained for the mortar which binds the masonry of the palace, and its good qualities are attested by the excellent preservation of wall and vault until this day. I have not visited the quarries, but the Arabs told me that the stone had been brought from a distance of about an hour to the south of Ukhaiḍir, where there are traces of working ‘taḥt al-arḍ’, below the ground—not in a hill-side. Near the quarries there is said to be a well of good but not abundant water; Shakhârîz is the name of the well. It is built of stone. Behind it, some three hours’ journey from Ukhaiḍir, there is a low line of hills, the Djebel Ḍaba’. From the castle walls the long levels of the desert spread out invitingly to the hills, and I would gladly have gone thither, but I had not time to spare during either of my visits. Ukhaiḍir does not reckon security among its many charms. The plentiful sweet water of the well in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ makes it a trysting-place for raiding parties, and after four or five days’ sojourn it is best to be gone, lest the news that a foreigner is lodged within the palace walls should run too temptingly among the tribes. In 1911, the date of my last visit, I came to Ukhaiḍir from Shethâthâ, having ridden straight across the desert from Ramâdi, skirting the Ḥabbâniyyeh Lake and the east side of the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression. When I left I did not follow the usual way, by Abû Dibs to Kerbelâ, but rode almost due east, to the foot of a cliff of sand and rock, which is the western limit of a flat desert plateau that stretches eastward to the Hindiyyeh. An abrupt rise of this nature is called in colloquial Arabic a ṭâr.[10] From Ukhaiḍir the ground dropped gradually. After two hours’ riding (about six miles) we reached the khabrâ of Wizikh. A khabrâ is a hollow bottom where rain water lies and stagnates till it evaporates. The khabrâ of Wizikh, which was dry and sandy, appeared to stretch along the foot of the ṭâr, northward to Abû Dibs, and also southwards. My Arab guide, a sheikh of the Zaqârît, which is a sub-tribe of the Shammar, informed me that there were wells of brackish water in the khabrâ further to the south, the Biyâr Slâm. The khabrâ was about a fifth of a mile wide. At the further side we rode up the sandy gulleys of the ṭâr and in ten minutes reached a well, the Bir Sbai’i, the water of which was brackish but drinkable. From here to the Hindiyyeh there is no water of any kind. Another ten minutes brought us to the summit of the ṭâr, whence we could see Ukhaiḍir on the one hand and the tower of Mudjḍah on the other. The bearings here were as follows: Ukhaiḍir (south-east angle of the castle) 300°, Mudjḍah 97°, central point of the Djebel Ḍaba’ 244°. Mudjḍah is a solitary tower without any provision for the storage of water, or any ruins round it. I think it can have served no other purpose than that of a landmark on the line of the caravan track, which must have passed this way from the great city of Kûfah to the oasis of Shethâthâ, or ‘Ain al-Tamr, to give it its earlier name. From the top of the ṭâr to the modern Kerbelâ-Nedjef road the desert is absolutely flat and featureless, and we ourselves came near to losing our way across it. The existence of a former caravan track across this waste is assured by the ruined khân of ‘Aṭshân, half-way between Mudjḍah and the modern Khân Ḥamâd.

