An Outline Opf Shiftin

The Smithsonian Institution
An Outline of Shifting Paradigms in the Palatial Architecture of the Pre-Modern Islamic

World
Author(s): Gülru Necipoğlu
Source: Ars Orientalis, Vol. 23, Pre-Modern Islamic Palaces (1993), pp. 3-24
Published by: Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the
History of Art, University of Michigan
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629439
Accessed: 18-05-2022 20:00 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
The Smithsonian Institution is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Ars Orientalis
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.41 on Wed, 18 May 2022 20:00:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
AN OUTLINE OF SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN THE PALATIAL
ARCHITECTURE OF THE PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC WORLD
BY GULRU NECIPO0LU
THE PALACES SYMPOSIUM HELD AT HARvARD ON MAY 1 5- recently the modern era has almost entirely been
16, 1992, had as its aim, not completely to cover ignored in the canonical scholarship as even less
every known palace from the pre-modern Islamic worthy of study than the "later Islamic" period
world, but rather to focus on some examples that extending from the mid thirteenth to the eigh-
have recently attracted scholarly attention.' Since teenth century. The scarcity of studies on nine-
the monuments discussed in this volume are teenth- and twentieth-century palaces has conse-
spread over many centuries and regions, no at- quently limited the scope of this volume to the
tempthas been made to impose a common theme pre-modern era.3
or mode of analysis. Instead the papers, which The stereotyping of Islamic architecture as a
deal primarily, though not exclusively, with royal static tradition also obscured the significant par-
palaces, address a wide variety of issues raised by adigmatic shifts over time by encouraging the
a specific building type. taxonomic classification of building types accord-
A collection of papers on palace architecture is ing to formal, chronological, and geographical
valuable because thus far Islamic architectural criteria with little attention to contextual mean-
history has been dominated by research on reli- ings, intertextual allusions, and cross-regional
gious monuments. This is understandable, given synchronic patterns. "Difference" was downplayed
the small number of palatial structures that have to highlight unity, thereby denying historical
survived. As competing symbols of power, royal change to the visual culture (s) of the Islamic
palaces were often abandoned or destroyed by lands. Until quite recently a symposium on
successive dynasties, unlike religious public mon- palaces would have centered on the question of
uments that generally continued in use after what makes a palace or a group of palaces "Islam-
undergoing modifications to accommodate sec- ic," a question likely to generate a list of shared
tarian differences. The emphasis on religious elements regardless of context. Today the search
architecture in scholarship also stems from the has shifted from identifying such unifying com-
traditional view that the visual and material cul- mon denominators to interpreting the nuances
ture of the Muslim world was primarily shaped by of their differing syntactic combinations in spe-
religion, a view reflected in the use of the proW cific settings.
lematic term "Islamic" in qualifying art and archi- The way in which the papers in this volume
tecture. The symposium papers reveal the limits have been ordered accentuates changes in pala-
of that view by exposing a palatial world of dynas- tial paradigms without losing sight of longue durie
tic ideology, fantasy, and desire whose horizons, patterns, some of which had pre-Islamic origins.
often rooted in pre-Islamic precedents, refused The ancient Near Eastern and late-antique Med-
to be bound by religious culture. iterranean palaces covered in part 1 are followed
Nineteenth-century Orientalists who believed by a chronological sequence of papers on palaces
in the timeless unity of Islamic art and architec- from the Islamic world, grouped in terms of four
ture (a belief echoed in some recent scholarship) distinctive palatine paradigms corresponding to
constructed the notion of a monolithic Islamic changing conceptions of the state and images of
visual tradition composed of archetypal elements sovereignty. The first two are dealt with in part 2,
recycled in various combinations over the ages in the third in part 3, and the last one in part 4.4 I will
different regional idioms until their final "degen- here briefly comment on the individual papers,
eration" in the Western-influenced modern era. sketching some of the broader historical patterns
As a result, Islamic architectural history has tend- into which they fit, and introducing relevant
ed to concentrate on the early medieval period, background information not covered in the vol-
regarding subsequent developments as derivative ume itself to develop a fuller picture of the four
rather than as reflecting a dynamic capacity for paradigms.
change and innovation.2 That is why until quite Winter's sur-vey of ancient Near Eastern palaces
4 GULRU NECIPOGLU
from the Early Dynastic through the Achaemenid Sasanian monuments influenced early Islamic
periods analyzes the morphology, building tech- palaces.
nology, decorative programs, and functions of The reuse of some Sasanian palaces in the
Mesopotamian palaces together with their possi- Islamic era may provide the missing link. As Bier
ble contributions to Islamic ones. It shows that acknowledges, the palaces in Firuzabad (Gur)
the horizontal spatial division of royal palaces and Bishapur were occupied during the Islamic
into inner residential (bitanu) and outer admin- period, and the Ilkhanid palace at Takht-i Sulay-
istrative (bbibanu) courtyards (reminiscent of the man (discussed by Blair) incorporated Sasanian
Islamic separation of inner [andaruzn] and outer remains. Such examples can be multiplied. Ac-
[1iiran] spaces) was complemented by an equally cording to Tabari, for example, the White Palace
important vertical division of space. This was in Ctesiphon (the Sasanian royal residence locat-
expressed in the prestige of upper stories, a ed about a mile north of the great ceremonial
pattern also typical of the early Islamic palaces iwan) was used as a temporary residence and a
whose iconography of height is discussed by state prison in the seventh century.6 The Arch of
Bloom. Chosroes itself (popularly known as the Taq-i
As repositories of treasures, gifts, booty, ar- Kisra or Iwan-i Kisra), whose demolition was be-
chives, libraries, and workshops for industries gun in the eighth century by the Abbasid caliph
such as textile-making, the Mesopotamian royal al-Mansur, remained largely intact until the tenth
palaces described by Winter fulfilled functions century when a later Abbasid caliph, al-Mukafi,
similar to those of their Islamic counterparts. reused its materials in the Taj Palace of Baghdad.
Unlike the smaller palaces of princes and gover- This introduces us to a recurrent theme in the
nors the large royal palaces, from which the state volume, which is the use of spolia from earlier
was run, supported an extended household and structures that had royal associations.
provided a setting for court rituals and ceremo- In addition to the palaces of the Sasanians
nies, including the administration ofjustice, that which Bier's paper deals with, I would like to draw
would continue to play a central role in the attention to those of their Arab vassals, the Lakh-
Muslim era. Their monumental gates, official mids in Iraq, which seem to have played an
important role in indirectly filtering Sasanian
throne rooms, multistory faVades, hunting parks,
formal gardens, and pleasure pavilions also found influences to early Islamic palaces. These includ-
parallels in Islamic palaces. Precisely because ed the Khavarnaq, famed for its domed construc-
maintaining the productivity of the land through tion imitating the structure of the heavens, which
costly irrigation works was a major function of was built in the Lakhmid capital Hira by the ruler
Mesopotamian kings, gardens became associated Nu'man (d. after 418) for his Sasanian suzerain's
with royal pleasure, luxury, power, and territorial son, Prince Bahram Gur. The palace, created by
appropriation, associations thatwould be perpet- the Greek architect Sinimmar, who was then
uated well into the fourteenth century when Ibn killed so that he could not build a superior struc-
Khaldun counted the planting of gardens, the ture to rival it, was praised in pre-Islamic Arab
installation of running water, and the construc- poetry as one of the wonders of the world along
tion of monumental palaces as being among the with its neighbor Sadir. This product of Hira's
pleasurable "fruits of royal authority."5 mixed pagan Arab, Persian, and Byzantine cul-
Bier's paper assesses the influence of Sasanian ture foreshadows the eclectic combination of
palaces on early Islamic ones. In it he argues that motifs derived from each of these three traditions
a realistic conception of Sasanian palace archi- in the Umayyad palaces whose decorative pro-
tecture still eludes us because we have uncritically grams are analyzed by Grabar and Soucek.7
accepted unreliable reconstruction drawings that The Khavarnaq continued in use during the
have become almost "iconic." The dearth of reli- early Islamic era; Tabari describes a banquet the
able archaeological data leads him to conclude Umayyad ruler cAbd al-Malik held there after his
that the architectural impact of Sasanian palaces victorious entry into neighboring Kufa following
on early Islamic ones was probably minimal, even a rebellion. On that occasion he had toured the
though their symbolic and ceremonial inspiration palace, inquired aboutwho had built it for whom,
was undeniably strong. Bier hypothesizes that and allegedly speculated on the theme of the
luxury objects and Pahlevi texts on court ceremo- mutability of fortune. Ibn al-Faqih reports that
nial rather than a direct antiquarian study of every governor who came to Kufa expanded or
SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN THE PALATIAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC WORLD 5
renovated the neighboring Khavarnaq palace. Gamizgrad (Romuliana) that culminated with
According to Baladhuri the propagandist Ibra- the Great Palace in Constantinople. As cities
him ibn Salamah added a dome to it in the early began to undergo a process of irreversible de-
days of the Abbasid caliphate when the palace was cline, he argues, late-antique palaces and villas
given to him as a fief. Mas'udi provides additional borrowed urban forms to acquire an aura of
evidence for the Khavarnaq's use by such early prestige. These included city gates that became
Abbasid caliphs as al-Saffah, al-Mansur, and Harun closely associatedwith the imperial palace through
al-Rashid who used to go there to rest.8 The reuse colonnaded avenues marked at their intersection
of building materials from a Sasanian palace at by tetrapylons, neighboring imperial baths acces-
Hira in the Umayyad governor's palace-cum- sible both to the court and the public, and an
mosque complex at Kufa (638-39) and the open space or hippodrome acting as a buffer
Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil's (847-61) intro- zone between the palace and its urban setting.
duction of a new type of audience hall in Sa- The late-antique phenomenon outlined by
marra-called al-Hiri because itwas inspired by a Cur6ic has a parallel, I believe, in early Islamic
palace built by Nucman's descendants in Hira- times when palatine cities proliferated during
once again confirms the Lakhmid capital's im- Umayyad and early Abbasid rule. The Umayyad
portance in the transmission of Sasanian influ- administrative center of 'Anjar, founded by al-
ences.9 Walid I in 714-15, for example, recalls the small
The charging of Islamic palaces with heavenly towns of the Tetrarchy with its two arcaded main
associations can also be traced back to ancient streets intersecting at a tetrapylon, and its bath
Near Eastern precedents. Bier describes how the house outside the palace precincts. Its layout
tenth-century Buyid ruler cAdud al-Dawla, who adapts such late-antique models as Diocletian's
had rebuilt the round Sasanian capital of Gur, camp in Palmyra and Antioch, sites close to the
renaming it Firuzabad, and had dreamed of ren- power base of the Umayyad rulers in Syria, to new
ovating the palace at Ctesiphon, had also built a functions. When the Abbasid capital moved to
palace near Shiraz whose 360 rooms were each Iraq, the influence of ancient Mesopotamian
painted differently. This building in Shiraz re- royal cities increased, but al-Mansur's Round City
calls the Haft Paykar palace of the Sasanian ruler of Baghdad, founded in 762, is not so different in
Bahram Gur who was brought up in the Khavar- conception from the palatine cities of the Tetrar-
naq. The Haft Paykar had seven domed garden chy. This fortified palace-city, which functioned
pavilions, each of them inhabited by a princess as an administrative royal center for the caliph
from the seven climes and painted in a different and his trustworthy clients, also borrowed urban
color corresponding to the seven planets. Bah- forms, such as axial ceremonial avenues, a buffer
ram Gur would give audiences in a different zone around the central palace acting as a may-
pavilion each day of the week, varying the colordan,
of and four city gates closely associated with the
his robe to match the decor of that day's recep- palace-from their second-story domed audience
tion hall.10 cAdud al-Dawla is also said to have halls the caliph could survey the four directions
given daily audiences, each in a different room of of his universal empire. The scholarly controver-
his palace in Shiraz, whose halls equaled in num- sy about the appropriate terminology for Tetrar-
ber the days of the year. This type of cosmological chic palatine complexes, which according to
symbolism, reflecting the auspicious felicity and Curcic have variously been referred to as palaces
power of the universal monarch protected by the fortified chateaux, villas, or cities, reflects an
heavens, enjoyed a continued life in Islamic pal- ambiguity in form and function that also charac-
aces with their "domes of heaven," whose earliest terizes Baghdad, where the traditional distinc-
known examples are discussed by Bloom. tion between city and palace was similarly blurred.
