MEDIEVAL MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY 100 OBJECTS

Location: Palermo, Sicily, from a ceiling panel at the Palatine Chapel Date: ca. 1140 THEMES: PRINCELY CYCLE -Sicily had been ruled by the Muslims from 826 and the mainland of southern Italy came under their rule from 901 onwards. Then in the course of the 11th century Normal adventurers slowly conquered Aplia, Calabria, and Sicily. A mixed culture flourished under the Norman Hauteville dynasty, in which Greeks as well as Arabs played an important part. -Aspects of Norman Church decoration are unmistakably Islamic. -The honey-combed ceiling of the nave of the Palatine Chapel is a sort of encyclopedia of Fatimid painting in exile, richly decorated with figures and arabesques, framed by octagonal stars. He is seated in the caliphal style. He is holding a cup of wine, his feet are very tiny and is seated like a caliph. He's there in a constellation of other images. It's pretty clear from the iconographic depiction of this figure here that he's trying to make a portrait of himself. A rich and complex way of depicting yourself. Types of images that we call "genre scenes" simply refers to images of everyday life. Princely cycle and genre scenes. Wrestlers, dancers, two other courtiers dressed in Islamic attire playing a game of chess or checkers, Islamic courtiers, other courtiers pulling water out of a well.

"Seated Caliph" figure, muqarnas niche in the ceiling of the Capella Palatina

MOSQUE PLAN

-The home of the Prophet Muhammad is considered the first mosque. His house, in Medina in modern-day Saudi Arabia, was a typical 7th-century Arabian style house, with a large courtyard surrounded by long rooms supported by columns. This style of mosque came to be known as a hypostyle mosque, meaning "many columns." Most mosques built in Arab lands utilized this style for centuries. -The architecture of a mosque is shaped most strongly by the regional traditions of the time and place where it was built. As a result, style, layout, and decoration can vary greatly. Nevertheless, because of the common function of the mosque as a place of congregational prayer, certain architectural features appear in mosques all over the world. The most fundamental necessity of congregational mosque architecture is that it be able to hold the entire male population of a city or town (women are welcome to attend Friday prayers, but not required to do so). To that end congregational mosques must have a large prayer hall. In many mosques this is adjoined to an open courtyard, called a sahn. -Within the courtyard one often finds a fountain, its waters both a welcome respite in hot lands, and important for the ablutions (ritual cleansing) done before prayer.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SASANIAN ARCHITECTURE

1. Brick or rubble construction coated with plaster, often decorated with elaborate stucco 2. Heavy piers instead of columns 3. Domes resting on squinches 4. Chahar taq (form of Zoroastrian fire temple) 5. The iwan (barrel-vaulted hall) 6. The hypostyle (many-pillared) hall

CHARACTERISTICS OF SASANIAN ART

1. Conscious revival of ancient Iranian (Parthian and Achemenid) styles at the expense of Hellenistic: The Sasanians consciously reviving the art of the Achamenids and the Parthians, fantastic empires that had once ruled the region. 2. Princely themes: hunting, banqueting, dancing, submitting enemies to might of ruler 3. Designs symmetrical, often encased in medallions, heraldic: even vegetal and floral ornament: A strong embrace of abstraction as a powerful means of communicating. Grand ideas, big ideas. 4. Ancient Iranian motifs (such as tree of life), mythological animals (dragons, winged horses) Media include stucco, silver and brass vessels with relief decoration, silks, rock carvings

CHARACTERISTICS OF BYZANTINE ART

1. Flattened, symbolic, (heavenly) space (gold backgrounds common) 2. Shapes and figures show the continuing trend toward shallow space 3. Details are described by line, not light and shade 4. Elongated proportions Dematerialized bodies with strong emphasis on the eyes 5.Ornate haloes (from Iran - designating descent from the Sun) 6. Narrative is created by flat, symbolic shapes, lined up

FOUR M'S OF THE MOSQUE

1. Mihrab: prayer niche in the qibla wall: this niche is probably borrowed from earlier pagan roman traditions. That niche becomes your orientation point within the mosque. Symbol of the light of God Qur'an 24:35 often inscribed in mihrab. Iconography: symbolic content of an image. It exists independently of what that thing may have been. Mihrab's develop a very unique iconography: a niche with a lamp hanging in it (sometimes there are actual lamps hanging around this niche) ***Includes one of the clear iconographic images, SYMBOLIC of the light of God *** 2. Minbar: pulpit : the Imam gives the sermon up these steps 3. Maqsura: Enclosure for Caliph to pray : Not in every single mosque. A kind of enclosed space for the Caliph (or political leader of the community) to pray. The Caliph wanted to be somewhat protected but he also wanted to be WITH the people on Friday when he prayed. 4. Minaret: Towers found on mosques, elevated tower-like structure for which the call to prayer was issued. They essentially mark the space for Islam.

CHARACTERISTICS of BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE

1. Use of finely worked stone or brick 2. Domes rest on triangular pendentives, allowing for greater span and width. 3. Columns (often spolia) 4. Mosaics and colored marble primary forms of decoration 5. Basilicas and centrally-planned churches (martyria) common

UMAYYADS

A dynasty that ruled the Muslim Empire from 661 to 750 and later established a kingdom in al-Andalus.

Location: Damascus Date: A.D. 713 Themes: -Role of Byzantine art in formation of Islamic art -Relation between naturalism and abstraction in Islamic art, including vegetal, human, and animal decoration, geometry -Iconography: do some architectural forms or types of decoration have deeper or symbolic meanings, spiritual or otherwise? -The great Mosque of Damascus mosaics create a fantasy architecture used, no doubt, for political purposes-a Roman, not a Byzantine, vocabulary. A world transfigured. Hundreds of square meters of wall mosaic in predominantly green and gold tonality already encountered in the Dome of the Rock mosaics. The caliph seems to have obtained artists and materials from Byzantium itself for this great work; certainly, the technical standard of the mosaics is beyond reproach. Along the inner wall of the ancient enclosure above a continuous golden vine-scroll (now lost) which functioned like a religious cordon sanitaire for the entire mosque, is unveiled a vast panoramic landscape. Along the banks of a river regularly punctuated by gigantic trees rise a fantasy architecture of villages and palaces in endless profusion. The link with Roman wall-paintings of the type found at Pompeii is unmistakable; but here the idea is put to new and unexpected use, for it strikes the dominant note in a huge monument of religious architecture. Some of these multi-story structures also evoke South Arabian vernacular architecture. Human and animal figures are conspicuously absent, indicating--as at the dome of the Rock--that a distaste for figural ornament in a religious context had already taken root. Despite the obvious success of these mosaics as topographical references to Damascus or to Syria in general, wish-fulfilling depictions of a world at peace under Islamic sway, or evocations of Paradise itself. Perhaps such ambiguity is intentional

Detail, Mosaics on the Western Wall of the Courtyard, Umayyad Mosque (Mosque of al-Walid)

Location: Ravenna, Italy. Date: ca. 547. This image embraces something different than art had come before it: ABSTRACTION. What is abstraction? What is the medium? The material out of which an object is made. In this case the medium is mosaic: a way of making an image out of block cuts of stone or glass, pressed into wet plaster to create an image. Romans excelled at using mosaics but they are usually on the floor but the Byzantines pick them up off the floor and put them on the ceilings, the walls. Mosaics are incredibly expensive. The Byzantines put gold leaf behind many of the mosaic pieces, sumptuousness, draping the walls in gold quite literally. Mosaics are always expensive, a signal of great wealth and great luxury. When you analyze an object you next ask about color. Every kind of object analysis is based on the premise that the creator of that object knew that we would all react similarly to something like sumptuous gold, it is inherently delightful to human beings, that's the reason that gold becomes such a precious substance that and its rarity. We also react to red very similarly, even across cultures. White is associated with purity in western culture and associated with death in India. In China red is the color of good luck. Green across most cultures is associated of course with the natural world. Certain kinds of visual elements, a line of figures in the mosaic are columnular, emphasizes the verticality in the line of figures, line comes to be deemphasized by western european painters who become obsessed by naturalism. but others were very interested in abstraction and the power of abstraction, it communicates ideas very powerfully. abstract symbols include the star and crescent of islam. Line is used in this mosaic to create powerfully, boldly outlined figures. Only the Byzantine emperor or imperial members could wear purple. The composition of the image also communicates. Everyone is at the same level. Justinian is holding a gold chalice to a priest of the church, two priestly figures next to him holding a censure and a holy book. To the left are soldiers and the Cairo symbol is placed prominently on the soldier's green shield. An image redolent of power. And Theodora is first among equals in her image as well. Justinian has depicted himself as a tough military figure. Theodora surrounded by inlaid mother of pearl looking magnificent. Medium, color, line, composition, features of the figures themselves. Justinian is depicted somewhat as an individual but he is also depicted as a soldier emperor. Byzantine art and architecture is very concerned with abstraction and also intricacy, in detailed surfaces and sumptuous materials. Byzantine art was invested in a NEW way of depicting religious figures, a new type of figural representation in Byzantine art called an Icon. Images with a deeper spiritual essence depicted. A more abstract style is embraced and is found to be more effective at communicating that spiritual meaning, big wide eyes. Basilica type, Santa Sabina Rome 5th century. "Good" art is not necessarily naturalistic. The relentless obsession with naturalism and illusionism is rich about western tradition but it is also incredibly strange... it is a single minded pursuit for over a millennia. Other artistic tradition may have appreciated it but for many other traditions it was about doing other things as well. The color purple on these figures is only reserved for imperial/emperors it is made from a single kind of mollusk, very difficult and smelly to make, so it was incredibly rare. Lapis lazuli is only available in one area of Afghanistan. It is crushed up to make the aquamarine color.

