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Abstract
Muqarnas consists of the juxtaposition of prisms suspended from domes, arches or cornices. This decorative element was used in architecture; it probably originated in what today is Iraq and expanded over the fifth/eleventh century onwards. This study seeks to contribute to the study of the history of muqarnas by exploring how exchanges between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula mediated the circulation and use of this element. Torres Balbás considered that the Almohads (454–541/1062–1147) introduced muqarnas in al-Andalus. However, we know, now thanks to the Andalusi geographer al-ʽUdhrī (393–478/1003–85), that the term muqarnas was mentioned in documents related to the Ṭā’ifa of Almeria already in the second half of the fifth/eleventh century. Such documentary reference makes it possible to verify its presence in southern al-Andalus prior to its appearance in Almohad buildings. The contention of this paper is that in order to understand the introduction of muqarnas decoration into al-Andalus, it is first necessary to look at the presence and use of this decorative style in North Africa. An earlier occurrence was probable and possible due to exchanges between Almeria and North African ports, more specifically due to the presence of artists coming from Qalʽat Banī Ḥammād (397–547/1007–1152), in today's Algeria near Maadid, where the oldest use of muqarnas in North Africa has been documented.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Fonds Lucien Golvin for : © Fonds Lucien Golvin, Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme, AMU Aix-en-Provence, France. Likewise, to Koninklijke Brill NV for : Encyclopedia of Islam. 2nd ed., 500–501. Leiden: Brill (VII). Also, many thanks to The Art Archive/Museum of Islamic Art Cairo/Gianni Dagli Orti for Figure 3: © The Art Archive/Museum of Islamic Art Cairo/Gianni Dagli Orti. Ref: AA365221. Finally, my special thanks to Dr Miriam Ali de Unzaga and Dr Adam Gaiser, for their assistance in publishing this paper.
Notes
1 This work was widely studied by Prieto y Vives (Citation1977). A facsimile edition was published in 1966 and more recently in 1997.
2 Mocárabes is the Spanish translation of the term muqarbaṣ. According to Fernández-Puertas:
Muḳarbaṣ or Muḳarbas (a.), a term denoting a technique of architectural craftsmanship used in the Mediaeval Muslim West [...] the verb ḳarbaṣa/ḳarbasa (of which the term would be a passive participle) derives from the Greek κρηπίѕ ‘base, plinth, foundation’. The artistic technique which developed as mocárabe is defined in the Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua as ‘work formed by a geometric combination of interlocking prisms, externally cut in concave surfaces and used as decoration in vaults, cornices, etc.’ It forms a counterpart to, but is different in execution from, the muḳarnas technique [q.v.] of the Muslim central and eastern lands. (1993)
3 It is also found in other surviving buildings not only in Baghdad – such as the sixth/twelfth-century Shrines of Zumurrud Khātūn and the eighth/fourteenth-century Mausoleum of al-Shaykh ‘Umar al-Suharawardī – but also in other cities; examples include the Mausoleum of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in the city of Basra, dating from the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century, and the eighth/fourteenth-century Mausoleum of Dhu'l-Kifl in the town of al-Kifl (Janabi Citation1982). Likewise, archaeological excavations at the old Caliphal palace in Baghdad have unearthed fragments of domes including elements that appear to have been placed in the transition zone.
4 It seems likely that by the time the Saljūqids (431/1040–590/1194) arrived in north-eastern Iran, the development of muqarnas had been stopped at an early stage (used only for squinches); this would have influenced the domes of the Mosque at Isfahan. But the Saljūqids must also have been familiar with other buildings in which muqarnas cells were used for structures other than domes, and this may have prompted them to use muqarnas for other surfaces, such as cornices.
5 Creswell suggested that the presence of this three-part pendentive in Aswan reflects a North African influence, and more specifically the direct influence of contemporary Coptic architecture. His theory is based on the finding of early examples in the Coptic Church of Abu al-Sayfayn in Old Cairo.
6 Then, there is the cornice decorated with muqarnas on the minaret of the Mosque of the vizier Badr al-Jamālī (477/1085). Finally, from the same period, it remains an outstanding window with a lintel, decorated in its upper part with two rows of muqarnas, located on the northern section of the Cairo wall, a vestige of the walled enclosure built on the orders of Badr al-Jamālī in 479/1087.
7 In the works sponsored by Badr al-Jamālī, there is a direct relation with Syria since he was previously governor of Damascus (Al-Imad Citation1990, 98).
8 An example is the ʽAbbāsid decoration in Samarra, used in one of the prayer niches (miḥrāb) of the Ṭūlūnid Mosque of the old city of Fusṭāṭ (262/876–265/879) (Behrens-Abouseif Citation1989, 56–57; Bloom Citation1993, 22).
