Mohammed has been declared an impostor, who from first to last won his way by cleverness without faith; he has been idealised as a hero and prince of heroes in the religious world. Dean Milman, perhaps, is wisest when he says, “To the question whether Mohammed was hero, sage11, impostor, or fanatic12 ... the best reply is the reverential phrase of Islam: ‘God knows.’” One thing is certain, viz., that he founded a religion which proved itself capable of wakening response from the Semitic East with a swiftness and a completeness never elsewhere known. It would be a matter of rather serious consequences to affirm that such sweeping14 success is possible without any vestige15 of honest faith on the part of its own prophet.
Arabia found Islam a religion after her own heart. The conquest of the Arabian mind, and that sudden transference of religious and political loyalties16 which changed it from chaos17 into cosmos18, is little short of miraculous19. In the words of one of the severest critics of Islam: “In A.D. 570, Abdullah, the son of Abd el Muttalib, a Mecca merchant,{139} went on a trading trip from Mecca to Medina and died there; the same year his wife, Amina, gave birth to a boy, named Mohammed, at Mecca. One hundred years later the name of this Arab lad, joined to that of the Almighty20, was called out from ten thousand mosques22 five times daily, from Muscat to Morocco, and his new religion was sweeping everything before it in three continents.”[24] In many ways the new religion was congenial to Arabia. “Although it made a most vigorous effort to conquer the world, it is, after all, a religion of the desert, of the tent, and the caravan23, and is confined to nomad24 and savage25 or half-civilised nations, chiefly Arabs, Persians, and Turks. It never made an impression on Europe except by brute26 force; it is only encamped, not really domesticated29, in Constantinople, and when it must withdraw from Europe it will leave no trace behind.”[25] It gave the heathen Arabs, in exchange for their precarious30 dependence31 on incalculable and wayward gods, the sublime32 conception of “Islam,” the absolute surrender to the One God, whom it declared to be Almighty, All-Wise, and All-Merciful. For the rest, its secret was simplicity33. It drove straight for its object, sacrificing art, appetite, the purity of home life, the spirituality of religious imagination, and some of the accepted moralities of conscience. What was left was a creed34 and standard, somewhat impoverished35 truly, but workable and uncompromising. A thousand difficult questions were avoided, and one of those forces set in{140} play before whose rough simplicity finer and more delicate things are swept away.
Mohammedanism meets the traveller at every turn in Syria. Now and then a dervish is encountered—the extremest sort of Moslem. It would seem difficult to develop a mystic school within the pale of so clear-cut a faith as Mohammedanism; yet it has been done. But the Mohammedan dervishes escape from this despised material world by the vulgar process of hypnotising themselves by the repetition of the word “Allah” or “Hu,” or by whirling in circles until they are stupefied. This they call the ecstatic state, and when they have reached it they are said to perform many violent tricks, stabbing their flesh or eating broken glass, without appearing to feel pain. In Syria they are by no means impressive in appearance. Here and there you meet one, with hair crimped in long thin pointed36 wisps, and sticking out in a wiry fashion from his head in all directions. The dazed and rather weak look in the eyes is suggestive of a strayed reveller37 rather than a holy man, but the people hold them in great reverence38.