Curcics paper on late-antique palaces pro- The papers in part 2 of the volume deal with the
vides a background for the Mediterranean heri- first two palatine paradigms of the early Islamic
tage of early Islamic palaces. Palaces proliferated period. The first one consisted of urban palace-
in several cities during the Tetrarchy, when Rome cum-mosque complexes that proliferated during
had ceased to be the only center of imperial Umayyad and early Abbasid rule between the
power; Curcic outlines the characteristics of these
seventh and eighth century. In it the dar al-imiira
third- and fourth-century Tetrarchic palatine (palace of government), with or without a qubbat
complexes in Antioch, Split, Thessaloniki, and al-khadr&, was juxtaposed to the congregational
6 GULRU NECIPOGLU
mosque, forming a single unit. The second para- impact on other caliphal courts. Mostly hidden
digm that emerged during the ninth and tenth behind the high walls of their palaces, the seclud-
century was characterized by sprawling extra- ed Abbasid caliphs gave public audiences only
urban palatine complexes no longer attached to twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, en-
congregational mosques. This important change trusting the administration of the state to their
in the spatial relationship between the palace and viziers and a large bureaucracy that further
the mosque, initiated in ninth-century Samarra, screened them from their subjects. The tenth-
marked the increasing seclusion of the Abbasid century Buyid secretary Hilal al-Sabil describes
caliphs from their subjects, as the tribalism of the how the Abbasid caliph, wearing a coarse black
Umayyads gave way to a sacred absolutism that in robe and headgear, sat during these public audi-
many ways revived ancient Near Eastern concepts ences on his elevated throne (sidillia), veiled be-
of kingship." The dar al-imiara was now replaced hind a curtain that would periodically be lifted to
with the dar al-khilafa (palace of the caliphate), reveal him in splendor. Adorned with the insig-
which architecturally and ceremonially project- nia of the Prophet's sword, staff, and holy mantle,
ed the new caliphal image first adopted by the he projected a sacred image as the Prophet's
Abbasids and subsequently by the Fatimids and legitimate successor. He displayed in front of him
the Umayyads of Spain. The second paradigm the Quran of 'Uthman, a potent symbol of reli-
therefore coincided with the hegemony of three gious orthodoxy. The Abbasid caliph's public
rival caliphates that had divided the Muslim world image impersonating the Prophet was not so
into Sunni and Shici states in the tenth century. different from that of the Byzantine emperor
The palaces of the caliphs and theirvassals shared who acted as Christ's vicegerent on earth.'5 Both
a common vocabulary subtly manipulated to dif- the Abbasid and Byzantine palaces were sacred
ferentiate competing dynastic and religious iden- realms with heavenly associations whose ceremo-
tities. nial had a distinctively religious coloring. By the
The relatively accessible and visible Umayyad tenth century the Fatimids and Umayyads of
caliphs had moved back and forth between the Spain would articulate their claim to caliphal
juxtaposed spaces of their palace-cum-mosque status by emulating Abbasid palace architecture
complexes that expressed their dual role as mon- and ceremonial which they put their own stamp
archs and religious leaders. According to Mas'udi, on through differences in detail.
Muawiya used to give audiences five times each The Abbasid caliph's public audience hall in
day, first to the poor and the general public as he the Dar al-Khilafa at Baghdad communicated
was seated at the minbar of his mosque's maqsu2ra
with a large courtyard known as al-Salam, whose
after having led the canonical prayers, and then ceremonial is described in Hilal al-Sabi"'s tenth-
in his royal audience hall at the adjoining dar al- century book of ceremonies. There was a special
imairawhere he received the grandees in a hierar-
protocol for entering and proceeding through
chical order according to their rank.'2 Ibn Khal- this courtyard where only the caliph could ride
dun writes that the first four caliphs and the on a mule and only a few privileged dignitaries
Umayyads "did not delegate the leadership of were allowed to sit on a chair. To guarantee
prayer" because they considered it to be an exclu- silence, officers armed with bows were stationed
sive caliphal privilege. Itwas first the Abbasid and there "to prevent and shoot down any crow that
then the Fatimid caliphs who "chose men to flew or croaked," while serried ranks of perfectly
represent them as prayer leaders," reserving for still slave soldiers were lined up on both sides
themselves the leadership of prayer on Fridays behind ropes stretched "to prevent commotion,
and religious holidays for the "purpose of displayinconvenience, mingling, and overcrowding, and
and ostentation."'" This change in ritual explainsto enable the caliph to see and recognize from
the physical separation of the caliph's palace afar whoever is admitted."'6
from the congregational mosque in the second Al-Sabi' describes a reception the Abbasid ca-
paradigm, a separation now mediated by elabo- liph al-Ta'i' gave there in 977 to the Buyid ruler
rate processions between the two realms on Fri- 'Adud al-Dawla who walked "between the two
days and religious holidays. The pompous pa- rows, and no one behind the ropes stirred" until
rades of the secluded caliphs, not so different he arrived at the door of the caliph's raised
from those of their Byzantine rivals, had a contin-throne (sidilla) whose curtain was pulled open.
ued life in many later Islamic courts.'4 'Adud al-Dawla then climbed the threshold and
Abbasid court ceremonial had a decisive kissed the ground twice in the middle of the
sidilla's raised platform where he was allowed to were perched gold and silver singing birds stood
sit on a square chair placed on the right side of at the center of a domed round pond, accompa-
the caliph's throne, a place normally reserved for nied by figures of mounted horsemen holding
the princes. Then he was invested with a robe of lances that turned "on a single line in battle
honor and a crown in a hall behind the sidilla, formation,'" and the Pavilion of Paradise decorat-
after which he returned to the caliph's presence ed with rugs and precious armor. After touring
and left from a revolving door that opened from twenty-three separate palaces, out of breath the
the sidilla to the royal gardens along the Tigris ambassadors finally returned to the presence of
where he departed from a private gate.'7 Besides the enthroned caliph now accompanied by his
the curtained sidill7a, apparently a domed bal- five sons. He gave them a letter, and theywere led
dachin throne, the sources also mention grilled out from a private gate to the riverfront where
ceremonial windows with curtains (shubbak) be- boats took them back to their lodging. This de-
hind which the secluded Abbasid caliphs used to scription gives us an idea of the sequential order
watch official proceedings and some public cere- in which the vast palatine complexes of Samarra
monies. Despite differences in religious orienta- and their Fatimid or Spanish Umayyad counter-
tion, the Fatimid caliphs adopted ceremonies parts would have been experienced by official
that closely mimicked Abbasid ones, including visitors, filled with awe and amazement at the
the use of such curtained sidill7is and ceremonial theatrical displays.20
shubbaks.'8 The papers in part 2 cover some, but not all, of
A famous reception given in 917 by al-Muqtadir the early Islamic palaces built between the sev-
at the Dar al-Khilafa of Baghdad for an embassy enth and tenth centuries. Grabar reconsiders the
sent by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII known examples of Umayyad palaces. Much like
Porphyrogenitos helps us visualize the ceremoni- the earlier scholars of late-antique palaces criti-
al of the earlier caliphal palaces in Samarra de- cized by Curtic, who regardless of major differ-
scribed by Northedge, some of whose features ences in siting, scale, and layout had sought to
were repeated in Baghdad when the Abbasid define unifying typological or iconographic for-
court moved back there in 892.19 For this recep- mulas, Grabar criticizes himself and others for
tion the palace complex in Baghdad was decorat- trying to fit all surviving Umayyad palatine struc-
ed with lavish furnishings for the two months tures into a single pattern. He also suspects that
during which the ambassador and his retinue attempts to correlate these palaces with an Umay-
were kept waiting. On the reception day the yad ceremonial life have too often dealt with the
caliph's slave soldiers were lined up along the "virile sensuality" of al-Walid II "who was in many
processional avenue that led to the palace, while ways an eccentric." Since this Umayyad prince
thousands of chamberlains, slave pages, and eu- spent most of his life in exile in his "desert
nuchs were stationed on the roofs, upper cham- castles," while his uncle ruled as caliph, his dolce
bers, courtyards, gateways, passages, and audi- vita is not typical of the life of the caliphs in such
ence halls of the palace. After being conducted capitals as Damascus and Rusafa, whose palace-
in a stately procession through the avenue filled cum-mosque complexes housed official public
with spectators, the envoys passed from succes- ceremonies punctuated by the rhythm of the five
sive courtyards, where they mistookvarious digni- daily prayers in addition to private majlises.21
taries for the caliph, until they were finally con- Judging from the admittedly problematic ar-
ducted into his presence through a vaulted chaeological remains of Kufa and 'Anjar, it seems
underground passage. The sight of the caliph clear that such urban palace-cum-mosque com-
enthroned in majesty "overcame and overpow- plexes featuring monumental courtyards with
ered" them. Then an order was given to conduct axially aligned gates and throne rooms differed
them through the palace. considerably from the less formal "desert castles"
The long itinerary included the royal stables; or villas. This difference confirms Grabar's point
the zoological gardens; the New Kiosk with its that trying to fit all surviving Umayyad palatial
artificial pond (thirty by twenty cubits) of white structures into a single type regardless of scale,
lead "more lustrous than polished silver" contain- function, patronage level, and urban or extra-
ing four boats and surrounded by a garden whose urban context is a major methodological error.