Such are the characteristics of the country round Ukhaiḍir. The ṭâr, standing over the low ground of the khabrâ, bounds the view to the east; to the north-east, across the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, the gypsum hillocks lead down to the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression; to the north-west a few shallow desert wâdis cross the path to Shethâthâ; to south and west stretches the immense expanse of the Syrian desert, broken only by the small group of the Djebel Ḍaba’. It is, however, by no means certain that in the seventh and eighth centuries, that is to say, at the period during which it is probable that the palace was built, the local conditions were the same as they are at present. It is indeed likely that the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression contained at that time more water than it does now, that the lake of Abû Dibs stretched across a considerable part of it, and that its margin approached nearer to Ukhaiḍir. The scrub and reed round the edge of the lake would have given cover for water fowl, for boar and other wild animals, and the lords of Ukhaiḍir, when they went out to the chase, would have had an ample supply of game. Moreover the oasis of Shethâthâ was certainly a more important place then than it is at present, for all its 160,000 palm-trees.[11] There can be no doubt that it occupies the site of ‘Ain al-Tamr, famous in the days of the Persian kings[12]—that same oasis which Khâlid ibn al-Walîd took and sacked in the year A.H. 12. It is my belief that the Mohammadan invasion did not diminish its importance, and in proof I would adduce the evidence afforded by the khân of ‘Aṭshân and the landmark tower of Mudjḍah, showing that from Kûfah to ‘Ain al-Tamr there must have been a direct caravan road across the desert. Muqaddasi, writing in the year A.D. 985, describes ‘Ain al-Tamr as a little castle;[13] Yâqût, who mentions the name Shefâthâ as part of ‘Ain al-Tamr, praises its dry dates above those of other towns,[14] and to this day they maintain that honourable pre-eminence. Ukhaiḍir, then, with the marshy haunts of game a mile or two from its gates, and a much-frequented oasis three hours to the north, presented in the eighth century advantages which it no longer enjoys now that the waters have retreated to the confines of the modern Abû Dibs, and the traffic of Shethâthâ has shrunk to an occasional small caravan of merchant and citizen passing along the Kerbelâ track, or the visit of a ragged crew of Beduin date-buyers. Yet it is difficult to conjure up any picture but that of isolation when, after a weary struggle through sand or marsh, according to the season, the gaunt walls and towers of the palace rear themselves out of the solitudes of the desert—in all that barren waste sole vestige of mortal energy, of the fleeting splendour of mankind. (Plate 6, Fig. 1).

The palace consists of a quadrangular area bounded by a wall which measures 163·60 metres from east to west, and 175·80 metres from north to south (Map 2). It is almost exactly oriented. The wall is provided with round towers, projecting 2·70 metres from its face, and with a gate in the centre of each side. At the north-west angle, at a distance of 13·25 metres from the palace wall, a building consisting of fifteen vaulted rooms runs out due north. It has a length of 81·20 metres and a width of 11·45 metres. To the west of the six southerly chambers lies a rectangular court, 35·20 metres from north to south and 25·80 metres from east to west, with round towers like those of the main palace, projecting 2·75 metres. North-east of the palace there is a small irregularly-shaped building, known to the Arabs as the Ḥammâm, the bath. Its greatest length is 12·90 metres and its greatest width, including the rectangular buttresses, 8·65 metres. With the exception of the Ḥammâm, these edifices have been enclosed by a second stone wall, but this wall cannot have been a considerable structure, for at the only point where its width can be determined, north of the palace, it is but 1 metre thick. Its present aspect is that of a low mound of sand, and in places even this mound is by no means clearly to be traced. Owing to the very fragmentary character of the northern line of the outer wall, it is not possible to fix the position of the north gate, though there can be little doubt that a gate existed opposite the north gate of the palace, at a distance of about seventy paces from it. South of the Ḥammâm the wall is easier to make out. It runs parallel to the east wall of the palace, and is broken by a gateway opposite the eastern palace gate. At intervals large heaps of stones seem to indicate the presence of towers. Two hundred and thirty paces to the south of the palace, this outer towered wall turns to the west and runs parallel to the south wall of the palace. Traces of a gate can be seen opposite the south gate of the palace. From the south-west angle of the palace wall a second low sandy mound runs down to join the outer wall, and immediately to the west of this division wall there had been another gate in the outer wall, which then ran on westward for two hundred paces. The west wall is not exactly parallel to the palace; it was broken by a gate opposite the west gate of the palace. The north-west angle of the outer wall is very nearly obliterated. It turns off eastward almost at right angles and joins an inner dividing wall which comes up from a point about twenty paces west of the north-west tower of the palace, and seems to have been connected with that tower by a cross-wall. At the point of junction between this dividing wall and the outer wall, a mound runs out north-west for a great distance into the desert. I did not follow it, but from the top of the palace its course can be traced for more than a mile. The northern outer wall then turns slightly to the south of east and passes close to the south-east corner of the detached northern building, beyond which point it is almost obliterated. Between the Ḥammâm and the north-east angle of the outer wall there are some low sandy mounds wherein the Arabs say that they have dug and found brackish water.