Another occasional freak of Mohammedanism is the religious procession, which is conducted on the principle of a rival show to the Christian7 fêtes. It starts on Good Friday from Jerusalem to visit the tomb of Moses—a late fiction, somewhat daring in its contradiction to the old belief that the tomb of Moses was known to no man. It is amusingly described by witnesses, but appears to be rather a poor affair on the whole.{141}
These extravagances apart, one is never out of sight of Mohammedan religion for an hour of travel in Syria. The worship, like old idolatry, seems to have claimed every high hill and every green tree for its own. It has settled itself, in the very seat of old Judaism, on the sacred area of the temple. Almost every one of the prominent hills of Palestine is crowned with a little building, domed39 and whitewashed40, opening in a porch in front, and containing a single empty chamber41. This is the weli (i.e. monument, not necessarily tomb) of a Mohammedan saint. What the terms of canonisation may be, it is perhaps best not to inquire too minutely. Many of these departed saints are said to have been prophets, but the discoverer of coffee has his monument in Mocha, to which great processions come, and there is more than one weli in Palestine commemorative of a dead robber chief. Not the less sacred are they to the Mohammedans. In various parts of the country we were puzzled by little piles of stones, gathered and arranged in considerable numbers on the tops of long ascents43 or passes, and bearing a curious resemblance to the cairns which in certain districts of the west of Scotland mark the spots at which funeral processions have halted to change the coffin-bearers. The explanation of these little piles is very simple. When a Mohammedan comes to the hill-top, and looking around him sees a weli shining in the distance, he offers up a prayer, and drops a stone there, to call the attention of the next comer, that he also may look and pray. Very {142}picturesque and quaint2 these little holy houses are; serving, like the hermit’s tower of old in Western lands, for landmarks44 as well as for shrines45—the white light-houses of the inland.
It is not at the white tombs only that the Moslem prays. Five times a day, at the call from the mosque21, he is summoned to his devotions. Often, indeed, it is inconvenient46 to worship at some of these hours, and it is permissible47 to say the prayer five times in succession in the evening, when there is most leisure. Sometimes he carries with him his rosary, to help his memory with the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah, and in railway trains or steamers wealthy gentlemen are to be seen cherishing a string of amber42 beads48 which appear more like the property of young girls than of grown men. To perform his devotions the Syrian goes to a fountain, when that is possible, as it is part of the ritual to wash the hands before praying; but the Arab, spreading his carpet in the shade of his camel, far away upon the desert, where no water is to be had but the precious drops in his leathern bottle, is permitted to wash his hands and lips with sand instead. That which impresses every spectator is the extraordinary faculty49 for abstraction which is manifested. The Moslem seems to have at command the power of annihilating50 the world around him, and entering the unseen. His eyes are open, but you may pass within a yard of them and they will not seem to see you. They are fixed51 on the far distance, as if, over the Southern edge of the world, the man saw the Holy City towards which he bows, with its Kaaba and its black stone. He might be crystal-gazing, or watching the horizon for a sail at sea.{143} People may be dancing and singing by his side, but he does not see them nor hear. Bathing once in the waters of Elisha’s fountain at Jericho we had a memorable52 instance of this. We found the pool empty and the walls undergoing repair. A lad who had charge of the place was persuaded in the usual fashion to let down the door of a sluice53 and so allow the pool to fill, greatly to the detriment54 of the newly mortared wall. When we had stripped, the owner of the place appeared, and we rose to the surface from a dive to hear a controversy55 going on, with violent gesture and apoplectic56 fury, which marks a high point in our register of vituperation. The water seemed on the whole to be the safest place, and we kept to it until suddenly we perceived that a great silence had fallen on the landscape. Looking anxiously to see what had happened, we found the owner on his knees, praying by his own spring. We dressed without delay, and had to pass in front of him to reach the tents, but he never seemed to know that we had passed.
The muezzin, or call to prayer from the minaret57, is one of the most affecting of all Eastern sounds. Men are chosen for this office with singularly mellow58 and rich voices; they intone, with a very musical little cadence59 in a minor60 key, the first chapter of the Koran, and sometimes other prayers. At the great Mosque of Damascus, a solitary61 reciter calls from the slender minaret, and is answered from the balcony of the broader one across the court by twenty voices in unison62. While the waves of rich sound float out over the city, and are caught and faintly echoed from{144} scores of other minarets63, one remembers how that voice has rolled forth64 already over innumerable villages from Bengal westwards, and men have paused from their labour to pray according to their lights.