palm trees were decorated with rings of gilt cop- Grabar invites Islamicists to make a fresh start
per and flanked by orchards; the Tree Room, after having deconstructed the faulty assump-
where a silver tree of moving branches on which tions of previous studies on Umayyad palaces. He
8 GULRU NECIPO6LU
recommends detailed monographic studies yield- of heaven above, flanked by half-naked female
ing individual hypotheses about particular pala- figures in the Sasanian style bearing fertility sym-
tial monuments. bols under an arcade whose roundels contain
In the last part of his paper Grabar turns to the personifications of the classical earth-goddess
problems of interpretation posed by the idiosyn- Gae holding a cloth filled with fruits, also associ-
cratic decorative programs of some Umayyad ated with fertility and abundance. Another bath
palaces. In the case of the royal bath house of in Gaza or Antioch, only known from a sixth-
Qusayr cAmra, once attached to a palatial resi- century description, also featured a "dome of
dence, he notes the predominance of images heaven" like Qusayr cAmra, suggesting that we
representing women which may provide a clue to are dealing with a now lost Mediterranean tradi-
who the bath's patron was. Could this bath have tion of bath-house decoration against which the
been built for the household of a royal consort novel combination of motifs encountered in the
and her son, the mother of the "amir" or prince Umayyad context has to be interpreted.24 That
to whom good wishes are offered in an inscrip- bath domes continued to be decorated with heav-
tion? Was the amir, possibly the young child enly bodies after the Umayyad period is revealed
bathed by naked women in several paintings, an by Redford's reference to a Rum Seljuq bath
heir to the caliph represented enthroned on the house with painted astrological imagery on its
central throne apse of the bath hall? Such ques- dome in the Alara castle near Alanya.25
tions can only be resolved with the kind of de- The ekphrasis of Leo's bath concludes with the
tailed monographic study Grabar recommends. observation that it provided an "awesome sight":
Although Grabar finds Qusayr 'Amra's kaleido- "The manifold beauty of the bath has the grace of
scopic array of pictorial themes bewildering, he healing; it takes away men's sickness and grants
does not dismiss the possibility that iconographic strength." This passage provides yet another par-
analysis may eventually yield a coherent interpre- allel to the Islamic tradition of decorating bath
tation. Since many of the bath's paintings draw houses with figural imagery that would have been
upon a visual repertory of subjects with late- inappropriate in other contexts. The use of paint-
antique and Sasanian precedents, such as hunt- ed figures in baths is legitimized in some hadith
ing, bathing, gymnastics, allegorical female per- collections and in a text by al-Gazuli because of
sonifications, and the enthroned ruler, it would their therapeutic value: "In good baths you also
be valuable to determine how its decorative pro- find artistically painted pictures of unquestion-
gram was related to that of late-antique or Byzan- able quality. They represent, for example, lovers
tine imperial baths, some of which probably sur- and beloved, meadows and gardens and hunts on
vived in the Umayyad territories. Soucek, for horseback or wild beasts. Such pictures greatly
example, refers to a monumental Byzantine bath invigorate all the powers of the body, animal,
in Tiberias which may have influenced the ico- physical and psychological. "26 While this passage
nography of the Umayyad bath house in the explains why figural images were tolerated in
Khirbat al-Mafjar palace. baths, it does not clarify Qusayr cAmra's royal
The throne apses of such Umayyad royal baths iconography, which deserves additional study.
as Qusayr cAmra and Khirbat al-Mafjar can be Soucek's paper addresses the problems of in-
compared to those of Roman imperial baths terpretation posed by the idiosyncratic decora-
decorated with the image of the ruling emper- tive program of yet another Umayyad bath house
or. 2 The ekphrasis of a royal bath built by theattached to the palatial complex of Khirbat al-
emperor Leo VI (886-912) at the Great Palace of Mafjar. She argues that the bath hall as a whole,
Constantinople testifies to the use of such impe- but especially its facade and porch, represented
rial imagery in Byzantine bath houses as well. It an attempt to translate into visible form Umayyad
was adorned with statues, relief sculptures, and legends about Solomon's flying throne and bath
representations of the emperor as "the earth which she reconstructs from early texts. Compar-
ruler on the proconch," accompanied by the ing the bath's decoration with the Solomonic
empress and allegorical female personifications. iconography used in some later Mughal and Qa-
The edifice, "aglow like the vault of heaven," alsojar palaces, Soucek concludes that such context-
featured a dome depicting the emperor's cosmic specific imagery has to be interpreted through
kingship.23 This description recalls the enthroned textual and visual sources most directly related to
cosmic ruler represented on the apse of Qusayr each case. She presents a suggestive body of cir-
cAmra, with the seas under his feet and the vault cumstantial evidence that not only links the bath
hall with Solomon, but also with al-Walid II. audience hall also featured Persian inscrip-
Soucek's new reading of the elusive Umayyad tions-the earliest textual reference to such
bath house, whose meaning has puzzled so many inscriptions known to me-whose first extant
scholars, confirms Grabar's observation that the examples were discovered in another Ghazna-
future of studies on Umayyad palatial archi- vid palace built for Mascud III (1099-1115) in
tecture rests on detailed monographic works Ghazna.28 Such poetic inscriptions in Arabic,
sensitive to the iconographic specificity of indi- Persian, and Turkish continued to be used in
vidual monuments and capable of presenting many later palaces.
familiar buildings in a different light. Northedge analyzes the Dar al-Khilafa built by
Bloom's paper addresses the iconography of a al-Muctasim at Samarra in 836, which was occu-
group of early Islamic palaces known to have had pied and modified by his successors until 884. On
a qubbat al-khadr?, a term usually understood to the basis of recent archaeological investigations
mean a green dome, but interpreted by him as a he identifies the palace's major componentswhich
"dome ofheaven," an imperial symbol with a long he correlates with texts. One of these, a public
tradition in the ancient Near Eastern and Medi- palace with official-administrative functionswhere
terranean worlds. Starting with the earliest re- the caliphs gave their biweekly public audiences,
maining astronomical domes at the bath houses featured a central cruciform domed reception-
of Qusayr cAmra and Khirbat al-Mafjar, Bloom hall block, overlooking, on one side, gardens
turns to the public audience halls of Umayyad with pavilions along the Tigris and, on the other
and early Abbasid palace-cum-mosque com- side, a great public courtyard (corresponding to
plexes in Damascus, Rusafa, Kufa, Wasit, Hash- the al-Salam in Baghdad) that culminated in a
imiyya, and Baghdad, all of them crowned by a polo maydan and racecourse. Another unit en-
qubbat al-khadr? and characterized by high sec-
closed within a massive buttressed wall functioned
ond-story domed reception halls visible from a as the private residence of the caliph and his
great distance. Bloom argues that the ninth-cen- women, containing royal apartments, caliphal
tury Abbasid palatial complexes in Samarra rep- mausolea, and a prison for important personag-
resented a major shift from verticality to horizon- es. Northedge also refers to some of the court
tality as second-story audience chambers lost their ceremonies held in Samarra, including the ca-
ceremonial function and externally visible "celes- liph's triumphal processions.
tial domes" were replaced by vaulted iwans. Ruggles describes the Madinat al-Zahra' near
Northedge's paper on the caliphal palaces of Cordoba, founded in 936 and completed around
Samarra refers to several substructures that once 976, as an architectural frame for the Umayyad
supported upper stories, such as the triple-arched ruler cAbd al-Rahman III's new role as caliph.
Bab al-cAmma originally topped by a second-story This palatine city had only a short life; Ruggles
audience hall reached by a ramp, which he com- concentrates on the fame it acquired after it was
pares to the majlises crowning the gates of al- sacked in 1010. She analyzes poems that show
Mansur's Baghdad. This suggests that horizontal how the ruined site had acquired legendary sta-
sprawl did not always exclude verticality.27 Never- tus as a memento of the glory of a bygone "golden
theless, texts no longer mention the qubbat al- age," inspiring poets and travelers to contem-
khadr& in describing the public audience halls of plate the past. Nostalgia provoked by ruins was, of
Samarra, a recognizable sign of imperial power course, a topos, but Ruggles interprets the Madi-
that conferred added visibility to the palace-cum- nat al-Zahra' poems as more than mere topoi,
mosque complexes it crowned. Mas'udi's refer- charged as they were by the particular historical
ence to an upstairs throne room in the Ja'fari context of Muslim Spain's Christian reconquest.29
palace built by al-Mutawakkil north of Samarra, She shows that the palace's memory was kept
where al-Muntasir was enthroned in 861, sug- alive not only in literature but also in the architec-
gests that second-story audience halls contin- ture of many later Andalusian palaces that emu-
ued to be used alongside iwans. This hall's throne lated it as a model.
was surrounded by painted figures of a crowned The Madinat al-Zahra' was largely inspired by
ruler flanked by attendants, which recalls the Abbasid models, reinterpreted through the lens
painted dado of standing male attendant figures of Umayyad dynastic memories. Like Samarra,
at the throne room of Lashkari Bazar in Bust, a built to isolate the caliphal court and slave army
palace complex built for the Ghaznavid rulers from Baghdad, this suburban palace-city was built
who were vassals of the Abbasids. Al-Muntasir's outside the capital Cordoba, with which it was
10 GULRU NECIPOLU
nevertheless intimately connected.30 Being close Abbasid palaces may similarly have correspond-
to each other, the two were linked together by ed to the caliph surrounded by his four groups of
ceremonial processions when foreign embassies guards, a correspondence testifying to the inti-
would be conducted to the Umayyad caliph's mate link between architectural forms and the
presence from Cordoba between two rows of structure of court ceremonies.
slave soldiers. From the gate of Madinat al-Zahra' In addition to the brick or mud-brick palaces in
to the caliph's audience hall richly robed digni- Samarra described by Northedge, there was also
taries stationed at regular intervals were once a considerable Abbasid tradition of temporary
again mistaken for the caliph until the ambassa- architecture. Tha'alibi, for example, tells of a
dors finally encountered him, seated on the cool summer pavilion created for al-Mansur (754-
ground at the center of a sand-strewn courtyard, 75) made of wet canvas stretched over a dome-
wearing coarse clothes, with a Quran and a sword shaped wooden frame; "after that, the practice
in front of him. His pious humility echoed the arose of using a suspended matting of woven
Abbasid caliph's sacred persona. According to al- reeds, and the use became general." Mas'udi also
Maqqari the Umayyad caliph, too, "was obliged to describes a domed wooden pavilion, covered in
maintain a certain distance and not to mingle to tent-like fashion with silk brocade, next to a
an excessive degree with the people, nor to show fishpond of al-Mansur's paradisal al-Khuld pal-
himself in public"; his splendid seclusion paral- ace in Baghdad, from which the caliphs used to
leled that of the Fatimid and Abbasid caliphs.3' gaze at the Tigris river. Tabari mentions a double-
The view-commanding royal quarters of Madinat domed canvas-covered wooden pavilion built for
al-Zahra"s uppermost terrace, fronted by large Harun al-Rashid, which suggests that such tem-
fishponds amidst formal gardens criss-crossed porary palatial structures were occasionally trans-
with water channels, have elsewhere been com- lated into more durable materials. Movable tent-
pared by Ruggles to the riverfront belvederes of like wooden pavilions, also referred to by the
Samarra and Lashkari Bazar.32 One of the royal thirteenth-century Seljuq historian Ibn Bibi, would
reception halls featured a gold dome and a huge become particularly important in the semi-no-
mercury-filled tank stirred to create the illusion madic Mongol and post-Mongol courts where
that the hall was revolving, no doubt another new tent-like pavilion types were invented.35
example of a "dome of heaven" recalling those of Regional interpretations of Abbasid palatial
Nero's Domus Aurea and the Throne of Chos- building types appeared in Ifriqiyya, Algeria, an
roes.33 Sicily during the reign of the Aghlabids (800-
The legendary palaces and garden pavilions of 909), and in Egypt during the rule of the Tu-
the Abbasid caliphs, immortalized by the popular lunids (868-905), both of them dynasties found-
imagination of the Thousand and One Nights, had ed by former Abbasid army officers.-" Ahmad ibn
a far-reaching influence from the Umayyad court Tulun (868-84), who held onto his power using
in the west to that of the Ghaznavids in the east. a large slave army based on the Abbasid model,
The audience halls, garden pavilions, majlises built in his capital Fustat a palace and Friday
with T-shaped triple iwans, and the triple gates of mosque in the Samarran style, with a large hippo-
the Samarran palaces described by Northedge drome (maydan) for polo matches in between.37
would be reinterpreted in the ninth- and tenth- The troops would gather on Fridays at the Ibn
century palaces of Baghdad and in the courts of Tulun Mosque to which the ruler ceremonially
other contemporary dynasties. The T-plan Sa- rode from his palace in the manner of the Ab-
marran majlis was only one of the building types basid caliphs.38 A triple-arched triumphal palace
that spread from the Abbasid court to Egypt, gate facing the maydan was used during parades
Syria, and Sicily. Originally imported to Samarra when Ibn Tulun rode alone on horseback under
from Hira by al-Mutawakkil (847-61), it had a its middle arch with his army marching through
central royal iwan, flanked by two subsidiary halls the two smaller side arches. This recalls the triple-
and fronted by a tripartite portico with three arched Abbasid gates and the tripartite layout of
doors, the one at the center wider and taller than the T-plan majlis, whose structure also corre-
those at the sides. Mas'udi says that the royal iwan sponded to the caliph and the two flanks of his
represented the center of the army and that the army. Like its Abbasid models, the Tulunid gate
two wings alluded to its right and left flank in was crowned by a second-floor audience hall
battle formation.34 Tabbaa suggests that the cru- whose windows provided a view of the maydan
ciform audience halls and four-iwan plans of and the city.
