AL-ANDALUS: THE ART OF ISLAMIC SPAIN

INTRODUCTION

Andalusia has been focus of civilization and scene of a millenarian history of

coexistence among cultures.

Spain has a history of invaders: Phoenicians (800BC)-Greeks (640BC)-

coexisting with Tartessos- then Romans (206BC-stayed for 700 years)-
Visigoths (416-711)- Moors (711-1492)

The Islamic rule in Al-Andalus spanned some eight centuries (711 – 1492),
and left a lasting legacy in science and humanities, in art and culture, and
obviously, in the memory of stone.

PERIOD OF THE UMAYYADS (771-1031)

In 711 an army of Arabs and Berbers unified by the protection of the Islamic
Caliphate landed on the Iberian peninsula crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.
Through diplomacy and warfare, they brought the entire peninsula (except for
Asturias and Galicia in the far north) under Islamic control in 7 years.

The Muslims called the new Islamic land Al-Andalus (it means land of
Vandals. Their territories were administered by a provincial government
established in the name of the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus and centred
in Cordoba.

The Umayyad caliphate of Damascus was overthrown by the Abbasids in 750

moving the capital to Baghdad by murdering all their princes, but the last
surviving member fled to Spain and established himself as Ab-Al-Rahman I.
He made Cordoba his capital and unified Al-Andalus under his rule with the
northern Christian kingdoms, North Africa, and the Byzantine Empire and
maintaining cultural contact with the Abbasids in Baghdad.

The initial construction of the Great Mosque of Cordoba under his patronage
was the crowning achievement of this formative period of Hispano-Islamic art
and architecture. The Great Mezquita of Córdoba was founded by Ab-al-
Rahman I in AD 785 and underwent major extensions under his successors
Ab-al-Rahman II in the first half of the 9th Century, Al-Hakim II in the 960s and
Al-Mansur in the 970s.

Abd al-Rahman III reclaimed the Ummayads’ right to the caliphate, declaring
himself caliph (direct descendant of the phophet) in 929.

In AD 936 Abd ar-Rahman III built himself a new capital just west of Córdoba.
Medina Azahara, named after his favourite wife, Azahara, was planned as a
royal residence, palace and seat of government, set away from the noise of
the city in the same manner as the Abbasid royal city of Samarra, north of
Baghdad. Its chief architect was Abd ar-Rahman III’s son, Al-Hakim II, who
later embellished the Córdoba Mezquita so superbly.

The period of the Caliphate is seen as the golden age of Al-Andalus. Crops
produced using irrigation, along with food imported from the Middle East,
provided the area around Córdoba and some other Andalusí cities with an
agricultural economic sector by far the most advanced in Europe. Among
European cities, Córdoba under the Caliphate, with a population of perhaps
500,000, eventually overtook Constantinople as the largest and most
prosperous city in Europe.

Within the Islamic world, Córdoba was one of the leading cultural centres. The
work of its most important philosophers and scientists (notably Abulcasis and
Averroes) had a major influence on the intellectual life of medieval Europe.
Muslims and non-Muslims often came from abroad to study in the famous
libraries and universities of al-Andalus after the reconquest of Toledo in 1085.
The most noted of these was Michael Scot (c. 1175 to c. 1235), who took the
works of Ibn Rushd ("Averroes") and Ibn Sina ("Avicenna") to Italy. This
transmission was to have a significant impact on the formation of the
European Renaissance.

In the X century, Cordoba had the world’s second largest library in the whole
world (after Baghdad), had hundreds of public hammans and mosques, tens
of hospitals, and had its streets paved, lit and guarded at night.

ART ELEMENTS

- Art periods during Islam invasion: Romanesque-Gothic-Renaissance.

Islamic architecture in the Iberian is the outcome of the synthesis of Visigothic
elements, with Byzantine and Germanic features and also with a strong
roman legacy and other elements brought by the Muslims from the East.

1. Horseshoe arch:

This was what became almost the hallmark of Spanish Islamic architecture –
the horseshoe arch – so called because it narrows at the bottom like a
horseshoe, rather than being a simple semicircle.

The Great Mosque is most notable for its arcaded hypostyle hall, with 856
columns of jasper, onyx, marble, granite and porphyry. These were made
from pieces of the Roman temple that had occupied the site previously. The
double arches were an innovation, permitting higher ceilings than would
otherwise be possible with relatively low columns. The double arches consist
of a lower horseshoe arch and an upper semi-circular arch.

2. Lobed or multi-foil arch.

3. Islamic decorative motifs:

Islamic monotheism condemns the worshiping of idols. Therefore, to express
the invisible, the divine reason, the conceptual order of the Universe in the
mosques the decorative grammar was used in which figuration (animals or
people) is absent.

The decoration is:

-geometric: polygons, stars, combined shapes…

-epigraphic (inscriptions from the Koran)

-stylised floral and vegetal decoration: ataurique in Spanish, Arabesque in

English. The origin of this comes from abstracting the grapevines and
acanthus leaves from Roman tradition.

The materials they used were poor: plaster, bricks and ceramics: Nothing is
eternal, only Allah remains.

Brickwork in relief was also used as a form of ornamentation and the

alternating of red and white brick keystones were common in arches as were
the blind arcades over doors.