When I first visited Ukhaiḍir in March 1909 it was occupied by Arabs from Djôf in Nedjd who were anxious to establish themselves there permanently. To this end they wished to receive official recognition from the Government, and they proposed to earn a livelihood by supplying Baghdâd with camels bought from the tribes of the Syrian and Arabian deserts. When I returned in 1911 they were gone, and Sheikh Ṣukhail, of the Zaqârît, who was camped under the walls, could give me no account of their departure, except that it had taken place some months previously. Possibly they found Ukhaiḍir an unsatisfactory centre for commercial enterprise, and there can be no question but that their project would have been ill looked upon by the Beduin, who regard the sweet waters of the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ as their peculiar property. Whatever may have driven them forth, the Djôfîyîn had left no memorial of their residence save heaps of filth and refuse in the halls and courts of the palace, new stonework round the well in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, a meagre plantation of half-withered palm-shoots close by it, and evidences of an equally unsuccessful attempt to establish a few palm-trees within the palace walls near the west gate, where there is a small deep well of brackish water. And we, finding Ukhaiḍir untenanted, took possession of it and pitched our tents in the central court.

The towered wall of the palace encloses a yard and a quadrangular block of building which covers an area measuring 111·40 metres from north to south and 68·50 metres from east to west (Plate 1). On three sides of this block, rounded towers project 1·75 metres from the face of the wall, while the north side is connected with the main wall. The northern part of the building is three stories high, the upper story being on a level with the chemin de ronde which runs round the main wall. The rest of the building, 73·95 metres from north to south, is one story high. The palace yard runs round three sides of the building. To the west and south it is unoccupied by any structure; north of the west gate lies a well of brackish water, and it was there that the Djôfîyîn had planted their palm-shoots. This well I believe to be modern; it bears no mark of antiquity. To the east, north of the east gate, the yard is blocked by an edifice, a single story high, the chambers of which are numbered on the plan 140-152. It is a later addition, as will be seen, to the original scheme of the palace.