Ahmad's son Khumarawayh (884-96) enlarged no one knows. It is said, nonetheless, that there are
the palace complex, creating there a garden thirty thousand individuals in the palace, which con-
featuring rare fruit trees whose trunks were coat- sists of twelve buildings.40
ed with sheets of gilt copper, lead-lined channels
with jets of water, and plants forming decorative Nasir-i Khusraw continues to describe the subter-
patterns or inscriptions. In front of a royal hall ranean passages of the Cairene palace thatjoined
known as the Golden House, where Khumar- together its separate buildings; one of them con-
awayh had set up wooden statues of himself wear- nected the harem to a suburban garden outside
ing a crown and surrounded by a female entou- the city.41 Such underground passages were also
rage, was a fifty-cubit-square lake filled with typical in the Abbasid and Spanish Umayyad
mercury, no doubt inspired by Abbasid prece- courts. In the Fatimid palace, where nobody ex-
dents. There Khumarawayh used to take naps; to cept the caliph was allowed to ride, there were
cure his insomnia, he floated on an air mattress also several ramps from which the caliph could
tied to four silver columns, guarded by his loyal mount on his mule to elevated belvederes that we
blue-eyed lion. Like their Abbasid counterparts know existed in Abbasid and Aghlabid palaces as
the outlying gardens of the Tulunid palace fea- well.
tured belvedere pavilions providing a view of the The Cairene palace was the stage for the court
city and the Nile. ceremonies and rituals of the infallible imam of
The palace of the Fatimid caliphs (909-1171) the Shi'i Isma'ili community, venerated as a semi-
in Cairo, founded in the second half of the tenth divine descendant of the Prophet. It was com-
century, also reinterpreted Abbasid models that posed of two palaces separated by a public may-
the Fatimids had first encountered when they dan known as the Bayn al-Qasrayn (i.e., Between
conquered the Aghlabid territories in North Af- the Two Palaces). The greater Eastern Palace
rica. Their earlier capital in Ifriqiyya, al-Man- featured individuallynamed separate halls, some-
suriyya, was a round royal city with a palace at its times jointly referred to as "brilliant palaces" (al-
center built by the Fatimid caliph al-Mansur (946- qusisr al-zahira) since they emanated the divine
53) on the model of the Round City of Baghdad radiance of the Shi'i caliph. This recalls Winter's
(founded in the eighth century by his namesake reference to some ancient Near Eastern palaces
al-Mansur), a potent symbol of caliphal authori- as being filled with the same kind of "radiance" as
ty. Like its successor in Cairo, this palace complex the ruler whose kingship had "descended from
was a collection of separate structures, including heaven"; a similar concept informed the design
one called al-Khavarnaq which was built in the of the Mughal imperial palaces discussed by Ash-
middle of a large pool fed by many water chan- er and myself. The Fatimid Eastern Palace con-
nels.39 tained the reception halls and residences of the
Towering height was a distinguishing feature caliph, his slave attendants, and his numerous
of the mountain-like Fatimid palace in Cairo harem guarded by eunuchs. Some were installed
whose high walls pierced by several gates screened with automata, common in contemporary Islam-
the secluded caliphs from public view. It is de- ic and Byzantine palaces; one of them featured
scribed by the mid-eleventh-century traveler Na- statues of singing girls who bowed and stood up to
sir-i Khusraw as follows: greet the caliph as he sat on his throne.42 In
addition to several royal belvederes surmounting
The sultan's palace is in the middle of Cairo and is the palace's outer walls was a domed audience
encompassed by an open space so that no building hall crowning its main entrance, the Golden
abuts it. Engineers who have measured it have found it Gate, where the Fatimid caliph could survey the
to be the size of Mayyafareqin. As the ground is open all public maydan below behind a grilled window
around it, every night there are a thousand watchmen,
(shubbak).4 Primarily intended for recreation,
five hundred mounted and five hundred on foot, who
the smaller Western Palace with garden pavilions
blow trumpets and beat drums at the time of evening
that overlooked an orchard was connected to its
prayer and then patrol until daybreak. Viewed from
outside the city, the sultan's palace looks like a moun- companion by a subterranean passage. Like the
tain because of all the different buildings and the great Abbasid and Spanish Umayyad palaces, the Fa-
height. From inside the city, however, one can see timid palace in Cairo also featured a collection of
nothing at all because the walls are so high. They say caliphal tombs in its sacred royal precincts.
that twelve thousand hired servants work in this palace, In 1049 Nasir-i Khusraw attended a banquet
in addition to the women and slavegirls, whose number there, one of many that the Fatimid caliph gave
12 GULRU NECIPO.LU
on the two great Islamic holidays, in addition to mobs, but at the same time "sought to span the
his regular biweekly public audiences. He de- gap between themselves and the populace by
scribes the Eastern Palace as being composed of sponsoring foundations that serviced the popula-
twelve free-standing structures and a royal audi- tion."48
ence hall connected to the kitchens by a subter- I would like to add that not only the Turkish
renean passageway: and Kurdish rulers of the east (including the
slave sultanates of Delhi) but also the Berber
There were twelve square structures, built one next to rulers of the Maghrib and Spain moved their
the other, each more dazzling than the last. Each palaces into urban citadels at a time when the
measured one hundred cubits square, and one was a Muslim world, splintered into numerous inde-
thing sixty cubits square with a dais placed the entire
pendent military states, was troubled by internal
length of the building at a height of four ells, on three
warfare and the external threat of Christian or
sides all of gold, with hunting and sporting scenes
Mongol conquerors. The new political configu-
depicted thereon and also an inscription in marvelous
ration of the eleventh century is described by Ibn
calligraphy. All the carpets and pillows were of Byzan-
Khaldun:
tine brocade and buqalamun, each woven exactly to the
measurements of its place. There was an indescribable
latticework ballustrade of gold along the sides. Behind When the character and appearance of the caliphate
the dais and next to the wall were silver steps.4 changed and royal and government authority took
over, the religious functions lost to some degree their
connection with [the powers in control], in as much as
The 60-cubit one must have been the Great Iwan
they did not belong among the titles and honors of
(also called al-'Aziz, the Glorious) built by the
royal authority. The Arabs later on lost all control of the
caliph al-cAziz in 980 for the public audiences the
government. Royal authority fell to Turkish and Berber
Fatimid caliphs held on Mondays and Thursdays.
nations.49
Its elevated throne (sidilla) crowned by a domed
baldachin was closed on three sides; its fourth, It was in this context that the sprawling extra-
open side overlooked the audience hall through urban palatine complexes of the caliphs and
a ceremonial grilled window (shubbak) draped their vassals gave way to the much smaller defen-
with a curtain, which during public audiences was sive urban citadel-palaces of modest principali-
lifted to reveal the ruler enthroned in majesty.45 ties which no longer enjoyed the support of
Similar palaces of smaller dimension were built thousands of slave troops. This is recognized by
by the vassals of the Fatimids in North Africa and Ibn Khaldun: "The ancient dynasties had many
by the Normans in Sicily.46 The twelfth-century soldiers and a vast realm.... We live in a time
Norman palaces of Palermo, which preserve the when dynasties possess small armies which can-
memory of now lost Aghlabid and Fatimid proto- not mistake each other on the field of battle. Most
types, are the few extant examples of a once of the soldiers of both parties together could
widespread early medieval palatine tradition that nowadays be assembled in a hamlet or town."50 In
originated in the Abbasid court.47 the rapidly shrinking Byzantine world, modestly
Part 3 focuses on a third palatine paradigm, scaled citadel-palaces also replaced the monu-
which emerged in the early eleventh century and mental palatine complexes that had reflected
culminated with the hegemony of the Great Sel- late-antique and early Byzantine imperial ambi-
juqs and their successors in Iran, Iraq, Anatolia, tions.