BASILICA OF SAN VITALE MOSAIC DEPICTING EMPEROR JUSTINIAN AND ATTENDANTS

Location: Baghdad, Iraq. Date: 762. THEMES: -Palace architecture -The propagandistic role of architecture -The caliph as cosmocrator. Round City of Baghdad, The 9th-century historian al-Ya'qubi calls Iraq 'the navel of the earth' and Baghdad 'the centre of Iraq'; at its heart was the caliph's palace. -Classical forms can still be dimly discerned on occasion--the triumphal arch underlies the portals of 'Abbasid palaces, and all three styles of Samarran stucco are foreshadowed in early Byzantine art--but they have undergone a sea-change. In architecture the process of change is exemplified in the Round City of Baghdad. This concentric circular design was probably derived from such Sasanian models as Firuzabad, Darabjird and Merv. Housing for the citizens occupied the outerperimeter while the caliph's palace, oriented to the four points of the compass and dwarfing the Friday mosque beside it--Caesar took precedence to God here--was located at the dead centre of the city and girdled by a largely empty precinct. This powerful symbol of cosmic dominion and royal absolutism owed little to the Graeco-Roman world but had a long pedigree in the ancient Near-East. -The round city of Baghdad has been well described as 'a piece of ideology walled off from the world." This plan has been constructed on the evidence of classical Arab authors. At the centre was the caliph's "Palace of the Golden Door" with its "Green Dome." The caliph's sons lived in the first circular layer, the departments of government in the second. The city plan sets out the value placed on proximity to the successor of the Prophet as the leader of God's community on Earth. Baghdad was created by Al-Mansur in 762 (?) thousands of workman were brought to build it, it's a perfectly round city. Probably a direct inheritance of Sasanian plans, they built round cities. The idea is a cosmology. So, at the center of the earth, at the center of the city sits the palace and mosque. The idea of a ruler expressing himself through the design of an entire city. It was NOT very practical, however, and only retains this shape for a couple of years. Economic necessity pushes itself outside of this design and suburbs begin to pop up around outside the city walls. It becomes a SYMBOLIC capital. Far from serving as a center that is all-powerful it could easily become a prison. BAGHDAD: Baghdad became the center of what is referred to the Abbasid golden age (or one of the golden ages) Abbasid Baghdad is like the Paris of its day, a glittering capital of art and culture and inspired the stories of 1001 Nights. The tremendous growth in trade and agriculture leads the accumulation of vast sums of wealth. The Abbasids were happy to display this wealth. Courtly life was highly cultivated, experts in manners and costumes and entertainment. The abbasid's ability to use words and to use words as a weapon. The Abbasids sponsor the translation movement, Socrates is translated into Arabic, the Abbasid caliph employed hundreds of academics and their only job was to gather ancient sanskrit texts, chinese, etc. to translate them into Arabic to create these huge repositories of human knowledge. So this leads to huge advances. The Hadith are the sayings and the doings of the prophet Mohammad and the collection of all of these sayings and doings into all of these great books. A period of immense scholarly production. Syrian, Iranian ancient texts on mathematics, astronomy, science, medicine. A period of immense growth of human knowledge. Comes to play a huge role in medieval europe as well, because they make their way back into Europe this way, they had been lost. Ancient Greek > Arabic > Latin translations by monks in Europe.

Baghdad, Round City of al-Mansur, plan.

Location: Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey). Date: 532-37 it's dome was vaster and larger and wider than any church that had been built before it. The Hagia Sophia is later converted into a mosque. In the Ottoman period after Constantinople was captured by the Ottomans 4 minarets were added to this church. Interior is still one of the largest domed spaces in the world One of those great sacred spaces. It combines the two architectural forms: The BASILICA and a CENTRALLY PLANNED building. The Church of Hagia Sophia is a very important and foundational building. This dome was not a great success, it fell twice. The dome was rebuilt to be lower and flatter. A form of architectural insertion: called a PENDENTIVE

CHURCH OF HAGIA SOPHIA (HOLY WISDOM)

Location: Iran. Date: after 590 THEME: Role of Byzantine and Sasanian art in formation of Islamic art, what's adopted/adapted and what dies out? PRINCELY CYCLE In Iraq, Persia and areas even further east, Sasanian silver coins were copied with virtually no alteration. The favourite design featured on the obverse a portrait head of Khusrau II, one of the last Sasanian rulers before the Islamic conquest of Persia, and on the reverse a fire altar with attendants. Even the name of the Sasanian ruler in the Persian Pahlavi characters was retained, as were the Pahlavi mint marks, while the date was given successfully in the two Sasanian calendars and then in the Islamic or Hijra reckoning. The only distinctively Islamic feature was the addition of pious expressions in Kufic script, such as 'in the name of God' or 'praise be to God'. Thus presumably Persian die makers continued to work under the Muslims. These Arab-Sasanian coins, then, show the willingness of the Muslims to maintain the status quo. For awhile, the Arabs continued to strike coins of the Byzantine and Sasanian types. The coin of Khusraw II on the obverse and a Zoroastrian fire-temple with attendants on the reverse, one would have assumed it to be a Sasanian coin if it had not been dates to "Year one of Yazid" These wings reflect a type of pre- Islamic crown widely attested in Sasanian coins, metalwork, and stuccoes from the fifth century onward and perpetuated in Islamic coinage from Iran and Iraq down to the very years in which the Dome of the Rock was built.7 The correspondence is precise: note, in particular, the geometrical patterning of the bejeweled base of each wing, the transversal line that separates this base from the raised feather tips, and the way the uppermost feather curves into a hook at its tip. Most pairs of wings frame pointed, bejeweled ovals that are themselves adorned with crowns, diadems, and pearls. The two pairs of wings in the inner octagon are themselves part of a range of other regalia, which makes it clear that they are crowns. In one of them, a pole carrying a moon crescent emerges from the wings, thereby making the analogy with Sasanian crowns complete (fig. 2.2).It has been suggested that these wings might represent angels.8 But upon close consideration, this seems unlikely. In its Iranian context, the winged crown signified the ruler's khvarnah (an Old Persian term, New Persian farr), his good fortune of divine origin, or in the words of the Avestan Zāmyād yasht (fifth century bc and later), "the mighty, gleaming glory created by [Ahura] Mazda," the "Wise Lord."9 The wings conveyed the spiritual dimension of divinely ordained kingship, expressed in different forms that have in common their royal connotations: in some Sasanian stuccoes, silvers, seals, and textiles, the same symmetrical pair of wings thus serves as the base for another motif, such as a moon crescent (like those often seen in crowns; it appears, in fig. 2.3, with the Pahlavi word nishān, "[royal] emblem"), or the head of a ram (itself also associated with khvarnah), again with a floating ribbon. For local view-ers in Jerusalem, the motif would have been reminiscent of Arab- Sasanian coins still very recently minted in the eastern parts of the Islamic empire, where it capped the head and crown of the ruler, but fundamentally at odds with the Christian iconography of angels, in which the wings are more nat-uralistic, have a less compact shape, and are typically shown at rest, point-ing downward, rather than upward, or extending horizontally if in flight.11

COIN OF KHOSRO II

Palermo, Sicily. Date: 1134. Silk embroidered with gold thread, emphasized with pearls and finely cut gold plates encrusted with precious stones and enriched with cloisonné enamel -The Muslim textile industry continued to flourish for a while under Christian rule and the Norman kings kept a silk workshop attached to the palace. -The silk mantle of Roger II of Sicily was made in the royal treasury or workshop (khizana). It features two tigers savaging a camel. -Many of the oldest Islamic textiles to have survived have done so because they were preserved in christian churches where they were used as hangings, copes, and so on. Muslim textiles were treated as objects of prestige throughout Europe. -Tuscan painters such as Fra Angelico and Gentile da Fabriano reproduced Islamic fabrics in their paintings when they wanted to suggest status or wealth. It ends up in Vienna because it ends up becoming the coronation mantle for all the holy roman emperors. King roger was probably modeling himself and these objects after Fatimid rulers. This mantle's materials are very tells, made of the most sumptuous materials you can imagine. Unclear where this red silk came from, emboirdered with seed pearls, studded with gems and gold plates which are themselves enameled. The inscription itself is basically a kind of praise or good wishes for King roger, calling for his preservation, protection, salvation. It was made in the princely treasury. In the capital of Sicily in the year 528 H (from the Hijra) (1133-1134). That is the date that is placed on the Christian robe, NOT the Christian date, the Islamic date. It is embroidered with Kufic calligraphy. Ornamental and sumptuous calligraphy. It communicates all the courtly ideals of King Roger of Norman.

