[259] Schultz and Strzygowski, _Mschattâ_; Brünnow-Domaszewski, vol. ii, p. 105; Musil, _Qṣeir ‘Amra_, p. 39. [260] Lammens, ‘La Bâdia et la Hîra,’ _Mélanges de la F. O. de Beyrouth_, p. 110. [261] ‘Genesis,’ _Der Islam_, vol. i, p. 126. [262] _Mea culpa!_ I visited Mshattâ in the year 1900 (and to this day, though I spell its name in the accepted grammatical fashion, I cannot bring myself to speak it except as the Beduin speak it--Mshittâ), but I was so much dazzled by the splendour of the façade that I photographed nothing else. Moreover, I was not then sufficiently instructed to be on the watch for matters which would now absorb my attention. In 1905 I passed close by it again, but a regrettable sentiment prevented me from re-visiting it after it had been shorn of its glory. I never find myself in Berlin without rejoicing that the marvellous decoration has been put in safety, and in easy reach of us all, but I never think of the palace in the wilderness without congratulating myself on having seen it in 1900. It remains in my mind as the most princely of ḥirahs, wrapped round by the grass-grown Syrian desert, mild and beneficent in winter; and the flocks of the Ṣukhûr resort to it as kings resorted of old. [263] Cf. the vaults in the side niches of a building on the citadel at ‘Ammân which I believe to be not older than the Umayyad period. Dieulafoy, _L’Art antique_, vol. v, p. 98; _Mitt. der D. O.-G._, No. 23, p. 47. [264] Brünnow and Domaszewski, op. cit., Fig. 720. [265] In any case the maxim laid down by Dr. Herzfeld (’Genesis,’ _Der Islam_, vol. i. p. 110) is misleading. It is too hasty a generalization and it does not cover the facts. At Ukhaiḍir door openings are sometimes wider and sometimes narrower than the arches above them, and it is doubtful whether the same is not the case at Sarvistân. See above, p. 79. [266] _Mschattâ_, Plate 6. [267] So it appears to me, but I am conscious that the roots may go deeper. Damascus, Apamea, and Antioch are Seleucid foundations, and we know nothing of the Seleucid city plan. [268] Ebersolt, _Le Grand Palais de Constantinople_, pp. 162-7. [269] Bury, _A History of the Eastern Roman Empire from the fall of Irene to the accession of Basil I_, p. 132. [270] Herzfeld, _Erster vorl. Bericht_, p. 33. [271] Sprenger-Michaelis, _Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte_, 9th ed., vol. i, p. 60. [272] Perrot-Chipiez, vol. ii, Fig. 101. [273] Dieulafoy, _L’Acropole de Suse_, Figs. 93, 100, 132. [274] _Chaldaea and Susiana_, p. 174. [275] _Mitt. der D. O.-G._, No. 51, p. 71. [276] Hilprecht, _Explorations in Bible Lands_, p. 483, and fig. on p. 552. [277] Sarzec-Heuzey, _Découvertes en Chaldée_, Plate 53 _bis_, Fig. 1.