Syria, and Egypt. In it urban citadel-palaces pro- The citadels of the Seljuq successor states, which
liferated. In a recent article Bacharach interprets often featured a palace complex with administra-
this phenomenon as expressing the separation tive and residential facilities, baths, barracks, and
between the ruler and the ruled, not in terms of a prominent mosque, reflected a shared ethos
the "horizontal distance" that characterized the despite regional variations. Their elevated tower
previous arrangement, but rather as a "vertical pavilions and belvederes with grilled windows
distance" that permitted a greater interaction provided an outlet for the ruler's commanding
between the two. He argues that citadels became gaze. With the exception of the Rum Seljuq
the locus of government primarily because of the citadel in Konya, whose royal mosque was at-
alien origins of the new military leaders and tached to dynastic tombs, the citadel-palaces of
changes in military technique at the time of the the Zangid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk rulers no long-
Crusades. He notes that these rulers were forced er contained mausolea. Following the example of
to protect themselves in citadels from the urban the funerary madrasa built by the Zangid ruler
Nur al-Din in Damascus (1172), the new pattern the ancient Near Eastern theme of royal justice.
that emerged in the post-Seljuq eastern Is- This was expressed by the creation of a new
lamic world was the proliferation of domed building type, the dar al- 'adl (palace ofjustice)
mausolea attached to charitable public whose origin is difficult to pinpoint. It may well
foundations, mostly madrasa and khanaqah have had Seljuq precedents in Iran and Iraq,
complexes, which were often lined up along but no archaeological evidence remains there
a processional avenue linked to the citadel- to confirm such a hypothesis. Its earliest known
palace. These public buildings not only served to example in Syria was built outside the Damascus
glorify the military rulers and provide an income citadel by Nur al-Din Zangi in the 1150s to pro-
to their progeny, but also to legitimize them in vide a setting for the mazalim court (antonym to
the eyes of the public, the ulama, and the Sufi 'ad4 justice) where the oppressed could redress
shaykhs. Their annexed mausolea departed from their grievances. The same practice was perpetu-
the traditional pattern set by the caliphal palaces ated by the Ayyubid rulers who frequented their
which had enshrined a private collection of fam- dar al- 'adl at the foot of the Aleppo citadel,
ily tombs. That pattern was only perpetuated in described by Tabbaa, twice a week on Mondays
North Africa and Spain (e.g., the Nasrid dynastic and Thursdays. The Mamluks inherited this insti-
tombs inside the Alhambra and the Saadian dy- tution from their Ayyubid masters. While the
nastic necropolis adjoining the Badia Palace in- early Mamluk ruler Baybars I (1260-77) held his
side the Qasba of Marrakesh) .51 biweekly mazalim sessions in a dair al- 'adl located
The Ayyubid citadel in Aleppo, the Mamluk just below the Cairene citadel, subsequently this
citadel in Cairo, and the Rum Seljuq citadels of function acquired a more elaborate ceremonial
Anatolia, discussed in the papers of Tabbaa, Rab- and a more monumental architectural setting
bat, and Redford respectively, were all built by (dealt with in Rabbat's paper) when it was moved
dynasties steeped in the cultural heritage of the to the Great Iwan inside the citadel.52
Great Seljuq sultanate whose legitimacy rested The mazalim court was not a new institution,
on the military support it gave to the orthodox but the Seljuqs and their successors emphasized
Sunni Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. Until its the systematic administration of justice by the
sack by the Mongols in 1258 the caliphal capital ruler to an unprecedented degree by placing the
Baghdad continued to play an undisputed role in daral- 'adl in a highly visible public space outside
providing cultural inspiration and religious legit- the citadel walls.53 Both ceremonially and archi-
imacy to the military rulers of the splintered tecturally this building expressed the growing
Seljuq successor states in an age of "Sunni revival" accessibility and visibility of the new military rul-
that would increasingly turn to Sufism on the eve ers whose royal image differed from the religious
of the Mongol invasions. This pattern was perpet- persona of the caliphs, almost too sacred to be
uated by the Mamluks who stationed a line of seen. According to the early thirteenth-century
Abbasid caliphs in Cairo (1261-1517) to legiti- historian Ravandi, the Great Seljuq ruler Malik
mize their rule. Even the Turkish slave sultanates Shah (1072-92), for whom the Siy7isatnama was
of Delhi continued to seek investiture from the written by his grand vizier Nizam al-Mulk, no
Cairene caliphs, demonstrating the vitality of the longer secluded himself from the people by a
Abbasid legacy until it abruptly came to an end curtain in the manner of the caliphs, but rather
when the Ottomans terminated Mamluk rule in spoke face to face with his subjects. Tabbaa quotes
1517. Nizam al-Mulk's discussion of the mazalim court
Religious orthodoxy and the official homage where the ruler is advised to hold such a court
paid to the Abbasid caliphs played a central role twice aweek to hearwithoutanyintermediary the
in shaping the architecture and ceremonial of complaints of his subjects.54 He interprets the
the citadel-palaces built by the Seljuq successor Ayyubid dairal-'adl beneath the Aleppo citadel as
states. The definitive split between the caliphate an outgrowth of this type of mirror-for-princes
and the sultanate in this period brought about a literature.
radical separation of the religious and royal func- Tabbaa shows that the Aleppine citadel was
tions that were once united in the person of the linked to its urban setting through several func-
early caliphs. This explains the unprecedented tions. He interprets its tall minaret dominating
emphasis of the new military rulers (who had no the city's skyline as a symbolic declaration of the
religious claim to legitimacy other than the inves- triumph of Islam against the crusaders, affirming
titure they received from the Abbasid caliphs) on the role of the Ayyubids as the guardians of
14 GULRU NECIPOGLU
orthodox Islam. The same interpretation can be least in these instances the term qubbat al-kha4r&
extended to the prominent mosques in the cita- did indeed mean "green dome," suggesting that
dels of Konya and Cairo discussed, respectively, perhaps its two meanings were not mutually ex-
by Redford and Rabbat. Tabbaa also observes clusive. Rabbat speculates that the Great Iwan's
that elementswith royal associations derived from layout, unusual in Fatimid audience halls, may
a prestigious past (e.g., four-iwan courtyard, tri- have represented a deliberate revival of forms
partite throne-room facade, shadirw7in fountain associated with the dar al-imara-cum-mosque
with a muqarnas hood, and muqarnas portal) complexes of the early caliphates. If so, the Great
were recombined at the citadel palace in Aleppo Iwan once again exemplifies the post-Seljuq nos-
to form a new type. This was an abbreviated talgia for a caliphal golden age, also shared by the
version in miniature of the caliphal palaces of Ayyubids and the Taifa kings of Spain who had
ninth-century Samarra and tenth-century Bagh- idealized Madinat al-Zahra' through poetry and
dad that had come to represent a "distant Golden architectural imitations that culminated with the
Age. 55 Alhambra.
The fifteenth-century author Khalil al-Zahiri The Mamluk citadel-palace in Cairo, like the
describes the citadel-palace in Cairo, which mon- Alhambra, represented the culmination of the
umentalized its Ayyubid models, as follows: third paradigm. Its buildings did not invent new
types, but monumentalized and reinterpreted
This palace has no equal in area, splendor, magnifi- existing ones either directly inherited from the
cence, and height. Around it are walls, moats, towers, Ayyubids or, as Rabbat argues, selectively revived
and a number of iron gates which make it impregnable. from older models whose prestigious royal associ-
It would take a long time to give a detailed description
ations were used to bolster the exalted self-image
of the palaces, rooms, halls, belvederes, galleries, courts,
of the Mamluk sultanate, the last bulwark of the
squares, stables, mosques, schools, markets, and baths
long-lived Abbasid legacy.
that are found in the palace.,%
Redford's paper interprets the palaces of the
Rabbat's paper deals neither with the whole Rum Seljuqs in Anatolia and the dissolution of
Cairene citadel, nor with the ceremonial that their palatial imagery after this dynasty was de-
governed its internal layout and its interaction feated by the Mongols in 1243. In addition to the
with the city outside.57 Instead it focuses on a courtyard-centered citadel-palace type already
particularly famous building, al-Nasir's Great encountered in the papers of Tabbaa and Rab
Iwan, also known as the Dar al-'Adl, which func- bat, Redford identifies another prevalent type
tioned as a stage that provided an "unobstructed that existed side by side with citadels, the subur-
view" of the sultan during his biweekly mazalim ban palace featuring garden pavilions and kiosks
sessions, the review of troops, coronations, iq.tai which he links to later examples from Timurid
distributions, and the reception of ambassadors. and Safavid Iran. The Anatolian Seljuq suburban
The openness of this columnar hall with a single palaces whose view-commanding pavilions were
wall at the back, which Rabbat interprets as re- often accompanied by tents foreshadowed Mon-
flecting the accessibility of the Mamluk ruler's gol-Ilkhanid, Timurid, and Safavid semi-nomad-
justice to all, recalls the many-pillared Chihil ic patterns addressed in the papers of Blair and
Sutun halls with porches open on all three sides, O'Kane. Redford highlights the "Persianate aspi-
whose earliest known examples in Timurid pal- rations" of the Rum Seljuqs whose self-image was
aces are mentioned by O'Kane. Such open, pil- inspired by the Shahnama and medieval Persian
lared halls with only one wall at the back may well mirror-for-princes literature. Nevertheless, the
have had a pre-Timurid Iranian origin; they con- juxtaposition on the Konya city walls of Shahnama
tinued to be widely used as public audience halls inscriptions and Persianate reliefs with spoliated
(dziv&n) in the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal figural Roman sculptures exemplified the hybrid
palaces discussed in my paper.58 syncretism of the Rum Seljuqs who ruled in a
Rabbat links the Great Iwan's "basilical" plan, recently conquered frontier land. Redford ar-
widt its central aisle culminating in a green-tile-gues that the Anatolian palaces and their decora-
covered wooden dome supported on twelve col- tive programs had a predominantly Iranian Sel-
umns, to Umayyad and early Abbasid public audi- juq inspiration, even though no archaeological
ence halls crowned by a qubbat al-khadr&. The evidence remains in Iran.
green domes of this Mamluk audience hall and of Redford shows how the royal imagery once
the citadel's neighboring mosque reveal that at confined to the private setting of palaces began to
burst out during Alaeddin Keykubad's reign palatial architecture of the post-Mongol eastern
(1219-37) into the public sphere, appearing on Islamic world.
city walls, city gates, and public baths. This disso- The Mongol sack of Baghdad had brought
lution of the boundary between the private and about a radical split in the Muslim world, separat-
public domains represents a curious reversal of ing the tradition-bound Arab-speaking realms of
the late-antique phenomenon of Tetrarchic the Mamluk sultanate and the Maghrib from
palaces appropriating prestigious urban forms. the Persianate Turco-Mongol sphere in the
Redford notes that the urban citadel-palace of east, extending from Anatolia all the way to
the Blachernai in Constantinople and the walled China. Noting this linguistic-cultural split Ibn
suburban palaces that complemented itwere not Khaldun wrote:
so different in conception from those encoun-
tered in the Rum Seljuq territories during the When non-Arabs, such as the Daylam and, after them,
late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He also the Saljuqs in the East and the Zanatah and Berbers in
draws attention to the cross-cultural interchange the West, became the rulers and obtained royal author-
ity and control over the whole Muslim realm, the
between the neighboring Byzantine and Rum
Arabic language suffered corruption.... But when the
Seljuq courts, exemplified by a twelfth-century
Tatars and Mongols, who were not Muslims, became
Persianate pavilion in the Byzantine palace of
the rulers in the East, this element in favor of the Arabic
Constantinople, the Mouchroutas, which featured
language disappeared, and the Arabic language was
a muqarnas dome and figural tiles showing "the absolutely doomed. No trace of it has remained in
Emperor himself, seated on the floor in the these Muslim provinces: the Iraq, Khurasan, the coun-
manner of a Seljuq monarch."59 This recalls the try of Fars [southern Persia], Eastern and Western
use of Islamic building types, muqarnas vaults, India, Transoxania, the northern countries, and the
and figural paintings side by side with Byzantine Byzantine territory [Anatolia].... The sedentary Arab
mosaics in the contemporary twelfth-century dialect has largely remained in Egypt, Syria, Spain and
Norman palaces of Sicily, testifying to the relative the Maghrib.62
fluidity ofmedieval cultural boundaries thatwould

increasingly harden during the early-modem While the memories of a glorious past contin-
period. ued to be evoked in the Arab lands, in the post-
Part 4 covers the palaces of the Mongols and Mongol eastern Islamic world new cultural orien-
their successors in the east which constitute a tations would forever transform palatial
fourth paradigm characterized by the coexist- architecture. If Cairo, referred to by Ibn Khaldun
ence of two palatine types: urban citadel-palaces as "the mother of the world, the great center
and suburban garden palaces. These two were, (iwan) of Islam, and the mainspring of the sci-
however, transformed in terms of scale, spatial ences and the crafts," was the dominant cultural
organization, architectural vocabulary, decora- center of the fourteenth-century Arab world, it
tive programs, and functions. The new paradigm, was Tabriz (followed in the fifteenth century by
initiated by the Ilkhanids in the second half of the Samarqand and Herat) that assumed that func-
thirteenth century and elaborated by the Timu- tion in the east.63 By the sixteenth and seven-
rids, culminated in the early-modern imperial teenth centuries these cities, too, would be
palaces of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, eclipsed by the new cultural capitals of the Otto-
all of whom shared a common nomadic imperial mans, Safavids, and Mughals (Istanbul, Isfahan,
heritage. That heritage would engender distinc- Agra, and Delhi) where distinctive architectural
tive dynastic palace idioms which synthesized idioms clearly demarcating the territorial bound-
Islamic, Turco-Mongol, and East Asian elements aries of each empire were created.