Coronation Mantle of Roger II

Location: Jerusalem. Date: 692 THEMES: -Role of Byzantine and Sasanian art in formation of Islamic art -The propagandistic role of architecture -Role of gardens and water, and the relationship of architecture to the landscape- including the urban landscape -Iconography: deeper symbolic meanings, both spiritual and political -The first major monument in Islamic history. Built by the caliph Abd al-Malik, it stands on the site of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and thus amounts to a proclomation that Judaism was now superseded by Islam. It is also polemical against Christianity, with which it takes issue in its inscriptions. It consists of two octagonal amubulatories around a rock which is classically identified as the spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven on his nightly journey, but which was probably associated with Abraham in Abd al-Malik's time. -Two supreme masterpieces of religious architecture do survive. They show that, while early Islamic art was still in the thrall of the Byzantine and classical heritage, the Muslims were already developing their own visual language and were well able to use inherited forms for their own ends. These buildings confidently proclaimed that the new faith had come to stay in the formerly Christian strongholds of the Near East. -It stood on what was incontestably the prime plot of real estate in all Jerusalem-the vast high platform on which Solomon's Temple had rested, shunned by Jew and Christian alike since the destruction of that Temple by Titus in AD 70. In form the building is a domed octagon with a double ambulatory encircling the rock; in essence, then, a centralized structure of a type long familiar in Roman mausolea and Christian martyria. The choice of form probably stems from a desire to upstage the nearby domed church of the Holy Sepulchre, perhaps, the most sacred shrine of Christianity, also built over a rock; the diameters of the two domes differ by only a centimeter. The Dome of the Rocks enjoys a matchlessly uncluttered and highly visible site location. The quintessentially Byzantine medium of wall mosaic was used to decorate the interior and exterior of the Dome of the Rock on a scale unparalleled in any surviving earlier Byzantine church. The pervasive motifs of jewelled plants, trees and chalices have been interpreted as references to Muslim victory, Solomon's Temple and Paradise itself, while the earliest epigraphic programme in Islamic architecture comprises lengthy Qur'anic quotations exhorting believers and attacking--as did contemporary coins--such Christian doctrines as the Trinity and the Incarnation. -The significant innovations in coinage are almost exactly contemporary with the Dome of the Rock. As in architecture, so in coins the evoutionary trend is clear: an initially slavish dependence on classical models gives way to an increasing preference for themes and techniques inherited from the ancient near East, and the resultant period of experiment produces unexpected reworkings of old ideas in new contexts. -The first surviving piece of architecture in the Islamic world. Strictly speaking, it's not a mosque, a kind of commemorative site would be the best term for it. A commemorative site, but not actually a mosque. Located at Mount Marya, a site of Jewish temple that had been destroyed in 76 AD, you can see the Temenos (a platform delineating holy space) a very rich and deep object within the story of Jerusalem, this platform is a site of the ancient jewish temple, built first by solomon then david, destroyed by the Romans in 71 AD, built over the rock that is associated with a really important story in history the sacrifice of Abraham's son. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son and he is so obedient that he does, extremist obedience, at the last second an angel and stays abraham's hand—the goat is sacrificed in place of the son. All 3 major religions believe in this story. Mi'raj (ascension of night journey) of the prophet Muhammad. He goes on a tour through the heavens by the angel Gabriel, to ascend until he comes into the presence of God. At the time that the site was founded it wasn't yet associated with the Mi'raj until the crusades, before that it was founded in the story of Abraham. Even after the original jewish temple had been destroyed the retaining wall is the last remaining remnant after its destroyed by the Romans, which is now referred to as the Western (or "wailing") wall. Multiple faiths share it and over time have contested it. A complex site that embodies many different forms. Instead of commemorating a holy figure, we're commemorating a holy event, at the center of the building is this rock. What you see here is a profound shift, the sumptuousness of the materials, the gold mosaic is the key figure, what separates it from Byzantine art is that it is not figural. Early distinction in Islam that within religious spaces because of a fear of idolatry figures should be avoided. So that establishment between sacred and secular is already there. Symbolic and vegetal ornament. All highly abstracted. Emphasis on simple, pure geometry and harmony. Interior mosaics boast these kind of trophy-like vases with crown like forms inside of them, hung with pearls. They really actually resemble Byzantine crowns, or Sasanian crowns. We don't know what these must have meant, i may have symbolized the crown symbolically. Sumptuous, princely objects that show the merging between religious and temporal authority, very common in the late antique world. Everyone wasn't speaking Arabic in this region yet. To mark this site for Islam, an early form of Arabic script was used. Contains all the passages of the Koran that refer to Christ (the christ0 logical passages of the Koran) and essentially double down on the theological questions that would have been in dispute between Muslims and christians, the Muslims said "look we worship Christ but we believe that God is one. God is beyond comprehension, he is a great energy of force, would never be depicted as a "father" god supersedes any kind of human bodily existence. Therefore, god was not the father of Jesus. A rejection of the Christian idea of the holy trinity. It calls to christians to come back to the straight path and to come back to the true path. A building that is making a theological argument, "we're not going to force you to convert, but you should." Ideas about the trinity troubled many early christians as well, these were mysteries that today Christians are told we don't fully understand it but we accept it on faith. But for the muslims they went back to the Jewish tradition and really asserted monotheism. The Dome of the Rock really stands out with its white limestone.

DOME OF THE ROCK

Location: Cairo, Egypt. Date: 1125 - THEME: Mosque/Church/Synagogue architecture, interior space and decoration: Propagandistic: -A religious and political manifesto. The Aqmar mosque in Cairo was erected in 1125 beside the eastern Fatimid caliphal palace and was perhaps intended as a court oratory, teaching institution, and tomg for al-Husain, the Prophet's grandson. Its inscriptions implore God to give the caliph 'victory over all infidels' and exalt the family of 'Ali by quoting Qur'an 33:33 -The al-Aqmar mosque, whose very name means 'The Moonlit,' has its facade festooned with radiating designs, with 'Ali' at the center of the largest, directly over the entrance, presumably a reference to the well-known saying that 'Ali is the Gate of the City of Knowledge; 'let those who want to acquire knowledge approach it by its proper gate'. The entire facade of Aqmar mosque functions as a gigantic qibla articulated by mihrabs large and small, an allusion that would have been far clearer in Fatimid times, went the standard mihrab had precisely the form of the blind niches on that facade. -Pierced window designs, stars and carved representations of lamps are further references to light (and specifically as it is described in sura 24:35) in this iconographically dense facade, in which--as in other Fatiid monuments--numerical symbolism hinging on the numbers 3, 5 and especially 7 (Isma'ilis being Sevener Shi'ites) is also at work There is an interior and exterior meaning for all things in the world. If you listen to the guidance of the Imam you will understand the secret meaning, only the Imam can reveal these ideas. Over outer meanings and secret inner meanings. Built after a period of intense crisis. A period in which the caliph is not the sponsor of major projects. The mosque is much smaller than Al-Hakim and located right next to the two palaces. Exterior facade depicts this radiating outward. Stalactite honeycomb decoration, cells of ornament, look like small domes. They have a visual effect of shimmering or making light seem to reflect and refract off of a solid stone surface. Speaking of themes related to light. The building itself is oriented toward Mecca (of course) and the architect angled the side of the building out so that it would be in the line of sight and would have to pass by this facade. How does it communicate this interior and exterior meaning? The "Moonlit" mosque, the name itself refers to light and radiation, celestial light. These honeycomb structures contain inscriptions: "Verily God is with those who are God-fearing and those who are doers of Good" That is the exterior meaning. But there is another way you can read this message: "God is with the prophet mohamed. God is with Mohammed and Ali." A direct reference to that lineage of descent. A clearly Shi'a idea. This message can be read in 2 different directions. This theme is repeated over and over again all over this building. Roundel above the entrance portal to Mosque of al-Aqmar with radiating inscriptions

MOSQUE OF AL-AQMAR

Location: Cairo, Egypt. Date: 11th c. Concentric circles radiating from a single point, kufic calligraphy bore the name of the caliph. These coins very much parallel metaphysical diagrams that explain the nature of divine principles and divine light in the world, they emanate from a single point outward. The caliph was a point from which information radiating outward. Emanation from a single point of divine knowledge, which is God of course. This is on coins but on all the kinds of objects as well.

Fatimid Coins with Concentric circles of Kufic writing

Location: Cairo, Egypt. Date: ca. 1050-1100 THEMES: PORTABLE ITEMS PRINCELY CYCLE AJAB -Fatimid pottery is dominated by lustrewares. The importance of Fatimid lustrewares extends far beyond Egypt, since they usher in the first consistent attempt in the medieval Islamic world to make luxury ceramics say something in visual terms. The number and variety of such themes and motifs expanded dramatically in Fatimid lustreware. A time of experimentation. -The various figural images can indeed be taken at face value as genre or courtly scenes, but they could equally well (and simultaneously) operate on a deeper level as symbols (love, temptation, harmony, fellowship) or as deliberate copies of classical themes--Egypt had been one of the major centres of Hellenistic art. -The Coptic minority made Fatimid Egypt much more open to these themes than other areas of the Islamic world: some of the banqueting figures, whose setting could be interpreted as a garden, may refer to Paradise and may derive from classical images of heroization. Several of the animals depicted on Fatimid lustreware have been interpreted as lunar, solar or astrological symbols. -Apotropaic or mystical overtones may be present in some of the lustrewares. -The survival of other faiths: Early 12th century lustre bowl signed by the Muslim potter Sa'd which shows a Coptic priest swinging a censer; a gigantic ankh hieroglyph denote 'life' He's holding a censer, that would have been swung inside of a trunk. A fantastic Ankh shape, very Egyptian dual meaning. Alluding to the Islamic notion of Ajab— of wonder. IMAGERY BELONGING TO THE PRINCELY CYCLE- lustre pottery that delvelops in Cairo is very nice. Applying shimmering iridescent gold to the surface of white, fired, glazed ceramics. The secondary process of adhering metals to the surface. They proliferate during the Fatimid period.

Fatimid Lustre bowl depicting Orthodox Christian Coptic priest

Anderson's "A Mother's Gift? Astrology and the Pyxis of al-Mughir

In A mother's gift? Astrology and the pyxis of al-Mughīr, Anderson provides a new interpretation of the Pyxis of al-Mughīr by centering on the role of both the female and eunuchs's considerable influence within the royal household during the Cordoban Umayyad caliphate, particularly the role of al-al-Mughīr's mother, the established Al-Mushtaq, who Anderson argues may very well have commissioned Durri al-Saghir to execute the creation of the pyxis itself. Anderson provides evidence, via contemporaneous inscriptions attributed directly to al-Mushtaq and various influential elite female patrons of art and architecture throughout the early Islamic world, that it would have been customary for al-Mushtaq to cement her desire for her son al-Mughīr to inherit the throne with a commemorative gift such as the pyxis. Anderson analyzes the princely astronomical, astrological and agricultural content of the Pyxis of al-Mughīr to provide historical context of the gift's message. Various themes carved into the ivory pyxis are historical lexical indicators (date palms, enthronement, falcons, lions and bulls) of various aspects of al-Mughīr's personal astrological chart that illustrate his sphere of influence, power and divine right to accede the throne. This lavish, princely gift would have solidified the message to other elites at court as well as been made to provide protection to al-Mughīr as a sacred object.