5. Caliphal dome: whose ribs don’t meet in the centre. Compare with
Christian domes.

6. Artesonado: wood ceiling.

7. Main parts of the Great Mosque:

Minaret. Its official purpose was calling people for prayer (5 times a day) and
its shape was in form of a tower joint to the Mosque. The earlier and primitive
minarets were square and then minarets in shape of spiral were introduced.

Mihrab. It consists of a niche, normally concave and situated in a wall of the

Mosque towards the Mecca. In Córdoba the Mihrab is the whole room. Its
main reason is to point out to the Mecca. It commemorates the presence of
the Prophet Muhammad since he used to place himself in that place to
address the worshippers.

Maqsurah. Espace reserved to the Prince close to the Mihrab. It is only

present in the mosques of Damascus and Córdoba.

TAIFA KINGDOMS (1031-1086)

The Umayyad caliphate collapsed during a civil war. Al-Andalus then broke up
into a number of mostly independent states called Taifas. These were
generally too weak to defend themselves against repeated raids and
demands for tribute from the Christian states to the north and west.
Alcazaba in Málaga and Almería.
ALMORAVIDS AND ALMOADS (1088-1232)

They came from North Africa and were ethnically more Berbers than Arabs.
The Almoravids assumed control of al-Andalus in 1090 while maintaining
their primary seat of government in Marrakesh.
Repudiating the lack of piety and what they considered the decadence of the
Taifa Kings, they disdained as well the opulent Arts of the Spanish Muslims.
Although they began sponsoring austere programs of architectural decoration
the next dynasty the Almohads succumbed to the luxury culture of Al-Andalus.
Example of this more austere and rigorous style and the use of
schematization of ornaments and the use geometric design can be seen in la
Giralda and Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold).

Giralda: mosque in Seville´s minaret. The mosque was destroyed to build the
actual gothic cathedral. It´s main feature is the decoration of the four sides
with diamond or rhombus. This is called sebka decoration or motifs. Giralda
means ¨Weather Vane¨.

NASRID KINGDOM (1238-1492)

Founded by Muhammad I of Arjona, the Nasrid dynasty ruled Granada and

neighbouring, Jaén, Almería and Málaga in Southern Spain.

One Muslim state – Granada – was able to escape conquest by Christians in

the 1200s. After the fall of Cordoba in 1236, the rulers of the Emirate of
Granada signed a special agreement with the Kingdom of Castile, one of the
most powerful Christian kingdoms. Granada had agreed to become a
tributary state to Castile. This meant they were allowed to remain
independent as the Emirate of Granada, but in exchange for not being
invaded by Castile, they had to pay a yearly sum (usually in gold) to the
Castilian monarchy. This created a detrimental situation for the Muslims of
Granada as they paid regularly to strengthen their enemies.

Despite this, one of the reasons Granada was able to maintain its
independence was its geography. It lies high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
of Southern Spain. The mountains created a natural barrier for any invading
armies. Thus, despite being militarily weaker than Castile, the mountainous
terrain provided a huge defensive advantage.

During the XIV century the Nasrid sultans dedicated themselves to the
decoration of their splendid palaces. The Alhambra in Granada, the last major
Islamic monument, was their greatest work. Alhambra means “red castle”
because of the red color of the walls. It was divided into three independent
centres: the military alcazaba, the royal palaces and the autonomous city, with
narrow streets where the most important people of the courts were living,
mosques, cementeries, public baths, etc.
Most important sultans were Yusuf I. Torre de Comares and Muhammad V
orders the construction of the Patio de Los Leones (Court of Lions). He was
friend with his ally Christian King Don Pedro. He sent some of his artisans and
workers from Granada to build the Reales Alcazares in Seville.

Severe political crisis en the Maghrib (North Africa) in the XV century,

combined with the union of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon
(insert image), whose mission was the expulsion of the Muslims from the
Iberian peninsula, proved the downfall of the Nasrids. The last ruler,
Muhammad XII (called Boabdil by Spanish historians) was exiled to the
Maghrib in 1492.

Nasrid elements:

1. Muqarna: mocárabe.

2. Muqarna and Arabesque capital.

3. Devotion to water and vegetation. Generalife gardens.

MUDÉJAR STYLE (XI to XV gradual Reconquest).

The Mudéjar art is a style native and unique to the history of Spain. It was a
symbiosis of techniques resulting as a meeting point between Christianity and
Islam.

The term Mudéjar refers to the Musims who continued to practise their religión
and their customs in the territories that became part of Christian dominions as
the Reconquest advanced into southern Spain. Mudéjar comes from the arab
Word ¨mudayyan¨which means ¨those who were allowed to stay¨.

It came into being and flourished thanks to the social phenomenon

represented by the climate of peaceful coexistence between three cultures:
Christian, Muslim and Jewish.

It is characterised by the use of brick as the main material, in particular

for Bell towers. Mudéjar did not involve the creation of new shapes or
structures, unlike Gothic or Romanesque, but applied the elements of Islamic
art and architecture to medieval Christian architecture. Such Islamic
influences included ancient Arabic calligraphic scripts.
The dominant geometrical character, distinctly Islamic, emerged
conspicuously in the crafts: elaborate tilework, brickwork, wood
carving, plasterwork, and ornamental metals. To enliven the surfaces of wall
and floor, Mudéjar style developed complicated tiling patterns. Even after
Muslims were no longer employed in architecture, many of the elements they
had introduced continued to be incorporated into Spanish architecture, giving
it a distinctive appearance.