The main wall consists of a core of masonry 2·60 metres thick, rising about 10 metres above the present level of the ground (section e-f, Plate 5, Fig. 1). It is difficult to get absolutely accurate measurements of height as the surface-level varies slightly according to the depth of ruin strewn over it. Blind arcades on the interior and on the exterior carry the chemin de ronde. On the interior, pilasters 1 metre deep are united by arches very slightly pointed (Plate 7, Fig. 1). The pilasters are without capital or impost, the arches springing directly from them. The arches rise to a height of 8·50 metres, and their span averages on the east wall a little under 3·85 metres, while the width of the pilasters averages 1·55 metres. The arches are composed of two rings of stone voussoirs, the inner ring laid vertically; i.e. with the broadside showing, the outer ring laid horizontally, with the narrow end showing. Dr. Reuther notices that in some instances the horizontal outer ring is lacking. The walls and pilasters, like all the walls of Ukhaiḍir, are built of thin irregular slabs of stone, very roughly coursed, with a binding course laid through them at intervals. In or above the binding courses are holes for wooden beams. There are four such holes in each pilaster and one in the spandrel between the arches. In the back wall of each arcade there are three holes up the centre, and two level with the springing of the arch. Similar holes for beams occur in all the walls of Ukhaiḍir. At a height of 1·50 metres above the level of the arches, the wall is set back ·40 metre and broken by windows, 11·80 metres above the ground, and 1·80 metres above the floor of the chemin de ronde. As the authors of Ocheïdir have observed, these windows cannot have served any purpose of defence, since they are so high above the floor. There was thus no means of attacking from the wall a foe who had penetrated into the palace yard. Between each pair of windows, shallow pilasters, corresponding to the pilasters below, are carried up to the top of the wall. There are holes for beams between the window arches on wall and pilaster, and also directly above, along the top of the wall. On the exterior there is again a blind arcade 1 metre deep, consisting of two round arches between each tower (Plate 7, Fig. 2). The towers have a projection of 2·75 metres beyond the face of the arcade. The exterior arches bear no relation to the arches of the interior arcade. Two arches, with an average span of 3·85 metres, separated by a pilaster 1·60 metres wide, stand between each of the piers, 4·10 metres wide, against which the three-quarter round towers are placed. There are five of these towers between gateway and angle tower. They have a diameter of 3·30 metres, whereas the angle towers have a diameter of 5·10 metres. The holes for beams appear as on the inner side of the wall, but they do not correspond with the interior holes. As in the interior arcade, the outer arches are slightly pointed and spring directly from the pilasters. The top of the exterior arches is ·30 metre above the level of the floor of the chemin de ronde. The chemin de ronde does not occupy the whole width of the core of the wall (Plate 3, Fig. 2). The passage is 1·90 metres wide. On the inner side, the wall is 1 metre thick and broken by the above-mentioned windows looking into the yard; on the outer side there is a series of recesses covered by ovoid arches. Each recess, 1·45 metres wide and ·40 metre deep, contains either a loophole window or a door. The loopholes, of which there are four between each tower, open on to the exterior of the palace and command a wide view of the desert. They are ·65 metre wide on the inside and narrow outwards to ·20 metre. On the inside they are covered by a lintel with an arched niche above it, on the outside they have a triangular head with a single upright stone placed within it, supporting the side stones of the triangle, and a small inverted triangular aperture above (Plate 8, Fig. 3 and Plate 10, Fig. 2). Each window recess is machicolated, there being an interval of ·20 metre between the outer edge of the floor of the recess (which corresponds with the outer face of the core of the wall) and the inner side of the arches of the exterior arcade. Through this gap an enemy standing at the foot of the wall could be attacked. Every fifth recess contains a door, ·75 metre wide, which gave access to a small round chamber hollowed out of the thickness of the tower. In the whole circuit of the wall not one of these tower chambers is intact, but enough remains to determine their construction (Plate 8, Fig. 2). Each chamber was covered by an ovoid dome, in the masonry of which there are traces of flat ribs. There was a loophole in the walls on either side, from which the defenders could cover the curtain wall between tower and tower, and it is reasonable to suppose that there must have been a third loophole fronting the desert. The loopholes were constructed in the manner already described. It seems probable that the towers exceeded the curtain walls in height; many of the towers show fragments of masonry higher than the present summit of the walls. The angle towers rose a story above the chemin de ronde and contained a second round chamber above the chamber on the level of the chemin de ronde. Traces of this second chamber remain in the north-east and in the south-west towers (Plate 8, Fig. 1). A stair was placed in each of the four angles of the castle yard (Plate 7, Fig. 1). The stairs, which were vaulted in a manner which will be described later (below p. 16), wound twice round the newel post before they reached the gallery of the chemin de ronde, and thereafter rose one story higher in order to reach the summit of the wall, and the upper chamber of the angle towers. It is probable that the summit of the wall was given a crenellated parapet in order to protect those who walked along it. Nor was it only from the angles of the yard that the chemin de ronde could be approached. It was accessible from the top story of the palace and also by means of stairs which were situated on either side of the east, south and west gates. None of these gates are well preserved and in no case have the stairs escaped ruin, but the mark of the stair can be seen clearly on the inner face of the wall (Plate 9, Fig. 1). The three gateways are all alike (section g-h, Plate 5, Fig. 2). They are flanked on the exterior by segments of towers (Plate 9, Fig. 2). The outer archway, which contained the door, has in every case been blocked up by the Beduin; it is therefore impossible to tell its exact depth, though its width, 2·10 metres, can be determined. I omitted to note the portcullis of which the authors of Ocheïdir found traces outside the door.[15] An inner arched niche, 1·45 metres long by 2·50 metres wide, is visible from the interior, together with a portion of the chamber into which it led. This chamber was 6·30 metres long by 3·10 metres wide, and was covered by a pointed barrel vault oversailing the face of the walls. Over the doorway on the inside, there is an arched niche which communicated with the arch of the outer gate by a rectangular funnel. It is impossible to imagine what can have been the purpose of this funnel, which connected the bottom of the niche with the top of the arch, unless it were meant to receive the bolt of the door, but I do not think that even this explanation will hold. The authors of Ocheïdir observed a similar communication between every niche placed over a doorway and the arch below it. The construction is made clear in their admirable drawing (Ocheïdir, Fig. 19). They offer no conclusion as to its purpose, but since it occurs in archways which show no sign of having contained a door, the idea that it was meant to provide space for a bolt cannot be maintained. The inner wall of the gate-house, which has in every case fallen, projected into the palace yard 3·50 metres from the face of the inner pilasters of the enclosing wall. Besides the vaulted passage or chamber in the centre, it comprised the above-mentioned staircases. I detected traces of a door between the gate-room and the staircase on either side. The stair wound once round the rectangular newel post and reached a chamber on the first floor, above the gate-room. The doors of communication between the stair and this chamber are not preserved. The chamber is unusually low, 3·30 metres from the floor to the top of the vault. It is provided with a large window, 2·50 metres high, in the outer wall, opening on to the desert. The stair turned once more round the newel post and led into the chemin de ronde, with which the upper chamber of the gate-house communicated by doorways. The vaulting construction of the south gateway, which is the best preserved (Plate 9, Fig. 1), shows that the vault of the upper story must have cut across the vaults of the passage, from which it was separated by transverse arches. A big window in the outer wall opens down to the floor of the chamber and the learned authors of Ocheïdir place here, no doubt correctly, a hourd projecting from the wall over the doorway below. There are small rectangular domed chambers in the towers on either side of the gate, the domes being set over the angles of the square on horizontal brackets. The gate-house was probably carried up, like the angle towers, a story higher, and the stairs must have communicated with the upper story, to judge by the evidence afforded by the south gate-house. On the north façade, and there only, the summit of the wall was given a decoration consisting of a row of arched niches carried by small engaged columns (Plate 8, Fig. 3). The authors of Ocheïdir describe these arches as horse-shoed; they seemed to me to be merely slightly stilted and adorned with a double fillet. Below the niches runs a band of lozenges. Between each niche is set a larger engaged column, and these columns appear to have been carried up higher than the arches and in all probability bore an architrave, thus forming a rectangular frame to each niche, but the exact nature of the decoration here is uncertain, since the wall has broken away. The chemin de ronde was covered by a pointed stone vault, most of which has fallen in (Plate 10, Fig. 1). Like all the vaults of Ukhaiḍir it oversails the face of the wall. The lower part is built of horizontal courses, while in the upper part the stone slabs are laid in vertical rings so as to dispense with centering, and this is the construction in all the vaults of the palace. At the springing of the vault a wooden beam crossed the passage from wall to wall. The holes for these beams are visible, and in some places a splintered fragment of wood projects from the masonry. At the angles of the passage the vaults from either side come together in a simple diagonal section, i.e. there was no intersection of the vaults.