Allen's Aniconism & Figural Representation in Islamic Art

In Aniconism & Figural Representation in Islamic Art, Allen argues that Islamic art was never deliberately iconoclastic, rather, in keeping meanings coherent throughout the Islamic world's vast empire that encompassed a multitude of varied cultures and languages, it's religious art was characterized by a form of aniconism, with figural representation reserved for secular works. Allen states that, before the emergence of Islam, the tradition of aniconism in Syria and Mesopotamia is evidenced in 6th century Monophysite churches alongside an early Arab-Christian belief system that never included acts of prayer to a holy intercessor, therefore, Byzantine iconoclasm did not influence the nonfigural tendency in religious Islamic art. In an incredibly diverse empire, human psychology, thought and activity was the focus of Islamic literature, typically leaving visual secular art to illustrate universal ideas via emblemization. Unlike the West, Islamic art was not obsessed by the corporeal, and instead expressed its greater interest in abstraction, geometry and pattern.

George "Paradise or Empire"

In Paradise or Empire, George argues that, to the modern viewer, many visual elements of imperial Umayyad architecture, monuments, and objects may appear ambiguous, however, their symbols often intentionally straddle a multiplicity of meanings that directly fuse the realm of the divine with rulership and the corporeal. There are depictions of otherworldly plant-like entities and crowned wings in the mosaics at the Dome of the Rock, yet by integrating elements of visual motifs from contemporaneous Sananian, Byzantine and Umayadd royal objects such as crowns, jewelry, and coinage these images become grounded in what we know to be real, concrete and imperial. Further, in the Umayyad Qur'an of Fustat and the Great Mosque of Damascus a mingling of heavenly and earthly scenes and objects are combined, as if to exist in the same location. In the Umayyad Qur'an of Fustat two earth bound rivers (the Nile and the Euphrates) and two heavenly rivers (Jaxartes and Oxus) are all said to pass together underneath the Rock. While, at the Great Mosque of Damascus, mosaics depict trees of paradise towering over earthly buildings.

Golombek's "The Draped Universe of Islam"

In The Draped Universe of Islam, Golombek argues that beyond textiles' basic utilitarian life-sustaining functions, their significance was particularly far-reaching and permeated every major aspect of culture, and each stratum of society, within the Medieval Islamic world. Golombek purports that textiles were incorporated into every area of life and this focus bordered on the obsessional in Islamic costume, art, religion, decoration, architecture, furnishings, social values, economy, trade, and politics. From a caliph to a farmer, textiles were fundamental as status symbols, markers of various life changes, and extensive knowledge of fabrics and textiles were commonplace. The ubiquity and preciousness of textiles in the Islamic world are evidenced by their prominent economic value, comprehensive governmental production/oversight, vast and complex terminology in literary references of the day, and with a history going back to the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Textiles were utilized by many to project the "inner and outer" condition, by caliphs to project power, courtly bureaucrats to impress important guests and denote status at gatherings, and for special occasions of all kinds. *Architecture, Qurans in Islam were meant to mimic the appearance of woven textile threads or draperies

Wood's "The Khosro Cup"

In The Khosro Cup, Wood explains that although there has been extensive movement of the Khosro cup over a lengthy period of time, it's significance as a hallowed cultural artifact has persisted. The Khosro cup has weathered a winding, often uncharted, journey to France where it was recovered by the Bibliothèque nationale de France from the Abbey of Saint-Denis in 1791. The Khosro Cup depicts King Khosro I Anushirvan, a greatly revered ruler who reigned from 531-539 during the Sasanian Empire's height of stability, cultural progress and economic prosperity. The Khosro cup is composed of rare and fine materials including circular garnet and rock crystal pieces that surround the carved image of Khosro I like "celestial bodies" emphasizing the central role and exalted status of the Zoroastrian king.

Robert's "Things"

In Things, Roberts outlines fundamental characteristics that have rapidly emerged in New Material studies starting around the year 2000 and argues that these innovations in New Material Studies have contributed to the rise of the transnational turn in American art history. Roberts provides an overview by detailing the various ways in which increasingly holistic approaches have been adopted in New Material Studies. Roberts supports this observation by expounding on four keywords in relationship to New Material studies: agency, making, exchange and matter. These keywords highlight New Material studies' current focus the inherent power of objects, the inextricable link of the maker to those objects, the broader impact of the movement and/or trade of these objects through time and the more recent inclusion of a highly diversified range of objects into New Material studies. Roberts concludes by providing three possible prospects for the future of Transnational Material studies: the Ecological Horizon, the Horizon of Virtuality and the Horizon of Western Dualism.

Rahim's "What This Medieval Wine Jug can Tell us about Islam"

In What This Medieval Wine Jug can Tell us about Islam, Rahim focuses on the existence of an Islamic object that is seemingly at odds with the basic tenets of Islam itself to inquire if it may provide insight into a more broad and inclusive history of Islam. Rahim explains that in Islam the consumption of alcohol is forbidden but as a 15th-century brass wine jug engraved with religious supplications to Allah illustrates, this could not have always been the case. Rahim asks what degree of ambiguity in Islamic history can be accepted before disrupting coherence. Rahim refers primarily to Shahab Ahmed's argument that the complexity and diversity of Islamic history should be highlighted. Rahim offers a method for an updated investigation into Islamic history through accessing two major sources labeled as "Pre-Text" and "Con-Text." "Pre-Text" refers to ascribing meaning that is less literal behind the word in the Quran, as is the longstanding tradition of many Sufi sects. And "Con-Text" refers to the inclusion of the history of not only those who determined the legal boundaries for Islam, but significant Islamic scientists, ethicists, philosophers and artists as well. Ahmed cites various Islamic figures throughout history who made positive reference to imbibing alcohol from 9th century doctor Zayd al-Balkhi to the 16th century Sultan Sultan Muhammad to make a claim for this ambiguity citing that both legal religious history and a broader history can coexist.

THEMES: -PRINCELY CYCLES -PALACE ARCHITECTURE/DECORATION -FIGURAL REPRESENTATIONS -LATER INFLUENCE ON OTHER ISLAMIC ARCHITECUTRE: -The figural iconography of Samarran palaces such as Jausaq al-Khaqani attests the gradual consolidation and refinement of a cycle of princely pleasure--music, banqueting, hunting, wrestling, dancing and the like. These are not to be interpreted not literally but as a sequence of coded references to a luxurious royal lifestyle that was summarized by the elventh-century Persian poet Manuchirhri in the rhyming jingle sharab u rabab u kabab - 'wine and music and meat.' This cycle was assiduously copied by 'Abbasid successor states or rival polities from Spain (Cordoba) to Sicily (Cappella Palatina, Palermo). It occurs on marble troughs and ivory boxes, on brass or bronze buckets and ceremonial silks, on the exteriors and interiors of Christian churches, and of course in numerous palaces. The figural type popular in these paintings--characterized by pop-eyes, overlarge heads, curling love locks, scalloped fringes and miniscule feet had an equally wide dissemination. The first palace that's built and arguably the most magnificent of them all. Built by the founder. Built right on the shores of the Tigris. People would go up and down on the Tigris to the palace. It's a CLOSED WORLD, it's not a palace that ordinary people would ever have visited. The palace was massive and his court was quite large but an elite group of insiders were the only ones invited or allowed there. The large entrance gate is called the Bab al-Amma, entrance gate, was a focal point for the city and where the Caliph would issue announcements and other things. It is clearly meaning to evoke Sasanian architecture with the barrel vaults. They are pointed arches, not a true barrel, they are stronger. You can build them higher and taller. They end up being common in the Middle East and in Southern Spain. They go on to inspire Gothic architecture, which never could have existed without the pointed arch. Cruciform throne hall, courtyards and gardens. To the north large round structures (a massive scale of buildings on their own) they are called Serdabs, filled with water. Serdabs were sunken to the level of the ground, making things cooler. They are niches around, so the serdab could be enjoyed. There's a Great Serdab and the smaller serdab. There were race tracks for horse, 2, 1 very large and a secondary set of smaller loops.

JAUSAQ AL-KHAQANI PALACE

The oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts. It consists of a modified form of the old Nabataean script. The name of the script derives from Kufa, a city in southern Iraq which was considered as an intellectual center within the early Islamic period. It developed from the Nabataeans of Iraq alphabet in the city of Kufa, from which its name is derived. Kufic script is characterized by angular, rectilinear letterforms and its horizontal orientation. There are many different versions of Kufic script, such as square Kufic, floriated Kufic, knotted Kufic, and others.