first seen in the Mongol palaces of Yuan China.60 Unlike the Seljuq successor states the Mongols
The fourth palatine paradigm had no impact on and their successors no longer sought religious
the eastern Islamic lands which perpetuated old- sanction from the Abbasid caliphs to legitimize
er traditions that culminated in the Alhambra. As their rule. The Ilkhanids derived legitimacy
Oleg Grabar once put it, "The Alhambra stands at through their noble descent from Chinghiz Khan
the end of a historical development and is, de- and their adherence to the Chingizid yasa, a body
spite all its perfection, a formal dead end."61 It of dynastic laws and customs. After converting to
would continue to provide a model for the later Islam, they sought to balance secular dynastic
palaces of Spain and North Africa which largely tradition ('urj) with Islamic law (shafi'a), a bal-
remained cut off from nev developments in the ance that each of the Mongol successor states
16 GULRU NECIPOGLU
would redefine according to its own theory of discussion of the court's annual migrations be-
dynastic legitimation. The relative sense of unity tween winter and summer camps in giant tent
that had prevailed in the Muslim world since the cities. In an attempt to delineate what a "typical
"Sunni revival" of the eleventh century was fol- Ikhanid palace" might have looked like, Blair
lowed during Mongol hegemony by the rising focuses on the Takht-i Sulayman (Throne of
fortunes of Sufism that temporarily bridged the Solomon) palace, the only partially excavated
gap between Sunnism and Shi'ism from the late palace from that period. Built by Abaqa in the
thirteenth through the fifteenth century. This 1270s, before the Ilkhanids had converted to
unity would be shattered in the sixteenth century Islam, it occupied the site of an ancient sanctuary
with the adoption of Twelver Shi'ism as the Safa- where the "Sasanian emperors were crowned"
vid state religion, creating an early-modem pat- and incorporated forms and royal myths from
tern of competing ideologies not so different Iran's pre-Islamic and Islamic past. Accompanied
from the rivalry of the three tenth-century cali- by narrative paintings, its Persian inscriptions
phates. from the Shahnama, recalling the ones quoted on
The two dominant post-Mongol palatine types, the Rum Seljuq city walls, legitimized the present
urban citadel-palaces and suburban garden pal- "through identification with the past." The
aces, were imperial in scale unlike their relatively Shahnaima would continue to inspire the royal
small predecessors. They embodied a new self- imagination of the post-Mongol dynasties, found-
confidence, different from the backward-looking ed by Turkish-speaking rulers who adopted Per-
revivalism of the third paradigm. Although refer- sian as their court language, just as the Turkic
ences to the Islamic and pre-Islamic past contin- Ghaznavids and Seljuqs had done before them.
ued to be made, these were now balanced with Blair hypothesizes that the Takht-i Sulayman's
bold departures from inherited models. What layout, composed around a spacious four-iwan
largely disappeared from the post-Mongol palac- court containing an artificial pond in the middle,
es of the eastwas the fabulous aura of the caliphal was similar to that of other Ilkhanid palaces such
palaces which the shrunken medieval Muslim as the one in Sultaniyya, known primarily from
states had sought to emulate with reduced means texts. Its function as a "hunting lodge" comple-
"like a cat that by blowing itself up imitates the mented by its use as an encampment site for the
lion. ""I The new palaces no longer thrived on bewil-
Mongol hordes recalls the suburban Anatolian
dering effects, such as mercury-filled pools and Seljuq lake-side palaces described by Redford
automata. In them the symbolic language of tents whose architecture was supplemented by tents
in vast garden enclosures with only a few architec- when the assembled annieswould encamp there.16
turl accents took on an unprecedented promi- Both Blair and O'Kane refer to another extra-
nence reflecting the ethos of imperial nomads. urban Ilkhanid royal complex, Ghazan's summer
The new ceremonial practices introduced un- palace in Ujan at Azerbaijan where the audience
der Ilkhanid rule included the qiuiiltay (an assem- hall was a golden tent pitched at the center of a
bly of nomadic tribes gathered to elect or acclaim walled chahar bagh garden featuring pavilions,
the new ruler in tents where great feasts took towers, and a bath. Portable domical tents with a
place) and the greater participation of royal wom- wooden skeleton were also used in the Mongol
en in public celebrations.15 Far from remaining imperial palaces of Shangdu and Dadu, built for
secluded, the new semi-nomadic rulers hosted Khubilai Khan in the early thirteenth century.67
lavish banquets for the tribal chiefs of their feudal The domed tent of the Mongol ruler Goyuk
clan confederations that no longer relied on (1246-49) "resembled the green cupola [i.e.,
centralized slave troops. Feasting, already impor- dome of heaven] and a model of the highest
tant in the Seljuq period when Nizam al-Mulk had vault, where the designs from the abundance of
regarded it as indispensable for the ruler to keep embroidery and the beauty of the colouring ap-
an open table for tribal followers, continued to be peared as a sky with the lights of the stars shining
emphasized by the Ilkhanids, Timurids, and Safa- as lanterns." Similarly the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan
vids as part of their tribal-nomadic legacy. This Khan's imperial tent, which took 200 men 20 days
shared legacy would, however, be transformed in to erect, had a dome decorated with shiny stars
the Ottoman and Mughal courts where festive and colored jewels resembling the c:elestial
royal banquets with freely circulated wine gave dome.Yi8 These examples show that "domes
way to different ceremonies. heaven" continued to be interpreted as cosmo-
Blair's paper on Ilkhanid palaces starts with a logical metaphors of the heavens and paradise.
The legacy of Mongol and Timurid imperial was paralleled by the Mughal court's movements
tents discussed by Blair and O'Kane would be among several capitals, in addition to seasonal
perpetuated in the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mu- visits to royal garden encampments in Kashmir.
ghal courts. The Timurid historian Khvandamir, This mobility was reflected in the creation of
for example, describes an elaborate tent of the several Safavid and Mughal capitals, each fur-
Mughal emperor Humayun whose structure also nished with its own palace. Unlike the Ottomans,
alluded to the heavens. It had "twelve compart- these two dynasties did not seek to establish a
ments corresponding to the Signs of the Zodiac" single fixed capital where all rulers would con-
and a large central tent resembling "the empyri- centrate their cumulative architectural patron-
an heaven which covers the lower heavens" that age and where all of them would eventually be
enclosed the twelve smaller tents surrounding it buried. In Istanbul the Ottomans would merge
on all sides. This description recalls the twelve Turco-Mongol, classical Islamic, and Romano-
pavilions or saraycha that surrounded the monu- Byzantine imperial traditions, creating a seden-
mental royal iwan of the Sultaniyya palace whose tary empire that replaced tribal ties with an im-
heavenly associations were highlighted in the personal centralized bureaucracy and an army
sources, a layout also reminiscent of the twelve dominated by household slaves. The Ottoman
free-standing halls Nasir-i Khusraw saw at the sultans would in many ways revive the secluded
Fatimid palace.Y9 The preoccupation with tents persona
in of the caliphs by mysteriously appearing
the post-Mongol period created an intimate dia-behind the grilled ceremonial windows (shub-
logue between permanent and impermanent bak), as described in my paper.
palatial structures, generating new pavilion types The persistence of the citadel-palace type in
and spatial schemes that translated the organiza- the Ottoman and Mughal capitals can be ex-
tional principles of imperial encampments into plained by the survival of earlier traditions in
more lasting materials. each region. The imperial scale of these citadel-
O'Kane's paper correlates palace design in the palaces reflected the expanded size of the ex-
Iranian world during the Ilkhanid, Timurid, and tended royal households they supported. They
Safavid periods with the rhythms of pastoral no- accommodated a series of spacious courtyards
madism that regulated court life well into the with official and residential functions, in addi-
twentieth century. He highlights the nomadic tion to extensive outiying royal gardens whose
legacy of these Persian courts that "set them apart waterworks and pavilions re-created the atmo-
from their Mamluk, Ottoman, and Mughal con- sphere of a suburban landscape inside the citadel
temporaries" who built their palaces in urban walls. They were supplemented by several neigh-
citadels. By contrast the semi-nomadic rulers of boring suburban garden palaces that could be
the Iranian world, who regarded life in citadels to visited for brief periods for amusement and hunt-
be "claustrophobic," preferred to move about in ing.
tent encampments, temporarily settling in subur- In the Ottoman and Mughal citadel-palaces
ban gardens with pavilions. O 'Kane describes the traditional iwans, T-plan majlises, and multistory
elaborate tents used in court ceremonies, their qasrs or q72 as gave way to predominantly single-
royal symbolism, paradisical associations, and the story structures of light construction reminiscent
great banquets they housed, together with the of tent forms. These palatine complexes repre-
few architectural remains of Timurid palaces. In sented a post-Timurid synthesis with their sprawl-
the last part of his paper he interprets the Safavid ing layout guided by the organization of impe-
royal palace in Isfahan as a mixture of nomadic rial tent encampments. They appropriated large
and urban ideals that brought together the Timur- spaces, making their point not through dominat-
id suburban garden ensembles "within a tighter ing verticality, but through their horizontal ex-
framework." He links the absence of fortified panse and numerous buildings that reflected a
walls in this palace and the court ceremonies complex institutional organization maintained
enacted there, particularly the shah's banquet by a large staff. Axially planned symmetrical four-
receptions inside garden pavilions, with the iwan courts so prevalent in the condensed format
Timurid heritage. of medieval citadel-palaces were now replaced
O'Kane's paper brings us into the early-mod- with a looser arrangement of free-standing or
ern period covered by the last three papers on the attached modular buildings organized around a
Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal courts. The semi- succession of courtyards that culminated in royal
nomadic Safavid pattern of mobility he discusses gardens with pavilions. The monumentalmosques
18 GULRU NECIPO0LU
that once had dominated the skyline of medieval continuity with those of pre-Islamic Iran, a conti-
citadel-palaces built in the age of the "Sunni nuity he traces from the Achaemenid and Sasani-
revival" also vanished, together with the ceremo- an periods well into Qajar times. He describes
nial homage paid to the now extinct Abbasid different Safavid palatine structures including
caliphate, but the administration of royal justice pavilions attached to urban royal palaces, coun-
continued to play a central role in the court tryside villas, royal caravansarays with four-iwan
ceremonial of the early-modem empires. The courts lined up along the road between Isfahan
palace precincts which featured small private and the Caspian Sea and free-standing pavilions
chapels were often connected to their urban on the same route serving as way stations around
setting by processional avenues punctuated with which tents would be pitched. Kleiss also dis-
dynastic monuments. cusses the building materials, vaulting techniques,
The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal palaces and decoration of these Safavid pavilions.
