Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . e on each hand of a person entering : one of these is generally larger than the other, and is the more honourable part. That portion of the roof which is over the doorckaah in this saloon is a little elevated above the rest, and has in the centre a small lantern, called memruck, the sides of which are of lattice-work like the windows in general. All the rooms in the houses of the wealthy are lofty, generally fourteen feet or more in height; but the ckaah is the largest
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . e on each hand of a person entering : one of these is generally larger than the other, and is the more honourable part. That portion of the roof which is over the doorckaah in this saloon is a little elevated above the rest, and has in the centre a small lantern, called memruck, the sides of which are of lattice-work like the windows in general. All the rooms in the houses of the wealthy are lofty, generally fourteen feet or more in height; but the ckaah is the largest and most lofty room, and in a large house it is a noble saloon. c2 24 SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND. If we have succeeded in conveying to the reader an adequate generalnotion of the form and attributes of an Arab or Turkish reception-room, wehave helped him to make what Mr. Urquhart calls, in his excellent remarkson the domestic architecture of the Turks, the first step to acquaintancewith the East.* The habits of social intercourse in the East could notsubsist a day in such lodgings as our western habitations afford. Certain. A Syrian Turks Divan. social characters are connected with, and have given rise to, the structure ofthe apartment we have described ; and therefore, the architectural details inquestion ought to he thoroughly understood, in order to become acquaintedwith the ideas and manners of the people among whom they are in vogue. We build our houses, says Mr. Urquhart, with reference not to theinside, but to the out. It is the aspect of the exterior, not the comfort of theapartment, that engages our attention. We follow the rules of architecturestrictly in the details and decorations of the stones of which it is built, andpositively have not, at this day, any fixed rules or principles for the con-struction of the portion we are ourselves to occupy ; nor have we the idea ofthe existence of such rules in any other country, or in any former age. The consequence is, that our
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