KUFIC

Location: Jordan Valley, Palestine. Date: 744. THEMES: -Iconography -Figural representation -Palace decoration -Princely theme? -Mosaic on the floor of the audience chamber in the bathhouse at Khirbat al-Mafjar -The mosaic shows a so-called "Tree of Cruelty" with a border of an abstract design. Khirbat al-Majfar is one of the most famous of the Umayyad desert palaces, and the quality of this mosaic, which may have been created by imported Greek artisans, gives some indication of the luxury and refinement of the interiors of such palaces. -The Umayyad world view: A hunting scene linked to late antique floor mosaics by theme and technique alike is transformed into a powerful allegory of a world divided between Muslim and infidel. Here, presumably sat the caliph, dispensing justice: reward on his right, punishment on his left. The Lion-Gazelle article argues that this was not simply a pretty image. She argues that this mosaic might also have symbolic of sexual conquest. Of a ruler who is powerful and strong and who presides over a wealthy, fruitful territory. Symbolic of his sexual conquests. Open to different kinds of iconographic interpretations. Images still communicate certain kinds of broad ideas. All of these structures combine, in much the same way the Byzantine and Sasanian empire had, combine the religious and political authority in one.

Khirbat al-Mafjar, Lion-Gazelle Mosaic.

Location: Cairo, Egypt. Date: 990 THEMES: -Abstraction to communicate spiritual inner meanings Written in a style of kufic that is very difficult to read. Effloriated kufic. Difficult to read it directly and simply, on one hand highly visible and on the other hand you might need a guide to understand the deeper meanings of these inscriptions, contain reference for Imam caliph. -A fortress for the faith. The mosque of al-Hakim, Cairo develops themes encountered earlier in the mosques of Samarra and of Ibn Tulun, Cairo. The degree of emphasis on the main facade is, however, new. Crenellations and towers lend it a military flavour. The triple-arched portal copies palace architecture.

Kufic Inscription on the Bastion of the Mosque of al-Hakim

Name: Lustre-Decorated Plate. Location: Iraq (possibly Samarra). Date: 9th c. THEMES: -Portable courtly objects -ABSTRACTION: Some lustre works meant to resemble wovn silk textiles -The lustre technique, which could be used to give dishes the appearance of having been made from gold, seems to have been borrowed from glass and to have spread from 9th century Iraq to Egypt, and from there to Syria in the 12th century. -According to Iranian poet and traveler Nasr-i Khusrau, who was in Cairo in 1047, its inhabitants made "bowls, cups, plates, and other vessels. THey decorate them with colours like those of the woven fabric called 'buqalamun (shot silk)" -A great deal of lustreware was produced in Muslim Spain The introduction of this new color, cobalt. Which moves to China and becomes fundamental to Chinese ceramics. And the Abbasid-era Lustre decorated plate. Lustre is an example of the way that chemistry plays a role in the production of ceramics. Take a piece of earthward, apply the tin glaze (chinese porcelain-esque) and then it is fired, it comes out a pure-white object. Paint on this metal-oxide paint. You add smoke to a reducing kiln (throwing wood in there) and fixes the metal-oxides to the surface of the already glazed object. You see the shimmering gold iridescent color that has adhered after this. AJAB - means "a sense of wonder" plural - Ajaib Wonder- A thing that evokes astonishment : Lustre bowls from Fatimid Egypt 11th c. These lustre wear works were thought to be alchemical. The search for magical chemical substance. At this time it was about turning base metals (like lead) into.... was the foundation of modern chemistry. CERAMICS: In the Islamic world sponsored efflorescence in this medium of ceramics. Between the 9th and the 14th century shaped the art form in China. Islamic built on some elements of Chinese ceramics and innovated as well, and those innovations found themselves back into China. Gilding and lustre. Pigmentation. Islamic potters were deeply under the influence of China. Porcelain is the great chinese innovation in ceramics developed in the Tang dynasty in the 8th/9th century. This kind of clay was mostly found in China and guarded the porcelain substance jealously, no one knew how or where it was made. It is pure white, translucent, smooth, shiny—almost a magical sense to it. Imported in vast quantities into the Islamic world. They wanted to figure out the secret to porcelain. They came up with some ways to imitate porcelain. For example: the 9th/10th century tin-glazed bowl. Tin opacifite glaze. They immediately begin ornamenting the surfaces with color. This vivid cobalt blue goes back to China.

LUSTRE DECORATED PLATE

Location: Jerusalem. Date: AD 691. Quranic verses in the Dome 4: 171 THEMES: -The propagandistic role of architecture -Relation between naturalism and abstraction in Islamic art, including vegetal, human, and animal decoration, geometry -Iconography: do some architectural forms or types of decoration have deeper or symbolic meanings, spiritual or otherwise? Surat al-Nisa' (Chapter of the Women) Oh People of the Book! Do not exaggerate in your religion, nor utter aught concerning God save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a Messenger of God, and His Word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in God and HIs messengers and say not 'Three' Cease!.... Quran 19:33 Surat Maryam (Chapter of Mary) When He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is. The quintessentially Byzantine medium of wall mosaic was used to decorate the interior and exterior of the Dome of the Rock on a scale unparalleled in any surviving earlier Byzantine church. The pervasive motifs of jewelled plants, trees and chalices have been interpreted as references to Muslim victory, Solomon's Temple and Paradise itself, while the earliest epigraphic programme in Islamic architecture comprises lengthy Qur'anic quotations exhorting believers and attacking--as did contemporary coins--such Christian doctrines as the Trinity and the Incarnation. Anyone who would have lived in that mediterranean area would have gone to Jerusalem. People traveled a lot in this region as well, they were highly mobile in the middle east during medieval times. You would come to Jerusalem because it is the 3rd holiest city. So A LOT of people would have seen this building.

MOSAIC INSCRIPTION, INTERIOR DOME OF THE ROCK

Location: Cordoba, Spain. Date: 936-76 THEMES: -PROPAGANDISTIC ARCHITECTURE: Abd al-Rahman III first Muslim leader in Spain claim the title of Spain very proppagandistically -Role of gardens and water, and the relationship of architecture to the landscape Abd Al Rahman III named it after his favorite wife. "The City of Zahra" He made a miniature palace city. Abd Al-Rahman III is important because he is the first Muslim leader in Spain to claim the title of Caliph very propagandistically. Upper terrace. We have a middle terrace with gardens, pavilions, pools and orchards. Then there is a lower area including the congregational mosque. residential quarters, markets. Palatial quarters were important for leisure. -A pleasure capital -Rumours of the luxury of Samarra soon filtered back to Spain and los tnothing in the telling. Its marvels included ponds of quicksilver and jasper floors, while the statue of a Roman Venus over the main entrance was a reminder of the Mediterranean heritage of Islam. -Excavations have revealed audience halls with columns of many colours and abundant carved stucco decoration with arabesque ornament so delicate that it is almost finicky. -Many of the standard hallmarks of royal pomp are duly there--the ceremonial triple-arched portal, the lavish use of water, the use of axial emphasis to exalt the monarch. Located a few miles west of Cordoba. Had a staff of about 20,000 people. It has been excavated for years, a UNESCO world heritage site. The garden has been completely restored and reconstructed. 150 years after the Abbasid overthrew there is still seen in art and architecture a longing for Damascus, a longing for Syria. Chahar bagh: Persian four-part garden An ancient Persian style garden makes it way to Spain. Typically this is 4 parts divided by water channels. It could be 8, or 16 divisions of water channels. It goes on to influence Italian and French gardens, that is the legacy of Persia. Salon Rico seen from the garden. Her hopes for the son to become the next Caliph. What the interior of this fantastic building might look like: it is not a stupendous architectural monument, it is intended to be a place where you contemplate the garden. Meant to be open to the outdoors, seamlessness between inside and outside. The sound of birdsong would come in, multi sensory, insect sounds, sounds of water, breeze coming through. Part of the artistry of a place like Salon Rico. It's a work of landscape and garden architecture—a marvel of that. A 3 aisle basilica at the back. Carved stucco ornament.

Madinat al-Zahra, view over ruins

Location: Cairo. Date: 13th c. Themes: -The princely cycle -In the first century of Abbasid rule caliphal power was absolute, as the chilling anecdotes of contemporary chronicles testify. To the Western world, the figure of Harun al-Rashid--who sent his contemporary Charlemagne an elephant--has always symbolized the oriental potentate, and it is the golden prime of eighth-century Baghdad that is celebrated in the Arabian Nights. There can be no doubt of the immense cultural superiority of the Muslim East over western Europe at this time. Court life attained an unequaled peak of sophistication and luxury in manners, costume, food and entertainment. -Tales within Tales -A collection of Persian, Arab and Indian tales collected in 9th c. Baghdad Narrative structure: -frame story -stories inside the frame story It's like an onion. Shahrazard outsmarts the king by telling him a story each night before he goes to sleep; she ends each tale on a cliffhanger in order to maintain suspense within an episodic structure—and, of course, to keep her husband hooked and herself alive. The theme of all the Arabian Nights is the oppressor and the oppressed. We see this tension play out through powerful Djinns locked in bottles, Shahrazad: Clear thinking and full feeling and close reading. Aladdin is the first complete translation by a woman, a French-Syrian translator Yasmine Seale.

Manuscript of Alf Layla wa Layla (The Thousand and One Nights).