continued to allude to pre-Mongol palatine tradi- Asher's paper analyzes how elements with royal
tions, both Islamic and pre-Islamic. The Safavids associations manifested themselves in the sub-
and Qajars not only elaborated the Shiahnama's imperial palaces of Mughal India. Noting that
image of kingship, but also ceremonially visited only one-fourth of the Mughal empire's subjects
such ancient ruins as Persepolis (popularly known were Muslim, Asher points out that maintaining
as the Throne of Solomon or Throne ofJamshid) imperial authority in the hinterlands required a
as the Buyids had done before them.70 Displaying careful balancing of fluctuating relations between
spolia from Persepolis at the gate of the Isfahan the ruler and the nobles who governed the prov-
palace was only one of the ways in which the inces. Like their imperial models the sub-imperi-
Safavid rulers expressed their connection to the al palaces, therefore, played an important role in
pre-Islamic Persian royal tradition, also reflected the "flow of Mughal power as well as the execu-
in their use of the title "shah" (which the Otto- tion ofjustice." The governor's and prince's pal-
mans appropriated after defeating the Safavids in aces analyzed by Asher exhibited differing com-
1514). binations of local and imperial motifs to reflect
Pre-Islamic traditions of kingship also provided the relative status and political aspirations of
inspiration for the Mughal and Ottoman courts. their patrons.
Just as the Mughal emperor Humayun imitated My paper compares three imperial palaces, the
the architecture and ceremonial of Bahram Gur's Topkapi in Istanbul, the Safavid palace in Is-
heavenly Haft Paykar palace in his seven-domed fahan, and the Mughal Red Fort in Delhi, to
palace at Dinpanah in Delhi, so ancient Near highlight the different ways in which their archi-
Eastern and Hindu concepts of divinely illumined tecture and ceremonial framed the gaze in rep-
kingship were used to bolster the semi-divine resenting the monarch's official public image.
royal image of the Mughal emperors Asher and I The relative visibility and invisibility of the mon-
discuss. The Ottoman uses of the past were not arch had informed palace design from ancient
limited to the Byzantine imperial heritage, but times onward. Winter writes, "traditions of visibil-
also included the ancient Near East. Suleyman I, ity and sight-lines, both of and by the ruler, can
for example, promoted his image as the "second become significant indicators of cultural and
Solomon" and had painters of miniatures record national attitudes toward authority and the per-
his visit to the famous Sasanian castle of Qasr-i son of the ruler." From the urban palace-cum-
Shirin while he was on a military campaign in mosque complexes where the accessible Umay-
Iraq. His painters also depicted Suleyman drink- yad caliphs made regular public appearances
ing wine from the Iranian king Jamshid's magic punctuated by the five daily prayers; the sprawl-
ruby cup that reflected the whole world, a symbol ing palatine complexes of the Abbasids, Fatimids,
of universal rule presented to the sultan on the and Spanish Umayyads where the sacred caliphs
eve of a campaign directed against the Safavids.7'
remained in studied seclusion; and the citadel-
A similar preoccupation with Solomon andJam- palaces of the Seljuq successor states that embod-
shid in the Qajar and Mughal courts emerges ied the growing accessibility of thejust ruler in his
from Soucek's paper, which shows how legends dar al-'adl, to the palaces of the Ilkhanids and
about the two were often inextricably interwo- Timurids where tribal followers were entertained
ven. by the ruler in banquets, the palace paradigms we
Kleiss's paper on Safavid palaces argues that have encountered thus far reflected differing atti-
Safavid pavilion types exhibited a remarkable tudes towvard the ruler's visibility. So did the three
SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN THE PALATLAL ARCHITEGCURE OF THE PRE-MODERN ISLAMIC WORLD 19
palaces compared in my paper whose ways of early-modern palaces still remained largely
staging the monarch's public appearances were confined to "royal voices," often concealing
rooted in different concepts of absolute monar- the dialectical interaction between the ideal
chy and theories of dynastic legitimacy. These monarchical order portrayed in ceremonies and
three palaces were composed of similar units, actual practice. The official images of kingship
but their syntactic combination and ceremo- constructed in these palaces would remain effec-
nial articulation differed considerably. My paper tive well into the eighteenth century when new
accentuates these contextual differences that palatine paradigms, increasingly influenced by
come into clearer focus through a synchronic European models, were formulated to accommo-
comparative analysis. date changing customs and conceptions of the
As Winter warns the reader at the very begin- state just before the emergence of modern na-
ning of the volume the official rhetoric of the tion states.
20 GULRU NECIPOGLU
Notes P. K Hitti as The Origins of the Islamic State, 2 vols.

(New York, 1968), 1:446; al-MaseidT, Mu rij al-
1. In addition to the papers presented at the sympo- Dhahab, ed. and trans. by Barbier de Maynard and
sium, this volume includes a new contribution by B. M. M. Pavet de Courteille as Les prairies d'or, 9
Scott Redford who was unable to attend the meet- vols. (Paris, 1861-77), 3:213.
ing.
9. For the reuse of materials from a Persian palace at
2. For the early-medieval bias in the field, see Oleg Hira in Kufa, see al-Tabari, History, 13:69-72. The
Grabar, "Reflections on the Study of Islamic Art," palace type imported from Hira is mentioned in
Muqarnas 1 (1983): 1-14. He writes: "We have a Maseidi, Les prairies d'or, 7:192; and Mascidi, The
vision of Islamic art in which the earliest monu- Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids, trans. and ed. P.
ments create the norms bywhich the whole artistic Lunde and C. Stone (London and New York,
span is defined" (p. 8). 1989), 240.
3. Some exceptions are J. M. Scarce, "The Royal 10. Nizpml of Ganja, The Haft Paikar (The Seven Beau-
Palaces of the Qajar Dynasty: A Survey," in Qajar ties) Containing the Life and Adventures of King Bah-
Iran. Political, Social, and Cultural Change 1800- ram Cur, and the Seven Stoies Told Him by His Seven
1925. StudiesPresented toProfessorL. P. Elwell-Sutton, Queens, trans. C. E. Wilson, 2vols. (London, 1924).
ed. C. E. Bosworth and C. Hillenbrand (Edin-
burgh, 1984); andJ. M. Scarce, "Das qadjarische 11. For Abbasid ceremonial, see Dominique Sourdel,
Palais am Taq-i Bostan," Archaeologische Mitteil- "Questions de ceremonial abbaside," Revue des
ungen aus Iran 12 (1979): 395-414. itudes islamiques 28 (1960): 121-48; and Hilal al-
$abl ', Rusuim Dar alKhilafah: The Rules and Regula-
4. The first three paradigms have recently been out- tionsofthe "Abbasid Court, trans. E. A. Salem (Beirut,
lined in Jere L. Bacharach, "Administrative Com- 1977).
plexes, Palaces, and Citadels: Changes in the Loci
of Medieval Muslim Rule," in The Ottoman City and 12. Mas'uidi, Les prairies d'or, 5:74. The same pattern
Its Parts, ed. I. A. Bierman, R. A. Abou-El-Haj, and was followed by the Umayyad caliph Sulayman, Les
D. Preziosi (New Rochelle, N.Y., 1991),111-28. To prairies d'or, 5:398-99.
these I added a fourth paradigm while I was orga-
nizing the palaces symposium. 13. Ibn Khaldcin, The Muqaddimah, 1:451.
5. He also writes, "Gardens and irrigation are the 14. For the parades of different dynasties, see P. Sand-
results of sedentary culture. Orange trees, lime ers, P. Chalmeta, A. K. S. Lambton, 0. Nutku,
trees, cypresses, and similar plants having no edi- J. Burton-Page, "Mawakib," EI2 (Leiden, 1991),
ble fruits and being of no use are the ultimate in 6:849-67.
sedentary culture, since they are planted in gar-
dens only for the sake of their appearance, and 15. Hilal al-$Ab-', Rusiim Dar al-Khilafah, 73-74. For a
tenth-century Byzantine book of ceremonies, see
they are planted only after the ways of luxury have
become diversified," Ibn Khaldfin, The Muqaddi- Constantin VII Porphyrogenete, Le livre de crimo-
mah, trans. Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols. (New York, nies, ed. and trans. A. Vogt, 2vols. (Paris, 1935-40).
N.Y., and Princeton, NJ., 1980), 2:295; 1:339.
16. Hila al-SdbP, Rusuim Dar al-Khilafah, 63-69.
6. Al-Tabari, Ta'nikh al-rusuil wa'l-mulfik, trans. M. G.
Morony as The History ofal-Tabari (New York, 1987), 17. Rusiim Dar al-Khilafah, 64-69.
18:4; and vol. 21, trans. M. Fishbein (New York,
1990), 180. 18. One such gilded window grille (shubbakh), original-
ly installed in the d&ral-khilafa ofBaghdad, behind
7. See Louis Massignon, "al-Khawarnak," Encyclopae- which the caliphs sat in state, was sent together
dia of Islam, 2nd ed. (hereafter E[2) (Leiden, with other captured caliphal insignia to the Fatim-
1990), 4:1133; and Irfan Shahid, "al-H-Ira," EI2 id caliph in Egypt by the amir al-Basasiri, who in
(Leiden, 1986), 3:462-63. 1055-56 had deposed the Abbasid caliph al-Qa2im
bi-Amr Allah; it was reinstalled at the Fatimid
8. Al-Tabari, History, 21:195-97. For Ibn al-Faqih, see grand vizier's palace in Cairo; see Ghada Hijjawi
History, 21:196, n. 705. About the Umayyad ruler Qaddumi, "A Medieval Islamic Book of Gifts and
Hisham's visit to Khavarn aq, see History, 21: 196, Treasures: Translation, Annotation, and Commen-
n. 704. Al-Baladhuri, KitabFutu,h al-Buldan, trans. tary on the Kitab al-Hadaya wa al-Tuhaf," Ph.D.
diss., Harvard University, 1990, 202. For this win- 27. At the Balkuwara palace (849-59) in Samarra,
dow grille and later examples used by the Mamluks each court was built slightly higher than the
and Ottomans, see my paper in this volume. preceding one, until one reached the central
throne room on the highest platform which com-
19. For the Byzantine embassy, see Qaddumi, "A Me- manded an unhindered view of the whole palace
dieval Islamic Book of Gifts and Treasures," 137- complex, the Tigris, and the distant irrigated land-
47;J. Lassner, The Topography ofBaghdad in theEarly scape extending along the river's opposite shore.