Islam is usually supposed to have been the “Ishmaelite in church history,” with hand against every man from the first. Really, when it was Arabian, as it remained for four centuries, it was very tolerant, and the Christian pilgrims, priests, and monks65 were little disturbed. But in 1086 the Seljuk chiefs of wandering Turkish tribes came into possession, and the days of suspicion and that heavy cruelty which is characteristic of the stupid began. There were massacres66 of monks on Carmel and elsewhere then, and such a state of general tyranny and oppression that the cry reached the West, and the Crusades began. The Crusades, as they dragged their slow length along, did not tend to better understandings; and after Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem, we read that the walls and pavement of the Mosque of Omar had to be purified with copious67 showers of water distilled68 from the fragrant69 roses of Damascus. The relations between Moslem and Christian in the land to-day are happier, and the intercourse70 of increasing trade and travel is breaking down old partitions here as elsewhere. Yet little love is lost between the professors of the rival faiths even now. Dr. Andrew Thomson relates how, in recent years, “it had been observed that at a particular period of the day the shadow of the great Mosque of Omar fell upon a certain Christian burying-ground. Even the honour of
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THE TEMPLE AREA AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, FROM MOUNT ZION.
The dome27 on the right is that of the Mosque of El Aksa, and that on the left is the Mosque of Omar. Between these domes28, and just below the principal group of cypresses71, is the “Wailing Place.” The hills in the background are the Mount of Olives.
{145}
blessing72 conveyed by so sacred a shadow was grudged73. The public authorities in Jerusalem were strongly urged to have the Christian cemetery74 removed to some more distant place, and it required all the combined influence of the European consulates75 to prevent a scandalous order to this effect from being issued.” The Ordnance76 Survey party was on several occasions attacked, and even fired upon. In fanatical Moslem cities like Hebron and Nablus, travellers have to conduct themselves with the utmost discretion77, and even then will probably be stoned with more or less effect according to the courage and the marksmanship of the thrower. The Christians return the animosity with a kind of impatient ridicule78, which seems to indicate a lack of refined piety79 on their part. Our camp-waiters were Christians, and they used to give us very freely their opinions on the theological differences between them and the Mohammedans. There would be a reverent13 if somewhat startling account of the Holy Trinity, and then, in scornful contrast: “Mohammedans only One,—and Mohammed all the rest!” The scorn is hardly to be wondered at when one remembers the intellectual level of the powers that be. This is forced upon one’s notice by countless80 tales of the custom-house and censorship officials. A map of ancient Palestine was objected to because “there were no maps in those days!” An engineer, telegraphing about a pump, was arrested because the message read: “One hundred revolutions!” In certain Bibles the text was erased81, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners”{146}; and it was directed that the word “Christians” should be substituted, as there were no sinners in the Turkish empire! After a certain amount of that regime, one would no doubt put new meaning into the prayer which invokes82 God’s mercy “upon all Turks,” as well as on infidels and heretics!
In spite of all this there is a good deal of interchange between the two faiths, or at least of borrowing on the part of Islam from Christian tradition. So many points have the two in common, that a theory has been broached83 on which Mohammed appears only as the Judaiser (as it were) of later days, who saw the difficulty that Christians had in working with general principles, and set himself to simplify the situation by reducing Christianity to a stereotyped84 system. Carlyle distinctly calls Islam “a kind of Christianity.” However this may be, there is no question as to the immense amount which Syrian Mohammedanism borrows from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures85. Countless tombs and other monuments are dedicated86 to Joshua and other Old Testament87 worthies88. This, of course, may be due to the fact that many Moslem saints have borne the old names, and as time went on their memories came to be confused with those of their more famous namesakes. Samson’s exploits especially have appealed to the Mohammedan imagination, and he appears under the incognito89 of “Isman Aly,” among many other names. St. George is a very popular saint for Moslem worship. It startles us still more to find that in the great fire at Damascus numbers of Moslems threw themselves{147} into the flames in the attempt to rescue the head of John the Baptist; while a copy of the Koran—one of the original four copies—which lay below the relic90, was forgotten and destroyed.