The principal entrance of the palace is the north gate (Plate 11, Fig. 1). Before the door there is an artificial platform thirty-two paces from north to south by eighty-seven paces from east to west. The door is placed in a rectangular tower, 15·70 metres wide, which projects 5·10 metres from the face of the wall, 2·40 metres from the face of the towers. Between the west side of the gate-tower and the first of the western round towers is stretched a vault 2·50 metres in depth (Plate 11, Fig. 2). Upon this vault rests a small platform, immediately below the loopholes of the chemin de ronde, at the level of the second story. On the east side of the gate-tower there are traces of a similar vault, but this must have fallen at a period when the palace was still inhabited, since the place which it occupied upon the wall has been carefully plastered over. The pointed arch over the north door is a later reconstruction. The door leads into a narrow room, No. 1, 5·95 metres by 3 metres, from which there is access to rooms 2 and 3. These rooms are irregular in shape, unlighted, and built over vaults which are now filled with débris. The authors of Ocheïdir suggest that they may have gone down to the water-level. I doubt it. The water-level in the palace yard is considerably deeper than these vaults are likely to have been, and the water there is too brackish to drink. It is more likely that these subterranean chambers were dungeons. The vault over room 1 is not continuous. It is composed of a series of seven transverse arches, ·65 metre wide, separated by spaces ·20 metre wide (Plate 12, Fig. 1). These apertures enabled the occupants of room 88, on the first floor, to pour boiling liquids on any foe who had passed through the door. Room 1 is bounded to the south by an arched doorway, oversailing the wall, as is the case with all wide arched openings at Ukhaiḍir, beyond which lies the smaller chamber No. 4, 4·15 metres long by 3·10 wide. A transverse arch cuts off 1·05 metres of this space, leaving a square of 3·10 metres to be covered by a fluted dome (Plate 13, Fig. 1).[16] The remaining three sides of the chamber are broken by pointed archways which give access to the great hall (No. 7), and to the passages Nos. 5 and 6. The fluted circle of the dome is set upon a fillet which has a projection of about 1 centimetre from the face of the wall below (Plate 13, Fig. 2). The circle is accommodated to the square by a course of stones forming at each corner a flat triangular bracket, rounded upon the inner side. The upper part of the dome is much ruined. The curve must have been ovoid and it is probable that an aperture was left at the summit, since the dome, if closed, would have projected considerably above the floor level of room 88. The hole in the upper floor, like the slits in the roof of room 1, would have served for purposes of attack when the enemy had forced an entrance.