Location: Samarra, Iraq. Date: 847-851 THEMES: -Abstraction -Samarra style Part of another massive, crazy structure. The largest mosque that had built anywhere in history at the time. Immense rectangular building, built out of baked brick. The minaret is unlike any other minaret up to this point. It sort of looks like a ziggurat. Bruegel's painting is probably based on this minaret. Very striking concentric form. Unfortunately, during the american occupation of Iraq this structure was damaged. The top of the minaret was damaged. Doesn't have any particular symbolic content. Everything is bigger, stranger, innovative, new, over the top. -Expresses a caliph at the peak of his power. -Spiritual theological ideas are being hashed out during this time. The hadith is being gathered during this time. Samarra expresses all of these innovative ways of seeing. -This is a hypostyle mosque. This is a classic genesis point. The Abu Dulaf mosque copies it, it's a smaller version. The stucco ornamentation in the interior of the palace, All of this stucco decoration from Sasanian, there are 3 styles of stucco, A, B and C but they are contemporaneous. Even though they really are an expression of immense creativity, playfulness with themes of geometry. They represent trends of abstraction and this abstraction is progressing during this time period. Europe had this crazy obsession with naturalism, using illusionism, representing things as they REALLY appear—perspectival lines of expression in 3 dimensional space, contour, form. In the Islamic world, not that interested in an of that, it has a whole different kind of trajectory. Islamic has a deep exploration of abstraction. How can you take a thing in the world and make it more beautiful and more harmonious, utilizing abstraction. Color, form, and line are the focus and purpose of the art in abstraction. -According to the Arab geographer al-Yaqut the caliph al-Mutawakkil built himself nineteen palaces. His balkuwara palace (which he began building in about 849 for his son al-Mutazz) was supposed to have been modelled on what he had been told about the palace of a pre-Islamic king of Hira, which in turn had been modelled on the disposition of an army on a battlefield, with a centre and two wings. The Arab historian al-Masudi wrote in the early tenth century that "people had houses built in the style of the palace of al-Mutawakkil"--a rare explicit testimonial to what one would expect, that the artistic taste and innovations of the ruler were aped by his subjects.' -From 889 onwards Samarra was abandoned; Baghdad had once more became the Abbasid capital. Samarra had always been an artificial city, which, lacking an independent economic raison d'etre, depended heavily on the patronage of the caliphs and perished when that patronage was removed. An aerial survey has shown the outlines of 6,134 buildings in Samarra, but today one nine of those ruins have walls that rise significantly above ground level.

Minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Mutawakkil

Location: Cordoba, Spain. Date: 987 THEMES: -Propagandistic architecture: To cement the caliph's power in both the Maqsura sequestering and the splendour of decoration to cement the caliphal claim -Abstraction: Repeated geometrical forms in mosaics -Iconography: repetition suggests the infinite and light points to God - The mihrab is so large here it's a semi-circular room, with fantastic domes built above it. What is the medium? A 10th century revival of a style prominent in the 7th and early 8th century, this style of mosaic was out of fashion at this time. He had to find mosaicists who knew about this style. It's a revivalist style, an aching memory 200 years later of the Syria that had been lost them and that they had never managed to recapture. A deliberate quotation of a style that was no longer, literally, in fashion by the 10th century. Floral ornamentation, inscriptions quoting the light verse, the iconography of the mihrab being associated with the light of God is extremely vivid. The mihrab was often lit with candles and other forms of illumination. All of this was reflected in the shimmering mosaics that go all the way up to the ceiling. The theme of light and the theme of quoting the past are major themes here. -In the area around the mihrab, as rebuilt from 961 onwards, the notion of a forest--an analogy already suggested by the files of living trees planted in the courtyard, which would have merged smoothly with the sanctuary arcades--is intensified. A royal enclosure defined by a network of interlacing multifoil arches with arabesque decoration creates a blooming petrified garden in which honorific and paradisal undertones mingle--and from which the congregation at large was excluded. -A remarkable sequence of ribbed domes of great variety and complexity provides a fitting culmination for these splendours, and indeed intensifies their impact by a nexus of interrelated solar and celestial references. -This area of the mosque abutted directly on the royal palaced and provided a fitting environment for a monarchy which had only recently claimed the numinous title of Caliph. The princes of Cordoba thus challenged the 'Abbasids as the divinely-ordained rulers of the Muslim world, and their mosque was part of that challenge. -Architects repeatedly employed the vanishing point to suggest infinity, and concentration of ornament to exalt the area around the mihrab. -Amidst relative darkness, the lavishly fenestrated and vaulted royal enclosure around the mihrab stood out. Light flickered off its golden mosaics, a metaphor for spiritual illumination to which the caliph as the prayer leader according to Islamic law, subtly staked his own claim as he stood framed in the rayed mihrab on Fridays. -The mihrab was the work of a craftsman specially brought--with his materials--from Constantinople, a tribute to the pan-Mediterranean culture of the time.

Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, mihrab

Location: Cordoba, Spain. Date: 8th-10th c., cathedral built in 16th c. THEMES: -Role of Byzantine and Sasanian art in formation of Islamic art -Mosque/Church/Synagogue architecture, interior space and decoration: how were these used to create certain visual effects or to communicate ideas, spiritual or otherwise, to the viewer? -Abstraction -Cordoba is a hypostyle mosque (many pillared mosque) The Basilica type mosque have pillars that are arranged very linearly. A hypostyle mosque is much less directive, much more free-flowing open space, has a quality of being very modular. -A mosque that was intended in every way to rival the mosques at Jerusalem. It was considered a wonder of the world by medieval Muslims and Christians. -Al Andalus constantly romanticized the past, the Umayyad height of power, it infuses the architecture of Spain there are these little quotations of Syria, but they're filtered through MEMORY, there's not realistic or naturalistic drawing obviously no photographs, so these ideas are preserved in history and literature. People who had never seen the mosque in Syria but who had read these praised ideas or heard through recitation of the wonders of them. So Abn al-Rahman remembers from his own memory the mosque at Damascus but after he dies no one else does. -Cordoba draws also on the corpus of styles of construction that were native to Spain. There is a turn towards a unique style of architecture. Merges the past with what was already on the ground in Spain. It's very much like the mosque of damascus and the dome of the rock, built on a Visigothic church, in a way preserving this really holy site and to be triumphalist about it. They want to capture the powerful energy of a holy place. This comes together to create a mosque that quotes the mosque in damascus but that also is something entirely new. -Later on a massive 16th century Catholic cathedral is built, the mosque is not destroyed. Christian vandals. The Great Mosque, Cordoba. The minaret bears an elaborate Christian Baroque superstructure. But it was the intrusive chapel inserted into the heart of the structure in 1523 that really disfigured the mosque--Gothic verticality versus Islamic horizontality--and called down the wrath of the Emperor Charles V upon the local clergy. -A typical early style of architecture, the Hypostyle mosque (a forest of columns) arguably the most common style. Employs a new type of arch that we call a HORSESHOE ARCH — The Cordoba mosque used a vocabulary of horse-shoe shaped arches and two-tiered arcades first found at Damascus, and there too Byzantine craftsmen were called in to execute mosaic decoration. probably has its origins in Spanish aqueducts. Aqueducts are great water carrying devices that carried water from one place to another. Many of those aqueducts are still in use today, still functional. Aqueducts have a double feature where one arch is superimposed over another. What it does achieve visually, it opens the space up, makes the space seem much higher. There's another striking visual feature is the use of red brick and white limestone, these dual arcades are so striking visually. -One thing that is mysterious about hypostyle buildings is that it's often hard to figure out where you are, the transept leads directly to the mihrab in a basilica type but in a hypostyle mosque, the gardens lined with fragrant trees, you need something within that space to tell you where to go. That something occurs during one of the next phases of renovation (phase II—gave us the expansion of the courtyard and the inclusion of a minaret) Here we have transplantation that the church tower becomes the minaret of the mosque. -Al-Hakam built 12 more bays or rows of columns were added in the 3rd phase. The space is delineated architecturally and visually by adding a maqsura (although this one wasn't completely closed off) around the mihrab in the late 10th century.

Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba.

Script developed in the 11th century. It became the main script for Qur'ans and for calligraphic development is a smaller, round script of Islamic calligraphy. Naskh is one of the first scripts of Islamic calligraphy to develop, commonly used in writing administrative documents and for transcribing books, including the Qur'an, because of its easy legibility. Naskh was standardized by Ibn Muqla as one of the six primary scripts of Islamic calligraphy in the 10th century CE.

NASHKI

ABBASIDS

Name of second great dynasty of Islam, (r. 750-1258) which wrested power from the Umayyads and claimed descent from the banu 'Abbas. Ruled from Baghdad.

Letter in Judeo-Arabic from Maimonides to raise funds for release of Jewish captives. Location: Cairo, Egypt. Date: Before 1204