The most extensive and curious point of contact between the two religions is found in those mosques which were formerly91 built as Christian churches, and then appropriated by the conquerors92. The Grand Mosque of Damascus is a conspicuous93 case in point. It is built on the site of a pagan temple, part of whose hoary94 front still stands, a magnificent fragment of ancient heavy masonry95 and carving96 now brown and grey with age. On the ruins of the temple rose the Christian church of St. John the Baptist, whose date is about the beginning of the fifth century. After the Mohammedan conquest the church became a mosque, and fabulous97 sums were spent on its decoration. It has twice been destroyed by fire, and is now being restored after the last of these destructions.[26] The restoration has a very brand-new appearance, yet it is magnificent with its wealth of marble and of other costly98 stone. The Mosque of Samaria, conspicuous from a distance by its minaret is another Christian church reconstructed for Mohammedan worship. There was a sixth-century basilica here, but the present mosque is built out of the material of the Crusader church which replaced that. The severity and bareness of its stone walls and pillars are relieved only by one touch of colour—the flags and the lovely green pillars of the pulpit. The wall at the pulpit’s side has been recessed99 into a{148} mihrab or niche100, which points towards Mecca and so gives the worshipper his bearings. In the crypt, where the Crusaders believed they had the tomb of John the Baptist, large slabs102 of polished marble attest103 the former wealth of decoration, and these slabs are of peculiar104 interest because of one curious little fact. It was customary to carve on Christian buildings the sign of the Cross—a Maltese cross, set within a circle. Such a cross may be distinctly seen on one of the stones close to the embedded105 pillar at the south door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On the marble slabs of the crypt in Samaria these encircled crosses are to be seen; but the Mohammedans have chipped away the uprights of them, leaving only the meaningless horizontal bar bisecting the circle, and the obvious mark of the chisel106 in their rough workmanship leaves the uprights also faintly visible. Perhaps the most interesting case of all is the Mosque el Aksa, close to the Mosque of Omar, within the temple area. This is that “far-off place of prayer” which Mohammed counted among the most holy shrines in the world. Founded by Justinian as a Christian basilica, it was converted into a mosque by Omar, and adorned107 with unheard-of lavishness108 by Abd el Melik, who overlaid its doors with gold and silver plates. Since then it has passed through many adventures. Widened to efface109 some suggestion of cruciform shape, its breadth became unmanageable, and six rows of pillars support the roof. The roof has fallen in, and earthquakes have broken the building more than once, so that most of the masonry is comparatively{149} modern, the great arches of the structure which supports the dome being “anchored” by wooden beams which throw horizontal bridges from capital to capital in Arab fashion. The green-and-gold mosaic110 with which the interior of the dome and the upper portion of the adjacent masonry is covered, cannot be very old, though their dim and antique beauty is worthy111 of the older art. The pulpit, richly inlaid with Aleppo work of ivory and mother-of-pearl, was Saladin’s gift seven hundred years ago. But that which most of all attracts the eye and fascinates the imagination is the aspect of the pillars, whose variegated112 colours are peculiarly rich and harmonious113. Up to a certain height they are polished to the shining point by the garments of worshippers rubbing against them as they pass; above that they are smooth, unpolished stone. The capitals, and some at least of the columns, are very ancient, and may have stood in the original basilica.
The Mosque of Omar is not, strictly114 speaking, a mosque at all. The mosque is El Aksa, and the more famous building is but a glorified115 praying-station of the nature of a weli in its court. It stands near the centre of a wide open space, practically the only such space in Jerusalem, which occupies one-sixth part of the whole area of the city within the walls. The enclosure is partly artificial, supported on vast substructures of vaulted116 building which raise the enclosed ground to a general level. The mosque is set up on a platform ten feet higher than this level.
Its history has been a strange one. Behind the time of its erection lies all the story of the Temple,{150} whose sacred ark Jewish tradition affirms to have been concealed118 here by Jeremiah. But that rock, whose red outcrop breaks through the floor of the mosque, leads us back to a dimmer past, and to the story of Abraham’s sacrifice upon Moriah, whose site this is said to be. Various theories have been advocated as to the place which the rock held in the arrangements of the Jewish temple. The Jews of to-day have a legend that on it somewhere the Unspeakable Name is written, and they explain the miracles of Jesus by the supposition that He had succeeded in deciphering it. We, too, for whom its chief interest and pathos119 lie in the fact that Christ came hither to worship, and in the things that befell Him here, may accept the meaning at least of that curious legend. For His own words were that He had declared to men the name of His Father, and that declaration has truly revealed to mankind the hidden meaning of their holiest things.