The authors of Ocheïdir have pointed out that the original scheme of the castle did not include the present north door, nor yet the massive enclosing wall with its towers and gates. As it was first planned, the north door stood well within the existing entrance, between two segments of towers. A part of these towers is visible in rooms 2 and 3. But when the walls had been raised about 2·80 metres from the ground, the plan was altered and the outer wall and north door added to it. The north palace wall, with its round towers and gateway, was then incorporated in the larger outer wall. A glance at Dr. Reuther’s plan will show how this was effected (Fig. 1). Although the alteration took place while building was in progress and does not denote a later period of construction, it is yet of importance, as I shall have occasion to show later.

On the first floor the gate-tower is occupied by three vaulted chambers, 88, 89, and 90. The central room, 88, is 4·50 metres wide and therefore wider by 1·50 metres than the passage room, 1, below it. Consequently the slits between the transverse arches of 1 do not take up the whole width of 88, but leave a passage along the wall on either side. The chamber is low, measuring only 3·55 metres to the top of the vault. The vault oversails the wall; the lower part is composed of stones laid horizontally, the upper part of stones laid in vertical rings, with an inclination backwards against the north wall. At the southern end a space between the vertical rings and the south wall is filled in with horizontal courses (Plate 12, Fig. 2). The arches of the side doors break into the vault. In the north wall there is a large window, the upper part of which has fallen away, though some of the lower part remains. It is slightly recessed on the exterior (Plate 11, Fig. 2), and Dr. Reuther gives the explanation of this recess. It contained the groove of the portcullis, which has been obliterated below owing to the rebuilding of the north door at a later period. In the south wall of room 88 there are three arched windows opening into the great hall. The central window is the largest; in all three the arch is surmounted by a shallow arched niche. The narrow vaulted rooms 89 and 90 are approached by round-arched doorways and lighted only by very small windows high up in the north wall. In room 89 there is a staircase leading up to the second floor. Rooms 89 and 90 open into long corridors corresponding in width with the corridors 5 and 6.

