Note 262 — Chapter IV · GENESIS OF THE EARLY MOHAMMADAN PALACE (continued 2)

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.