It was in 680 A.D. that the first Mohammedan sanctuary120 was erected121 on the temple area, but the date of the present building is two hundred years later. It struck us as a curious fact a year ago in Damascus that the burnt mosque was being rebuilt almost entirely122 by Christian masons. Still more surprising is it to learn that the Mosque of Omar was built by Byzantine architects and modelled on the Rotunda123 of the Holy Sepulchre. Two hundred years later the Crusaders entered Jerusalem, and, according to the dreadful story, “the carnage in the Mosque of Omar swept away the{151} bodies of thousands in a deluge124 of human blood.”[27] Mistaking the Mosque for the veritable Temple of Solomon, they founded there the Society of the Knights125 Templars, on whose armorial bearings the dome appears. They converted the building into “Templum Domini,” and planted a large gilded126 cross upon the summit of it. Traces of their invasion still remain in the cutting of the rock to suit their altar, and in the great wrought-iron enclosing screen. For almost a century the Templum Domini remained in Christian hands, until 1187, when Saladin conquered Jerusalem. His generosity127 and gentleness contrasted strangely with the “loathsome triumph” of the Crusaders; but the first destination of the triumphal march was the mosque, from whose dome the Cross was hurled128 to the ground, and for two days dragged about the streets. From that time the mosque has been one of the most exclusive places in the world. Till recent years no Christian was permitted to enter it, and Jews avoid it, lest they should unwittingly tread upon the ground of the ancient Holy of Holies.
The first impressions of the Mosque of Omar are very pleasing. There is a barbaric splendour in its rich colouring and metallic129 glitter when seen from a short distance, while the more distant view of it is one of rare soft beauty. Its wide courts, too, give it a fresh and open-air character which is very refreshing130 after the stifling131 dark heat and closeness of the Holy Sepulchre. Above all it impresses one with its grand simplicity.{152} The sharp-edge angles of the octagon are taken in at a glance; the rock within is bare rock, and infinitely132 more impressive than the silk and marble in which rock masquerades at Bethlehem. The great number of its pillars, screens, reading-stands, and other furniture, leaves little open room, and it feels rather a crowded than a spacious133 place for worship. Yet, on the other hand, you are not wearied with the complex symbolism of many of the ancient churches. The meaning of this may be poorer, but at least it is plain. This means just a perfectly134 shapely and highly coloured octagon, where men have worshipped God for a thousand years in the least complicated way in which worship has been done. Thus the mosque is typical of the faith and the policy that created it. “I do not believe,” says Disraeli’s Tancred, “that anything great is ever effected by management.... You require something more vigorous and more simple.... You must act like Moses and Mohammed.”
On the other hand, the enthusiasm for Mohammedan simplicity is sorely tried when the first moment of almost awestruck feeling ends with the advance of the guide. He is to shew you the wonders of the mosque, and the torrent135 of mingled136 absurdity137 and superstition138 by which you find yourself swept on is very trying to the would-be admirer of the faith and its monument. First of all, there are the relics—the footprint of Mohammed, and the hairs of his beard; the praying-places of Abraham and Elijah and other “very fine, high-class people,” as our dragoman described{153}
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THE WEST SIDE OF THE TEMPLE AREA.
From the barracks near the site of the Tower of Antonia. Above the domed building in the right foreground rises Mount Zion. The rosy139 hills to the left are the mountains of Judea.