Fig. 1. North wall of palace, showing original scheme. (From Ocheïdir, by kind permission of Dr. Reuther.)

Fig. 2. Arch construction. (From Ocheïdir, by kind permission of Dr. Reuther.)

The great hall, to the south of room 4, is the largest chamber in the palace. It is 15·50 metres long by 7 metres wide, but its width is increased on either side by arched recesses 1·40 metres deep and from 2·20 metres to 2·30 metres wide (Plate 14, Fig. 1). These recesses, five on either side, are separated from one another by squat engaged columns set against piers which are ·80 metre deep. The columns carry rectangular impost-capitals from which spring the shallow slightly pointed semi-domes, or calottes, which cover the recesses. The capitals are very roughly constructed of small stones. There are traces of a shallow abacus, while a cavetto moulded in plaster seems to have been interposed between capital and shaft. At the corners a triangular stone adjusted the circle of the column to the square of the abacus, and the whole was no doubt covered with plaster. The abacus projection runs back along the walls of the niche and above it the calotte springs from another small projection (Plate 15, Figs. 1 and 2). The calottes are bracketed over the angles, the construction being the same as that described in the dome of room 4. All the niches of Ukhaiḍir are treated in like fashion. The method employed in constructing the archivolts is admirably described by Dr. Reuther.[17] The face of the arch is formed by a permanent centering composed of gypsum and reeds. The vaulting takes place, not above the centering but between the two centering arches, the vault being built in vertical rings (Fig. 2). When the arches are of wide span an outer ring of horizontal voussoirs is added to the inner arch. This system is common in Mesopotamia to the present day, and is found frequently at Ukhaiḍir. In the great hall there are holes for wooden beams below the abacus of the capitals and in the spandrels of the arches. The northern recess on the east side is open and gives access to a ramp which leads to the first floor. The second, third, and fifth recesses contain low doors covered by a segmental arch. On the west side similar doors are set in the first, third, fourth, and fifth recesses, the last named giving access to a stair (Plate 15, Fig. 2). The calotte archivolts at their highest point are 3·50 metres above the present level of the floor. The wall is carried up for another 1·25 metres, where there is a double outset from its face. Above this outset the stone vault runs up perpendicularly for about ·80 metre and the remainder of the vault is of brick (Plate 14, Fig. 2). For a height of about 1·50 metres the brick tiles are laid horizontally, but when the curve of the vault increases the bricks are set upright in vertical rings. The vault thus formed is built without centering; it has a slightly pointed, ovoid shape and is much stilted. The north wall remains intact and its scheme of decoration is instructive (Plate 16, Fig. 1). The arched door, 3·50 metres high, is set back within a niche 1 metre deep. About ·90 metre above the arch of the door stands a very shallow calotte covering the niche. The face of the calotte is recessed, which enhances its decorative value by giving it a double outline. As Dr. Reuther has observed,[18] the calotte is not ‘the segment of a pointed dome, but its curve in horizontal section springs sharply back from the face of the archivolt and flattens rapidly behind. Thereby the effect of the shadow is strongly felt at the edge, and the calotte seems to be deeper and more markedly vaulted than it is in reality’. At the base of the calotte there is a small niche which has been broken through owing to the partial ruin of the dome behind it.[19] In the wall on either side of the calotte there is a shallow arched niche. The arch is carried on pairs of engaged columns and is enclosed in a rectangular label. Above the calotte are the three windows of the first floor room, 88, covered by segmental arches. The windows are framed by engaged columns which carry stilted round-arched calottes. The south wall of the great hall is partly ruined. The doorway seems to have been of the same proportions as the door in the north wall, but it was not set back within a niche. The small decorative niches reappear on either side, and there were probably three windows opening into room 101 in the upper story, indeed on the west side the window jamb can still be seen. Even with these windows the great hall must have been most insufficiently lighted, since neither its doors nor its windows open directly on to the exterior of the building. To the south lay the small rectangular chamber, No. 27, which was probably, as Dr. Reuther suggests, covered by a dome similar to the dome of No. 4. It opens to east and west into the vaulted corridor 28, and on the south into the central court.

