Around the first story there are five horizontal belts of
passages from the Koran, engraved in bold relief, and in the Kufic
character. In the second story there are four, and in the third
three. The ascent is by a spiral staircase within, of three hundred
and eighty steps; and there are passages from this staircase to the
balconies, with others here and there for the admission of light and
air.[20]
A foolish notion has prevailed among some people, over-fond of
paradox, that this tower is in reality a Hindoo building, and not, as
commonly supposed, a Muhammadan one. Never was paradox supported upon
more frail, I might say absurd, foundations. They are these: 1st,
that there is only one Minar, whereas there ought to have been two--
had the unfinished one been intended as the second, it would not have
been, as it really is, larger than the first; 2nd, that other
Minars seen in the present day either do not slope inward from the
base up at all, or do not slope so much as this. I tried to trace the
origin of this paradox, and I think I found it in a silly old
'munshi' (clerk) in the service of the Emperor.
Pages:
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060