them to us; the round hole where the rock let Mohammed through when he ascended140 to heaven, the hollow place in the roof of the cavern141 where it rose to let him stand erect117 to pray, the tongue with which it spoke142, and the mark of the angel Gabriel’s finger when it had to be held down from following him in his ascension. Still more disenchanting is the knot of underground superstitions143 that desecrate144 the holy place, and rob it of its freshness and healthy simplicity, like snakes in the garden. The wild imagination of the East has pictured to itself the regions which lie underneath145 this sanctuary in its own grim way. In spite of a very obvious pillar, and a bit of white-washed wall to be seen in the cavern, the rock is supposed to hover146 unsupported over the abyss. Beneath is “the well of souls,” where the dead assemble twice weekly to pray. Some think of these departed ones as those who wait for the Resurrection, but a darker fancy holds that the gates of hell are here. The worshipper feels the souls of the dead flitting about him, and prays with the cries of the lost in his ears. Even the open spaces of the court are haunted by unclean legends, and seem to be heavy with the odour of graveyard147 mould. Here, at St. George’s dome, with the two red granite148 pillars in front of it, is the place where Solomon tormented149 the demons150; there, by the eastern wall, is the throne whereon he sat when dead, the corpse151 leaning on his staff to cheat them, until worms gnawed152 the staff through, the body fell forward, and the demons found out the trick.{154}
In common decency153, any place that lays claim to sacredness must have something to say to worshippers regarding conduct; but the ethics154 of the Mosque of Omar are a match for its impostures, alike in gruesomeness and in impudence155. They are all of the nature of magic tests, by which souls are to be tried for their eternal fate. The little arcades156 at the top of the steps of the platform are called “Balances” because the scales of judgment157 are to be suspended there on the Great Day. The Dome of the Chain owes its name to the circumstance that there a golden chain hung at David’s place of judgment, which had to be grasped by witnesses and dropped a link when a lie was told. A place in the outer wall is shown from which a wire will be suspended on the Day of Judgment, whose other end will be made fast on the Mount of Olives. Christ will sit on the wall and Mohammed on the mount. Over this wire must all men find their way, but only the good will cross, the wicked falling into the valley beneath. In the El Aksa Mosque a couple of pillars stand very near each other, so worn that they are perceptibly thinned. The space between them bulges158, in which a piece of spiked159 iron-work is now inserted. These were another test for the final award—he who could squeeze himself through the aperture160, and he alone, had found the true “narrow way” to heaven.
Frauds such as these force upon every visitor the question how far the Mohammedans themselves believe them. The utter want of earnestness, or anything that to a Western mind bears the resemblance of reality, is{155} painfully evident in the attendants who guide you through the mosque. You are forced to respect its sacredness by purchasing the loan of slippers161 to cover your boots, and you feel rather like one entering a circus than a place of worship, when you have been transformed into an illuminated163 caricature by means of one yellow and another red slipper162. Your guide, who wears the appearance of a convict in clericals, greatly enjoys your picturesqueness164, and makes haste to conduct you to a certain jasper slab101 into which Mohammed drove nineteen nails of gold (which look, however, indistinguishable from iron). A nail comes out at the end of every epoch165, and when all are gone the end of the world will come. One day the devil destroyed all but three and a half of them, when the Angel Gabriel, caught napping for once, stopped the mischief166 just in time. Here you are invited to lay any coins you may chance to have about you, and assured that if the coin be silver you will save your soul by giving it. As the coins are tabled, the whole body of assistant clergy167 assembles to count the collection.
All this, and much else, is but the inevitable outcome of a worship that gathers round a stone. It is a petrified168 worship, hard and dead as its sacred rock. Nothing could be more pathetic than a window in El Aksa almost darkened with little rags of clothing hung there by poor folk who come to pray for their sick friends. If Syrian Christianity is corrupt169, it is at least not so pitiless as Syrian Mohammedanism. The very aspect and situation of the rival shrines is symbolic170.{156} The mosque does not really love men, whether it really believes in God or not. It sits apart in its wide enclosure, while the Church of the Sepulchre is huddled171 indistinguishably into the thickest pressure of the life of men and women in the city. The church seems, by its rugged172 and broken outline, to sympathise with the shattered fortunes of the life around it; it is grey and ruinous-looking, as if it had borne man’s sorrows and carried them. The mosque, with all its beauty, seems to sit there like some great sleek173 sphinx, watching everything, but sharing little and loving none of the misery174 around it. In this city of ruins there is something repellent about its smooth and self-complacent finish. No, the mosque does not really love men; whether it really believes in itself and its miracles or not is another of the many Mohammedan things which God only knows.