9 Under the Almoravids (al-Murābiṭūn 454–541/1062–1147), the technique saw enormous growth, as can be seen for example in the muqarnas vaults of the Qarawiyyīn Mosque in Fez (528–36/1134–42) (Marçais Citation1954, 195; Golvin Citation1970, 156). With the Almohads (al-Muwaḥḥidūn r. in al-Andalus 541–646/1146–1248), muqarnas vaults are still the ceiling of choice for covering the most important spaces in both civil and religious architecture, as we can deduce from the surviving examples. However, it was with the Marīnids (614–869/1271–465) and the Ḥafṣids (627–982/1229–574) that this type of decoration achieved a pinnacle of extraordinary Baroque mastery as can be seen, for example, in the patio of the al-ʽAṭṭārīn Madrasa in Fez (723–25/1323–25) and in the Mosque of Abū Zakariyyā' in Tunis, from the Marīnid and Ḥafṣid periods, respectively.
10 De Beylié explains the presence of this half-cupola by the junction of the external walls of the palace, which had buttresses separated by deep concave mouldings. These would terminate in semi-cupolas decorated with muqarnas. This fragmentation of the wall is reminiscent of the palaces built in ancient Mesopotamia, which although are two different points in time, allows to relate it to the Qalʽa.
11 ʽAbd al-Raḥmān III's territorial reorganisation resulted in the foundation of a new city in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula in the year 343/955 with the name of al-Mariyya (Almeria). In a short time, the city became prosperous. From its alcazaba, the caliph ensured the commercial and military expansion of al-Andalus into the ports of the Maghrib, and also thwarted the advance of the Fāṭimids from Ifrīqiya (Molina López Citation1995, 112).
12 Nothing remains of the palaces of al-Muʽtaṣim, due to the effects of various earthquakes such as those of 900/1495, 928/1522 and 957/1550. The archaeological strata containing the remains of these fifth/eleventh-century palaces lie beneath the levels making up the archaeological remains of buildings from the eighth/fourteenth, ninth/fifteenth and tenth/sixteenth centuries.
13 Bosch Vila (1977, 143)
[ … ] en castellano, la voz muqarnas, en su forma dialectal hispanoárabe o andalusí muqarbaṣ, ha encontrado la forma ‘mocárabes’, también traducida por estalactitas, para expresar cierto tipo de ornamentación de bóvedas, cúpulas, cornisas, trompas, techumbres, pechinas, frisos, capiteles, nichos u hornacinas, aliceres etc.
(the term muqarnas, which in its hispano-arabic or andalusi dialect is used as ‘muqarbas’, is translated into Spanish as ‘mocárabes’, also translated as stalactites in order to describe an specific kind of decoration found in domes, vaults, cornices, cantilevered vaults, roofs, pendentives, friezes, capitals, niches, aliceres, etc). Despite the fact that al-ʽUdhrī employed the term muqarnas and not muqarbas, most Spanish scholars use the word mocárabe to translate it. The complex reasons that explain the current usage of these terms are beyond the scope of this paper.
14 Without forgetting the Syrian merchants who maintained trading relations with al-Andalus by way of the North Africa coast (Sālim Citation1995, 141).
15 For example, see the ʽAbbāsid decoration in Samarra, which, it has been argued, was used in the roofs of the extension of the Mosque of Cordoba by the Caliph al-Ḥakam II (350–65/961–76) in the middle of the fourth/tenth century (Hernández Citation1928, 191–225; Pavón Citation1968, 36; Cabañero Subiza and Herrera Ontañón 2001, 257–283). Hence there is also the possibility that muqarnas arrived in al-Andalus via direct exchanges with Egypt. This point is beyond the scope of this paper.
16 My most sincere thanks to the archaeologist Alfonso Robles, who allowed me to study these remains of muqarnas in situ.
17 Another possibility is that the use of muqarnas in the Mardanīshī period may have been a continuation of the artistic conventions used by the Almoravids. It is also possible to consider the exchanges coming from North Africa, the eastern Islamic lands or even from Norman Sicily. This point deserves its own study, separate from what is proposed in this paper. For information about muqarnas in Palermo, see Knipp (Citation2011) and Garofalo (Citation2010).
18 According to Dokmak, muqarnas decoration was introduced into al-Andalus from the Mashriq, and then from al-Andalus it was introduced to Morocco thanks to the craftsmen employed by the Almoravid governors in Morocco, and also to the Andalusis who immigrated to Morocco in the Almoravid period. Dokmak bases this on the oldest muqarnas domes surviving in Morocco, such as that of the Qubbat al-Barūdiyyīn of Marrakech (built between the years 514–24/1120–30) and the vaults of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez (528–36/1134–42); these vaults of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque must have developed from a pre-existing muqarnas decoration, since they are of a very advanced style (see Tabbaa Citation2008 on the Qubbat al-Barūdiyyīn).
19 Mudejar art is understood as Christian art using elements proceeding from Islamic art generally employing brickwork, ceramics, wood and plaster.