OBJECT 41

Location: Cordoba, Spain. Date: 968. THEMES: -The prominent role of the so-called "minor" or decorative arts in Islamic culture / portable luxury items -Female patronage -Princely Cycle -Cordoban ivories, the al-Mughira pyxis, form a perspective of gender and kinship relations within the court hierarchy. It proposes an alternative patron for this object, namely al-Mughira's mother al-Mushtaq, a consort of the Cordoban Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Rahman III (r.929-961) in the latter years of his life, and a patron of architecture. -The article suggests astronomical and astrological possibility for interpreting the pyxis' unusual iconography, which arise from considering al-Mushtaq as a potential patron of the al-Mughira pyxis -Key to the argument is the notion that women in the Cordoban court were 'makers' of art and architecture, in that they could and did exercise author through artistic patronage. -Nevertheless the seemingly unusual combination of court pastimes and agricultural scenes that distinguishes the pyxis' imagery fits well with the astronomical and astrological literature of the caliphal period, including specific works known and recited for Cordoban court audiences. With this in mind it is proposed that the seasonal references in the imagery may have had astrological import that may have been meant to imbue the pyxis with beneficent, possibly talismanic, properties. All of these associations point to the pyxis as an object that acted as a powerful mediating agent in the social dynamics of the court between mother and son, and between al-Mushtaq and her powerful eunuch allies in the court, and between al-Mughīra and the faction that wished him to assert his claim to the throne. ANALYSIS: -AN OBJECT made of elephant ivory. Where does elephant ivory? Africa is a site of incredible wealth and incredible resources in West Africa, a seat of dominant Muslim rulers during this time. This is a precious substance, it's been imported and it's material is resonant and very powerful. What is it? A small ivory container in the shape of a cylinder with a domed lid. Probably the most famous of a group of ivory objects that were made in the Umayyad court, in courtly workshops. Elite objects that were made in a very specific courtly context for courtly consumers. Many different types of this ivory objects. A pyxis is a cylindrical little container, like a jewel box, used to to hold precious substances like myrrh which would have also been traded from very far away. They may have literally been jewel boxes to hold jewelry. Might have held precious letters or correspondence. The USE of these objects is another important contextual clue. FORM: The FORM of the object itself is not necessarily a bearer of meaning here because there are many different forms. The imagery itself is the thing which bears and conveys meaning. Imagery and objects as carriers of meaning. STYLE: These are objects that are very much a part of 10th - 12th century world regardless of your affiliation in the Islamic world, there was a fashion/style for a certain type of ornamentation for Samarra. A sense that there's a shared fashion for certain types of ornament. This type of ornament originates essentially in the East. Vegetal motifs, highly harmonious, geometric schematic production. Ordering and representing the world through geometry. Many other kinds of pyxetes existed such as the Pyxis of al-Subh - 962, commissioned by another competitor for the throne. They were used as currency to advance certain agendas or certain points of views on their patrons. Objects like these may have been making arguments about one person's legitimacy to rule over one person more than the other. Size: They are very SMALL. Ivory has a certain particular sensory quality. Very soft to the touch, has a sheen, delicate, smooth and easy to carve. The intricacy of carving process is even more astonishing. 'ajab: that sense of wonder or astonishment. Refers to a certain kind of aesthetic theory within Islamic art. A work of art or a building that causes astonishment is a very powerful thing. Made expressly to capture and arrest attention. Once your attention has been arrest it stops time and demands your attention in a very careful way and force you to look more slowly and more carefully. An object that contains human and animal forms. Formed out of one continuous piece of interlaced ornament that unites the entire composition visually. A medallion with 8 lobes. A shared visual language. These figures are surrounded by other figures that fill a scrolling vegetal ornament, a carefully controlled lush garden scene. A standing figure with 2 seated figures on either side. The "seated caliph form" because it is typically a royal figure who is seated and often holds a cup, typically of wine. And someone is playing a lute, the predecessor of the guitar. We also have a couple of other figures here, one man is holding a falcon and is dressed in different clothing than the other figures. Representations in the past (Caliph from Khirbet al-Mafjar 724-34 surrounded by lions) that are related to this imagery to represent royalty. Two lions are attacking 2 quadrupeds, a theme that is very very ancient in near eastern art always associated with power, predator conquering the prey, military mind, military power. Very vivid and very intense imagery. -Apotropaic: The idea that mythological characters have a protective quality. An amuletic kind of quality. Two characters that are wrestling with one another. Birds of prey. A man seated on the horse. A quick overview of this object.

Pyxis of al-Mughira.

Location: Cairo, Egypt. Date: 11th c. THEMES: -IMPORTANCE OF "MINOR" PORTABLE COURTLY WORKS -EMBLEMATIC -PRINCLEY -Many of the animals depicted on the ewers have an association with hunting. In addition to falconry, which was very prevalent throughout the Islamic region, cheetahs were kept to assist the hunter, depicted on much later miniatures seated, chained, on the backs of horses behind the rider, waiting for the moment to be set after their prey. Cheetahs from a Fatimid context bearing link-chains are illustrated on the chapel de Sainte Mexme -Rock crystal was believed to be a form of ice, but also to concentrate the sun's rays; the goblets of paradise are from this material -The luxury nature of the craft is emphasized by the technique itself; the ewers, for example, were made by patiently hollowing out a solid block of crystal until he walls had been reduced to extreme thinness. -End up becoming reliquaries for the bones of saints, drops of blood believed to belong to Christ, they were highly coveted. It was thought of as frozen light during the medieval period. Encompassing various properties of matter. Dates to the 11th century. -The cheetah depicted on the other side appears multiplied in every single one of the other spots on the ewer. -In order to carve rock crystal, it is incredibly hard, you have to use a bow drill to carve it. The bow is pulled back and forth very rapidly. In order to do that you need a drill bit made of diamond or sapphire because you need something harder than rock crystal.

Rock Crystal Ewer Depicting Cheetahs

Location: Samarra, Iraq. Date: mid 9th century. THEMES: -Relation between naturalism and abstraction in Islamic art, including vegetal, human, and animal decoration, geometry, Samarra style -Role of Byzantine and Sasanian art in formation of Islamic art: Umayyad art (early Islamic art) uses a lot of Stucco ornamentation, the Sasanians also used a lot of stucco ornamentation—"This is what courtly culture looks like" -Like a poem in architecture. Complete abstraction. Samarra style C is the one that STICKS. This style finds it's way all the way to Spain, to China, shows up in objects like ceramics. -An Islamic aesthetic: all-over decoration. Samarra stucco wall panels, 9th century. Three styles occur contemporaneously, despite differences of conception and technique. -It was at Samarra that Isalmic art came of age, and from taht centre it spread virtually throughout the entire Muslim world, also influencing local Jewish and Christian ar. The new aesthetic is perhaps best expressed by the wall decoration most fashionable in Samarra in palaces and houses alike: polychrome painted stucco, both carved and molded. -Three major styles have been isolated: their chronological order is disputed but their roots in the transformation of classical naturalism and in the two-dimensionality of early Byzantine art is plain. -The third STYLE C: Now moulded, not hand-carved, has a quilted and sculptural quality; its abstract tactile forms are at once suggestive and ambivalent. The third style the decoration is not painstakingly carved by hand but is rapidly applied by moulds in a rigorously abstract bevelled style capable (like wallpaper) of indefinite extension the motifs themselves are more loosely and flowingly arranged, and are more varied--spirals, lobed designs, bottle-shaped forms and other motifs no longer dependent on vegetal life. This style established itself rapidly and was still full of life five centuries later. The labour-saving properties of the moulded beveled style were ideally suited to the mushroom growth of Samarra, and the humble mud-brick of which even the palaces were mostly built was cheaply and effectively disguised by this mass-produced decoration. Its abstraction and its even patterning fitted it for any number of architectural contexts--walls, columns, arches, window grilles--and the 'Samarran style', especially in the beveled technique, soon penetrated the so-called 'minor arts' too. -STYLE A: The first uses a broadly naturalistic classical vocabulary of five-lobed vine leaves and tendrils arranged in rows or circles. STYLE B: The second flattens, abstracts and geometricizes this idiom.

SAMARRA STUCCO STYLE C

Location: Naqsh-i Rustam, Iran. Date: 3rd century. Philip the Arab (a Roman emperor) / Valerian is bending down on one knee before him depicted in a late Roman style in a tunic and pants / Shapur. It's composition is so simple, straightforward and easily legible. In this case this is a very different representation from Justinians mosaic. Shapur depicted himself on horseback and each Sasanian ruler has a different hat/crown, often with a large bulbous protrusion at the top, you can identify them by their crown. The compositional elements are simple geometrical forms. The artist has chosen to make Shapur's great crown break out of the frame of the image, creating a kind of triangle, now a triangular or square-like composition is a very STABLE form. Diagonal composition gives a sense of movement (likely to fall). This composition however gives a sense of stability, a dominant power figure who is dominating the figures on each side.

SASANIAN ROCK RELIEF DEPICTING SHAPUR'S TRIUMP OVER BYZANTINE EMPERORS VALERIAN & PHILIP THE ARAB

ca. mid 5th - mid 6th century CE Location: Iran said to be from Qazvin Sasanian Portrtays the passage of time in a way that may be unexpected to you. A very graphic portrayal of movement and time. It may appear to be a static object but it is in fact quite dynamic. The themes of the Sasanian empire revolve around the pleasures of the court, depict the King feasting, the King as "hunter," hunting is a metaphor for war. These Sasanian images can be traced back to Assyrian kings (such as Ashurbanipal at Nineveh from 645-635 BCE). So the Sasanians, like the Romans, are drawing upon a long lineage of coherent depictions of near eastern kings. Within Zoroastrianism there is a very complex understanding of the ordering of the universe. Dualistic faith: a battleground between the forces of goodnesses and the forces of evil. Zoroastrianism influenced Christianity very strongly, a satan type figure is derived here. Zoroastrianism has a deity like figure (Horumazda) who is in a constant battle with an evil figure. Trying to help the good and trying to vanquish the evil. One of the most virtuous thing you can do is live the best possible life as a a merchant, a carpenter, a ruler. It is your sacred duty to do that. A ruler needed to exemplify this for his subjects. A good King within Zoroastrianism is a just ruler, a feaster, an eater, a great hunter. The Sasanians are understudied in the West although their empire truly rivaled the Romans as equals.

SILVER VESSEL

SASANIAN EMPIRE

The Sasanian Empire ruled the area of Persia (modern Iran) from AD 224-651. The Sasanians were Zoroastrian, an ancient proto-monotheistic faith. At times however the Sasanians managed to capture parts of the Byzantine Empire including Syria and Anatolia. In the East the boundaries were with China and India. They consciously tried to revive the glories of ancient Persian empires such as the Achemenids and the Parthians and saw themselves as belonging to a long line of ancient Persian kings. Capital at Ctesiphon in central Iraq.

Location: Madinat al-Zahra, Spain. Date: 935 Painted stucco red, not brick or limestone. Imitates the red brick at cordoba. Overall decoration was also present in Byzantine/late Antique art and becomes a hallmark of Medieval middle eastern art. A shared visual language, certain styles of ornament. Samarra Style A. Most closely parallels the Samarra Style A. Palmets are present, regularly spaced geometric scrolls, sumptuous, elegant, refined. Style doesn't always align with political objectives. Samarra style was simply the chic fashion that everyone wanted to embrace.

Stucco Ornament, Interior of Salon Rico.