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beseeches
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的第三人称单数 ) | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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Moslem
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| n.回教徒，穆罕默德信徒；adj.回教徒的，回教的 | |
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consecration
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| n.供献，奉献，献祭仪式 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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sects
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| n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
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ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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reverent
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| adj.恭敬的，虔诚的 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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loyalties
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| n.忠诚( loyalty的名词复数 )；忠心；忠于…感情；要忠于…的强烈感情 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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mosque
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| n.清真寺 | |
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mosques
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| 清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
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caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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nomad
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| n.游牧部落的人，流浪者，游牧民 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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26
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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27
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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28
domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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29
domesticated
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| adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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31
dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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32
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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33
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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34
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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35
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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36
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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37
reveller
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| n.摆设酒宴者，饮酒狂欢者 | |
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38
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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39
domed
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| adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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40
whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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42
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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43
ascents
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| n.上升( ascent的名词复数 )；（身份、地位等的）提高；上坡路；攀登 | |
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44
landmarks
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| n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址） | |
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45
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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46
inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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47
permissible
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| adj.可允许的，许可的 | |
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48
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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49
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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50
annihilating
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的现在分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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51
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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52
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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53
sluice
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| n.水闸 | |
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54
detriment
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| n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源 | |
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55
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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56
apoplectic
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| adj.中风的；愤怒的；n.中风患者 | |
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57
minaret
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| n.（回教寺院的）尖塔 | |
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58
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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59
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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60
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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61
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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62
unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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63
minarets
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| n.（清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的）光塔( minaret的名词复数 ) | |
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64
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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65
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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66
massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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67
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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68
distilled
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| adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华 | |
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69
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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70
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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71
cypresses
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| n.柏属植物，柏树( cypress的名词复数 ) | |
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72
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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73
grudged
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| 怀恨（grudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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74
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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75
consulates
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| n.领事馆( consulate的名词复数 ) | |
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76
ordnance
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| n.大炮，军械 | |
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77
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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78
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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79
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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80
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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81
erased
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| v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除 | |
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82
invokes
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| v.援引( invoke的第三人称单数 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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83
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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84
stereotyped
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|
| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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85
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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86
dedicated
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|
| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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87
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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88
worthies
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| 应得某事物( worthy的名词复数 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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89
incognito
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|
| adv.匿名地；n.隐姓埋名；adj.化装的，用假名的，隐匿姓名身份的 | |
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90
relic
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|
| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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91
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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92
conquerors
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| 征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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93
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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94
hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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95
masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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96
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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97
fabulous
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|
| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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98
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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99
recessed
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| v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的过去式和过去分词 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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100
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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101
slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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102
slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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103
attest
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| vt.证明，证实；表明 | |
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104
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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105
embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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106
chisel
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| n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿 | |
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107
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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108
lavishness
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| n.浪费，过度 | |
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109
efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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110
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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111
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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112
variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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113
harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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114
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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115
glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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116
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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117
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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118
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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119
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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120
sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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121
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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122
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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123
rotunda
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| n.圆形建筑物；圆厅 | |
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124
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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125
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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126
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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127
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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128
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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129
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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130
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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131
stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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132
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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133
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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134
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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135
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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136
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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137
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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138
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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139
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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140
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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141
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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142
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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143
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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144
desecrate
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| v.供俗用，亵渎，污辱 | |
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145
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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146
hover
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| vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫 | |
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147
graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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148
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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149
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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150
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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151
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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152
gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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153
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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154
ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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155
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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156
arcades
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| n.商场( arcade的名词复数 )；拱形走道（两旁有商店或娱乐设施）；连拱廊；拱形建筑物 | |
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157
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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158
bulges
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| 膨胀( bulge的名词复数 )； 鼓起； （身体的）肥胖部位； 暂时的激增 | |
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159
spiked
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| adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的 | |
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160
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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161
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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162
slipper
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| n.拖鞋 | |
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163
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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164
picturesqueness
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165
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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166
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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167
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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168
petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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169
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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170
symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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171
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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172
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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173
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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174
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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