Holes for wooden beams can be seen on the north wall of the great hall, two on either side of the portal niche, one on either side of the shallow decorative niches, and one on either side of the group of windows. On the south wall they have been somewhat differently disposed, one on either side of the door at the level of the arch, one almost immediately above, higher than the top of the arch, and three higher up still, following the curve of the vault (Plate 14, Fig. 2).

The masses of masonry on either side of the vault are lightened by the tubes which are characteristic of the vaulting system of Ukhaiḍir (section a-b, Plate 4, Fig. 1). One of these tubes pierces the wall on either side, partly above the calottes of the recesses. On the east side the opening of this tube can be seen high up in the wall of the corridor 28; on the west side the tube is not visible owing to the interposition of a stair behind the corridor, but there can be no doubt that it exists. Again towards the top of the vault there is another pair of tubes. The western of these two can be seen through a breach in the wall of the stair which leads from room 89 to the second floor; I infer its eastern counterpart. The vault of the great hall is buttressed by the vaults of the chambers of the ground floor and of the first floor which lie at right angles to it.

The wings of the three-storied block, of which the great hall forms the centre, are bounded to the north by the two vaulted corridors 5 and 6 (Plate 17, Fig. 1), the western corridor, 5, being 34 metres long, and the eastern, 6, 34·90 metres long. The vaults are constructed in the usual fashion, oversailing the wall and built of thin slabs of stone, laid vertically in concentric, slightly pointed rings. The corridors lead into the palace yard. The door of the west corridor is much ruined. The door of the east corridor is set in a niche surmounted by a shallow calotte, of which the archivolt is slightly pointed. Below the calotte, between it and the arch of the door, is a second small arched niche, connected by the usual funnel with the top of the door arch. The calotte is outlined by a singular decoration composed of a crenellated motive.[20] The crenellated motive is common in the ornament of Ukhaiḍir and elsewhere, but I am not acquainted with any other example of its application to the archivolt.

To the south of the east corridor runs a vaulted ramp, a sloping passage from the great hall to the first floor. To the south of the ramp lie two groups of three vaulted chambers. In the inner group, Nos. 12, 13, and 14, the rooms are 7 metres long with an average width of 3·50 metres. They are separated from each other by walls 1 metre thick, and communicate with each other by doors covered by ovoid arches set back from the jambs. Each room possesses a door into the great hall, but since the position of these doors is determined by that of the recesses in the hall, which do not correspond with the rooms behind them, the doors are never in the centre of the rooms, and in one case, No. 13, the side wall is narrowed to allow space for the door. The wall which separates the rooms from the recesses of the great hall is 1·50 metres thick. A door at the east end of each room leads into the corresponding room of the second group. In this group the rooms 15, 16, and 17, while they have the same width as those of the first group, are considerably shorter, measuring only 4·80 metres. They communicate with each other and with the vaulted passage, 20. Room 17 has further a door in the north wall, which leads into the small vaulted room, No. 18, and this in turn is connected with a still smaller room, No. 19. Nos. 18 and 19 lie under the ramp, and No. 19 is in consequence extremely low. None of the chambers above described are provided with windows; what light they possess filters in through the doors. Nos. 12, 13, and 14 are therefore exceedingly dark, and must have been darker still when the south wall of the great hall was intact. Nos. 18 and 19 are totally unillumined, and for this reason, and on account of the inconvenience of their low vaults, it may be presumed that they were not used for dwelling purposes.