Location: Ctesiphon, near Baghdad, Iraq. Date: Late 3rd century. Example of a massive IWAN (barrel-vaulted hall) 118 feet (10 stories high). This is one of the greatest and it is the largest masonry vaults every built. Once lined with glittering mosaics, a woven tapestry made with gilded thread depicting a spring landscape with precious gemstones sewn into the textile, extremely sumptuous and beautiful when it was built. It hasn't fallen in this earthquake prone region in all these years. Has a catenary (latin word for chain) arch, a parabolic form flipped upwards and a very solid form. The Sasanians figured this out. It is comparable to the Hagia Sophia. The Sasanians use a squinch. Zoroastrianism is about the purity of elements of the earth (fire is one of them) eternal flames burning. columnar forms (hall of 1,0000 columns) at Persepolis. Last element, Sasanian used mosaics but they really excelled at stucco carving. Light, fine grained plaster. These were also brightly painted in a myriad of rainbow colors.

TAQ-I KISRA (PALACE OF KHUSRAU)

Location: Tunisia. Date: Late 9th-early 10th century. Gold on indigo vellum. THEMES: -The prominent role of the so-called "minor" or decorative arts in Islamic culture -Abstraction/calligraphal script to communicate the spiritual, the divine KUFIC: Angular, earliest form of calligraphic script It has been dyed a rich indigo blue color and the calligraphy is pure gold. Represents a very brilliant example of manuscript. A Qur'an like this is extremely expensive to produce and manufacture, the cost of a house -It may have been commissioned by the recently established and fast-rising Fatimid dynasty (909-1171), which would conquer Egypt and Syria and found the city of Cairo. The choice of blue, gold, and silver may represent an attempt to emulate and surpass imperial purple-dyed Byzantine codices in richness, thereby making a powerful political and religious statement. -These portable treasures which often had a curiosity as well as a purely monetary value could serve a political role as diplomatic gifts and as instruments for the display of royal power. -The gold Kufic script unfolds against a background of indigo-dyed vellum. It is the only such Qur'an known . An almost musical sensibility controls the expansions and contractions of the letters, an aesthetic device here carried to its highest point.

THE BLUE QUR'AN

Gold, garnets, rock crystal, glass Location: Iran. Date: 531-579 C.E Zoroastrian sacred ideas about kingship are encapsulated here. This is an object with an incredible story. connection between religion and rulership really being one thing here. No separation of church and state here, obviously. Alternating agency of the object throughout time. Begins as a sacred object, ends up being a trophy amongst the crusaders now it is a museum artifact in France. Zoroastrians light is very important to them, EMANATION, this object reflects and allow light to pour through it. A vanishing point is created because of the diminishing size of the circles, a very deliberate shift of size and scale, looks like it is emanating out from the central figure himself. The cup is a representation of power. Gives you a sense of how fabulous Sasanian crowns were, a winged crown here. Crescent symbol depicted here. The other side of the coin depicts a fire temple. Both the idea of the Sasanian emperors identifying themselves with their past and their sacred kingship here. This idea of sacred kingship is everywhere in the late antique world. The materiality of this object is very much a part of this object's significance. Ruby or emerald or powder dust. Colored glass was very rare and unusual during this time. A ceremonial object, no one ate out of this object ever. Perhaps light showed through it on display. Luxury, ability to control luxurious objects, emanation, light and sacred kingship. Rock crystal sourced from Africa, that's where all rock crystal throughout the medieval middle east was sourced from during that time. Gold is folded and enclosed around the objects. What do we know about the artist? We don't know who made, we can assume it was probably a royal workshop,. probably a direct commission by the ruler. Afterstory: this object was so powerful that even once it lost its original associations it continued to beguil people from far off lands, in Europe. It was clearly associated with a king, people falsely attributed it to King solomon. Had a fantastic other life but still retained a lot of its original ideas about sacred kingship across cultures.

THE KHOSRO CUP (CUP OF SOLOMON)

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

The Roman Empire is called the Byzantine Empire after about the 4th century AD until fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Byzantine Empire was Christian (Greek Orthodox / Eastern Orthodox). At its largest extent it encompassed most of the Mediterranean, Anatolia ( = Turkey), and parts of Syria. Capital at Constantinople (today, Istanbul) in Turkey.

FATIMIDS

They never attempted to actively promote Shi'ism or openly contest the Sunni caliph's right to rule. Fatimids Isma'ili Shi'ite dynasty that ruled from 909-1171. The line of Imams continues through them, according to Isma'ili belief. At their peak the Fatimids captured enormous amounts of territory from the Abbasids, including North Africa, Sicily, Palestine, Syria, and the Red Sea coast of Africa, Arabia, and Yemen. They controlled the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade and, calling themselves "Caliphs", constituted the greatest single challenge to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad.

Location: Damascus, Syria Date: 715. THEMES: -Mosque, Church, or Synagogue architecture, plans: various plans adopted to respond to the needs of congregation, or to create certain visual experiences within the space; changes, innovations over time and in different locales -The propagandistic role of architecture -Role of gardens and water, and the relationship of architecture to the landscape- including the urban landscape -Naturalism and abstraction -The Great Mosque of Damascus, a royal foundation occupying the most public and hallowed site in its city. Here too its topographic dominance has clear political overtones. It too is of impressive size and splendour and uses Qur'anic inscriptions for proselytizing purposes. The caliph al-Walid I purchased the entire site, comprising the walled enclosure of the temple of Jupiter Damascenus and the Christian church of St. John the Baptist within it, and forthwith demolished that church and every other structure within the walls. The revered model of the Prophet's house in Medina--the primordial mosque of Islam--as refined by slightly later mosques built in the garrison cities of Iraq and elsewhere, seems to have inspired much of what now followed. An open courtyard filled most of the rectangle created by this wholesale demolition, with the covered sanctuary of the mosque on its long south side. Yet this arrangement is not entirely Muslim. It boldly recast the standard components of a typical Christian to secure a new lateral emphasis in keeping with the needs of Islamic worships. Prototye for the HYPOSTYLE (many pillared) mosque-type One of the earliest mosques built is Islam, but doesn't follow the hypostyle precisely. The courtyard and the covered space is there, but once you go inside you see something quite different, you see an order where the pillars create 3 long aisles and the inspiration for this form is in an earlier type of building (the basilica, which had been adopted by early christians as the original church) and it directly imitates it. The mosque has taken the basilica and flipped it on its side, the wall is angled towards the direction of Mecca, Qiblah. The Qiblah is marked in a little niche so that you can orient yourself in the building. A transept, gives you a focal orienting point that visually it must be the most important part of the mosque. Build on the site of the Roman Temple of Jupiter in Damascus. One of the 3 largest temples in the Roman Empire. Medieval plan superimposed over Roman city city plan. Muslims built directly inside the old cella of the Roman temple. You pass under ancient Roman columns to get to the mosque. A TEMPLE BECOMES A CHURCH: Byzantine Basilica of St. John the Baptist at Damascus 391 was built in the same place before the mosque and after the Roman Temple of Jupiter — it was believed that St. John the Baptist's head was buried there. St. John the Baptist is also revered in Islam. MOSAICS: Transept and dome viewed across the courtyard through the north door in 2010. Umayyad mosque Damascus. The mosaics of this mosque. ICONOGRAPHY: View looking toward that transept and the dome, a little structure in front of us called a "treasury" a repository for documents—a place where you stash documents. This cache of documents was preserved for many, many centuries. The materiality of mosaics are literally the most expensive medium, so costly. Mosaics are the imperial language of luxury. This structure of the building itself is interesting to think about, because it's a mosque but it so closely resembles the mosaic from Ravenna Italy that depicts a palatial structure; Palace of Theodoric. WHY BUILD SUCH A LAVISH MOSQUE?: Historian al-Muqaddasi tells of his uncle's reply. Many people did not appreciate this mosque, they felt it was trying to be Christian or Roman, that it went against the principles of Islam. But his Uncle spoke along these lines, there was the importance of behaving like an Empire once you become one. Embracing the imperial traditions of the Byzantines and the Sasanians. Mosaics of the western wall of the courtyard, Umayyad Mosque, Damascus. The mosaic inscriptions were eventually lost, but the mosaics are left. We're left with a mystical, magical world. Extraordinary palatial buildings. The unnatural quality of these mosaics. What can you achieve by playing with perspective? The mosaics on the western wall of the courtyard of the Umayyad mosque Damascus AD 713 very much so mirror that of the Villa Boscoreale Pompeii 1st century AD, wall paintings in the Roman Villa. The ability to actually use these tools to read these objects and read these images.

UMAYYAD MOSQUE, aerial view and view of transept from courtyard

Spanish Umayyads

r. 711 - 1031 : In 711, less than a century after the birth of Islam, an army of Arabs and Berbers serving the Umayyad caliphs of Damascus (in Syria) landed in the Iberian Peninsula, ushering in a new phase of art and culture in the region. Andalusian Arabs looked down the ends of their noses at their northern European neighbors, whom they deemed uncivilized and boorish. One commentator wrote that the temperament of the northerners, like their climate, was "cold, and their humours rude, while their bodies have grown large, their complexion light and their hair long. They lack withal the sharpness of wit and penetration of intellect, while stupidity and folly prevail among them." Philip Hitti, A History of the Arabs, tenth edition (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1970) p. 526. The city of Granada fell to the Christians in 1236 after which it went into a steep decline. The mosque was gradually converted into a church, and even the local Christians resisted destroying it altogether to create a new church. The most severe changes took place under Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain after taking it from the Arabs, in 1523, who, while inspecting the renovations, remarked to the priests in charge: "You have built what you or others might have built anywhere...but you have destroyed something that was unique in the world."