CHAPTER 6 Central Islamic Lands For reasons provided in the Prologue to Part II of this vol- ‘ume, the presentation of the medieval arts in central Islamic lands has been divided into two sections. ‘The first section deals with the rule of the dynasty, which began in Ifrigiya (present-day Tunisia) around go8, moved its capital to Egypt in 969 under the leadership of the brilliant caliph al-Mu'izz, and ruled from there an area of shifting frontiers which, at its time of great- est expanse, extended from central Algeria to northern Syria, the middle Euphrates valley, and the holy places of Arabia. Its very diminished authority, affected by internal dissensions and by the Crusades, was eliminated by Saladin in 1171. The dynasties dependent on them vanished from North Africa by 1159, while Sicily had been conquered by the Normans in 1071 “The second section focuses on the art of the whole area in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (at least until 1260), but only on its eastern part, essentially the Mesopotamian val- ley, in the eleventh. Several interlocking dynasties were involved in struggles and competitions which were as con- stant as they are difficult to describe and to recall. The lands of Iraq, the Jazira, Syria, Anatolia, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, and Yemen were a mosaic of feudal rules enriched by the overall prosperity of the area, much involved in the elimina- tion of the Crusaders’ states, and largely committed to the revival of Sunnism and the destruction of what they consid- ered to be a Shi'ite heresy. Although ideological opponents of the Fatimids, these feudal rulers shared with them both taste and material culture, and the visual distinctions between the arts of the two realms is not always easy to demonstrate. timid PART 1 The Fasimids in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria The arts of this period of some 250 years are difficult to define on account of regional differences and of the growing complexity of Fatimid contaets with the rest of the Muslim world, the Christian West, Byzantium, and even India and China. The Fatimid era is North African, Egyptian, Syrian, and Arabian; but itis also Mediterranean and pan-Islamic. Politically, and in many ways culturally and artistically, Fatimid power and wealth were at their highest before the middle of the eleventh century. Shortly after 1050, however, in the middle of the long reign of the caliph al-Mustansir (1036-94), financial difficulties, famines, droughts, and social unrest led to two decades of internal confusion out of which order was not re-established until the 1070s. At the same time, in North Africa, an attempt by local Berber dynasties to shake off Shi‘te allegiance led to a new invasion by Arab tribesmen and to a thorough change of economic 288. Mahdiya, founded g12, mosque, interior and political structure,* as Tunisia and western Algeria lost much of their agricultural wealth and entered by the twelfth century into a western rather than eastern Islamic and Mediterranean cultural sphere. During the last century of their existence the Fatimids controlled hardly anything but Egypt. Whether the major changes in Islamic art which they had earlier set in motion were the result of their own, Mediterranean, contacts with the classical tradition or ofthe upheavals which, especially in the eleventh century, affected the whole eastern Muslim world remains an open question ARCHITECTURE AND ARGHITECTURAL Decoration? NORTH AFRICA The Fatimids founded their first capital at Mahdiyya on the eastern coast of Tunisia,* Not much has remained of its superb walls and gates or its artificial harbour, but surveys and early descriptions have allowed the reconstruction of a ‘magnificent gate decorated on both sides with lions, of parts of the harbour, and of a long hall or covered street similar to those already found at Baghdad, Ukhaydir, and even ‘Mshatta.* The parts of the palace so far excavated” have yielded two features of interest [286]. First, there was a curi- ‘ous entrance complex, consisting of a triple gate, its centre et out within a large rectangular tower. As one proceeds inwards, however, this gate ends in a blank wall. Two narrow halls on each side of the central axis lead into the court; the side entrances, on the other hand, proceed directly into the interior. The purpose of this odd arrangement could hardly be defensive; perhaps the four entries were to accommodate some of the extensive processions which, at least in later times, characterized Fatimid court life.’ Second, we cannot determine whether the decoration of some of the rooms with geometric floor mosaics sprang from memories, of Umayyad palaces or imitated the many pre-Islamic mosaics of Tunisia ‘A much restored mosque also remains from Fatimid Mahdiyya [287, 288]." It was initially a rectangular 286, Mahdiya, founded 912, pales, plan Look Ju ee188 - MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE, 281. Mahia, founded hypostyle with a covered hall of prayer consisting of nine naves at right angles to the gibla. An axial nave led to a dome in front of the mikrab, and a portico in front of the covered hall served as a transition between open and covered areas and as part ofa court with four porticoes. But the most sig nificant novelty is the monumental fagade, involving the whole of the north western wall of the mosque. It consists of two massive salients at each corner, which emphasize and control the limits of the building, and three symmetrically am 289. Sabra al Mansuriy, throne room Q tom arranged gates, the central one set within another salient decorated with niches. This earliest known instance of a composed mosque fagade gives a sense of unity not only to the outer wall but also to the building as a whole. Its origins should probably be sought in royal palace architecture, where such compositions were known as early as the Umayyad period. From the second capital built by the Fatimids in North Africa, Sabra-al-Mansuriyya near Qayrawan, we know so far only of a very remarkable throne room [289] which com- bines the eastern ivan with the characteristic western Islamic unit of ewo long halls at right angles to each other “The last two major monuments from North Africa to be attributed to the Fatimid cultural sphere are (if we except certain minor utilitarian structures) rarities in that geo- graphical area. The first is the palace of Ashir, in central Algeria, where, under Fatimid patronage, the Zirid dynasty founded a capital around 947." It is a rectangle (72 by 40 metres) with towers of varying sizes [290]. The single outer gate of the complex is transformed into two entrances into the palace proper. On one side of the court isa portico. The presumed throne-room complex comprises a long hall with 290. Ashir, founded 947, plac, plan291, Qul's ofthe Beni Hammad, begun «1010, plan 252. Qul't ofthe Beni Hammad, begun £1010, three entrances and a squarish room extending beyond the outer line of the wall and no doubt dominating the land- scape. On each side of the central official unit, lining a court- yard, are two residential buildings consisting mostly of long halls. This symmetrical organization of living quarters around official areas recalls Mshatta or Qasr al-Hayr rather than the sprawling royal cities of Samarra and Madinat al- ihra. Moreover, the palace is remarkable for its great sim plicity: limited design, no columns, probably simple vaults, and very limited applied decoration. Though but a pale reflection of the architecture created on the Tunisian coast, Ashir is nevertheless precious for the completeness and preservation ofits plan ‘The second monument is the Qala of the Beni Hammad [291] in central Algeria, begun around 1007 by a Berber dynasty related by blood to the Zirids and also under the cultural impact of the Fatimid centres of Tunisia." It was a ‘whole city, with an immense royal compound comprising a huge tower with pavilions at the top [292], a complex of buildings crowded around a large (67 by 47 metres) artificial pool in which nautical spectacles took place, a bath, a mosque with a superb magsura, and a series of individual houses and palaces. Neither the chronology nor the ceremo: nial or symbolic meaning of these buildings is clear, typo- logically, however, the Qal'a belongs to the succession of Samarra’s or Madinat al-Zabra’s sprawling ensembles, but with the emphasis on a setting for leisure and pleasure. A celebrated poem describing a lost palace of the eleventh cen- tury in Bijaya (Bougie) in present-day Algeria elaborates on this luxury and describes an imagery charged with heavenly and secular topics." It was possibly this ideal of luxury that inspired the twelfth-century architecture of the Norman ings of Sicily, about which more will be said in Chapter 8. ‘One group of fragments of unusual importance from the Qa'a of the Beni Hammad is a series of long ceramic paral: lelepipeds with grooves at one end; they must have pro- jected unevenly from a ceiling or a cornice, looking like stalactites of a particularly unusual kind [452)." Other plas- ter fragments were certainly more typical mugarnas transi- tions. The origin and inspiration of these features is still unresolved. They could have been local inventions or, a more likely hypothesis, local interpretations of forms and CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS. 189