Middle Ages (Detroit, 1970), 86-91; and Hilal al-
$lb-P, RusfumDaralaKhilafah, 16-18. 28. Mas'udl, Les prairies d'or, 6:290. See also Sheila
Blair's paper in this volume.
20. According to al-SabT' the caliphal palace in Bagh-
dad, which was estimated to be a city as large as 29. The palaces in the Lakhmid capital Hira remained
Shiraz, "contained, among other things, farms and an example of vanitas vanitatum as late as the tenth
farmers, private livestock and four hundred baths century when they inspired the Abbasid poet al-
for its inhabitants and retinues." He adds that its Sharif al-Radi to compose two elegies; see Shahid,
population in al-Mukafi's reign (902-8) included "al-Hira," 3:463. Similarly a song-poem the Ab-
20,000 domestic servants (dariyyah ghilman), and basid musician al-Mawsili recited to the caliph al-
10,000 black and Slav servants; in al-Muqtadir's Mu'tasim during the inauguration of his palace in
reign (908-32) it had 11,000 black and Slav ser- Samarra began with a "romantic remembrance of
vants, thousands of chamber servants (4ujri the old dwelling places and how their vestiges were
ghilman) in addition to 4,000 free and slave girls; effaced"; Qaddumi, "A Medieval Islamic Book of
see Hilal al-$5bP', Rusium Dar al-Khilafah, 13-14. Gifts and Treasures," 136. The ninth-century Ab-
basid court poet al-Buhturi also composed nostal-
21. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs held private gic poems lamenting the ruins of the Iwan-i Kisra
majlises with wine and music where they would and of al-Mutawakkil'sJaefari palace, demolished
undress before close attendants and boon com- by the caliph's successor in 861; see al-Buhturl,
panions behind a curtain, following a custom ini- Diwan, trans. A. Wormhoudt (Oskaloosa, Iowa,
tiated by the Sasanian monarchs; see al-Jahiz, Le 1975), 25-27, 36-38. Much later, when the Otto-
livre de la Couronne, trans. Charles Pellat (Paris, man sultan Mehmed II toured the ruins of the
1954). These private audiences should not be Byzantine GreatPalace and the neighboring Hagia
confused with their more formal public counter- Sophia after having conquered Constantinople in
parts. 1453, the dilapidated state of these monuments
allegedly led him to muse on the transitoriness of
22. Fikret Yegul writes, 'The idea harks back, also, to worldly power; see Gulru Necipoglu, Architecture,
the Kaisersaal, or the imperial hall, of the Roman Ceremonial and Power: The Topkapi Palace in the
bath-gymnasium complexes in which the ruling Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Cambridge, Mass.,
emperor (not in person but in image) was hon- and London, 1991), 3. A similar reaction was
ored in a central apse, at the end of the royal axis," provoked by the ruins of Hadrian's villa in Pope
Baths and Bathingin ClassicalAntiquity (Cambridge, Pius II, whose memoirs record his visit to that site
Mass., and London, 1992), 348-49. For Romano- in 1461; Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Memoirs of a
Byzantine baths in Antioch and Syria, see Baths and Renaissance Pope: The Commentaries of Pius II, trans.
Bathing, 324-39. F. A. Gragg (New York, 1959), 193. I owe the last
reference toJohn Pinto.
23. Paul Magdalino, 'The Bath of Leo the Wise and
the 'Macedonian Renaissance' Revisited: Topog- 30. For this palace, see dissertations by D[orothy]
raphy, Iconography, Ceremonial, Ideology," Dum- Fairchild Ruggles, "Madinat al-Zahra's Construct-
barton Oaks Papers 42 (1988): 97-118. ed Landscape: A Case Study in Islamic Garden and
Architectural History," University of Pennsylvania,
24. The sixth-century description by John of Gaza is 1991, and Morteza Sajadian, "The City-Palace of
cited in Karl Lehmann, "The Dome of Heaven," Madinat al-Zahra': Planning, Architecture, and
Art Bulletin 27,1 (1945): 23. Decoration in Tenth-Century Caliphal Spain,"
University of Wisconsin, 1986.
25. Also see Lehmann, "Dome of Heaven," 25, n. 232.
31. Cited in P. Chalmeta, "Marasim," E12 (Leiden,
26. The passage from al-Gazfll's Matalir al-budf1r is 1991), 6:520-21.
translated in Franz Rosenthal, The Classical Heri-
tage in Islam, "Painting in Baths," 265-66. 32. D. Fairchild Ruggles, "The Mirador in Abbasid
22 GULRU NECIPOGLU
and Hispano-Umayyad Garden Typology," the Ibn Tulun Mosque's maqufira, Ahmad used to
Muqarnas 7 (1990): 73-82. change his garments, rest, and perform the
ritual ablutions before presiding over the
33. Al-Maqqari, Nafj al-.fb 1 (Beirut, 1968): 527,Friday prayer. This no longer extant structure
566, 569. must have resembled the brick royal annex with
a four-iwan court and ablution halls discovered
34. Mas'udi's description is translated and interpret- adjacent to the qibla wall of the ninth-century
ed in Hazem al-Sayyed, 'The Development of the mosque of Abu Dulaf at Samarra, similarly de-
Cairene Qaca: Some Considerations," Annales is- signed for the Abbasid caliph's use when he went
lamologiques23 (1987): 31-53: "And al-Mutawakkil to pray in his mosque. The latter is described in
originated in his days a construction that people Creswell and Allan, A Short Account ofEarly Muslim
had not known. And it is known as theh-ti with two Architecture, 370-71.
sleeves and porticoes (kummayn wa arwiqa).... the
portico had in it the seat (majlis) of the king which 39. A tenth-century description of this capital city
is the chest (sadr) with the two sleeves (kumm&n) to which was "circular like a drinking cup" is cited in
the left and right. And in the two bayts that are the Jonathan Bloom, "Meaning in Early Fatimid Ar-
pair of sleeves would be his close attendants chitecture," Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1980,
(hawss), and in the right of the two of them is 41-42.
the
clothing closet (hazanat al-kiswa) and in the left
what is needed of drink. And the space of the 40. W. M. Thackston,Jr., trans., N&ser-eKhosraw'sBook
portico is taken up/permeated by the chest (sadr) of Travels (Safarnima) (New York, 1986), 45.
and the two sleeves, and the three doors are over
the portico. And this construction was called 41. Thackston, Na.ser-e Khosraw's Book, 4546.
to this day "the hifi with two sleeves" in refer-
ence to al-Hirr. And the people followed al- 42. For the Fatimid Palace's reconstruction on the
Mutawakkil's lead in this and it became fa- basis of Maqrizi's fifteenth-century description,
mous to this end." see P. Ravaisse, Essai sur l'histoire et la topographie du
Caire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1887-90).
35. ThacAlib-1, The La.t'ifal-ma'&rf of Tha idibi, trans-
lated as TheBook ofCuriousandEntertainingInforma-
43. Nasir-i Khusraw says the gate's vestibule had plat-
tion by C. E. Bosworth (Edinburgh, 1968), 48-49; forms for the ministers and the grand vizier where
Mas'iudi, Les prairies d'or, 6:426-27; al-Tabari, His- they presumably held public audiences; Thack-
tory, 30:320; and Ibn Bibi, Die Seltschukengeschichte ston, Na,ser-e Khosraw's Book, 46.
desIbnBiMi, trans. HerbertW. Duda (Munksgaard,
Copenhagen, 1959), 88, 231. 44. Thackston, N,sfer-e Khosraw's Book, 56-57.
36. The geographer al-Bakri (1068) describes the 45. For Fatimid court ceremonial and further bibliog-
Aghlabid irrigation works and gardens in the sub- raphy on the subject, see Paula Sanders, "Marasim,"
urbs of Kairouan, one of which featured a circular EI2 (Leiden, 1991), 6:518-20. The Great Iwan is
water tank with an octagonal tower in the middle, described in Maqrizi, Khi,tat, 2 vols. (Bulaq, 1853),
crowned by a belvedere pavilion with four doors; 1:388; and Qalqashandi, Subh al-a'sha 3 (Cairo,
al-Bakri, Desamption de l'afique septentrionale, trans. 1919): 500. In the twelfth century the audiences
M. C. de Slane (Paris, 1965), 59-60. This recalls a were shifted to the Golden Qaca; see al-Sayyed,
similar belvedere tower built in early-tenth-centu- "Development of the Cairene Qaca," 37; and Doris
ry Baghdad, the Qubbat al-Himar (Dome of the Behrens-Abouseif, "The Facade of the Aqmar
Ass), referred to by Tabbaa in this volume, which Mosque in the Context of Fatimid Ceremonial,"
was surmounted by a small domed pavilion that Muqarnas9 (1992): 34-35.
the Abbasid caliph could ascend on his mule from
a spiral ramp to enjoy the view of the surrounding 46. For the Qalca of the Banu Hammad (1015-1152)
landscape. in Algeria, see L. Golvin, LeMaghrib centrald l'ipoque
des Zirides (Paris, 1957); L. Golvin, Recherches
37. For the Tulunid palace and mosque, see Maqrizi, archiologiques a la qala des Banu Hammad (Paris,
Description historique et tpographique del Egypte, trans. 1965); Rachid Bourouiba, La qalra des Bani Ham-
P. Casanova, vols. 3 and 4 (Cairo, 1906-20), 3:204- mad (Algiers, 1975); E. Dworaczynski, La qal'a des
70; and K. A. C. Creswell, rev. ed.J. W. Allan, A Short Beni Hammad (Warsaw, 1990).
Account of Early Muslim Architecture (Hampshire,
Eng., 1989), 391-406. 47. Composed of several interconnected tower pavil-
ions, the multi-storied Norman royal palace in
38. In a building called a daral-imara, built adjacent to Palermo was surrounded by a belt of suburban
gardens called Terrestrial Paradise (il Genoardo, Dawla's (983-98) throne room in Baghdad, where
al-jannat al-'ard). These gardens once featured he sat on an elevated throne (sidilli) under which
villas and domed pavilions in the midst of water- ran a stream of water in a lead-plated channel;
tanks, criss-crossed by channels with jets of water, Hilal al-S;ab`', Rusuim Dar al-Khil&fah, 20.
among which only La Ziza (altcazIz, the Glorious),
La Cuba (al-qubba, the Dome), and La Cubola (the 56. Cited in Bacharach, "Administrative Complexes,
Cupola) have survived; see Giuseppe Bellafiore, Palaces, and Citadels," 124.
Architettura in Sicilia nella eta islamica e normanna
(827-1194) (Palermo, 1990); G. Bellafiore, La Zisa 57. For a fuller treatment, see Nasser 0. Rabbat,
diPalemo (Palermo, 1978); Guiseppe Caronia, La "The Citadel of Cairo, 1176-1341," Ph.D. diss.,
Zisa di Palermo (Rome, 1987); G. Caronia and V. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1991.
Noto, La Cuba di Palermo (Palermo, 1988); Ursula
Staacke, Un Palazzo normanno a Palermo: La Zisa 58. The sixteenth-century public audience hall at the
(Palermo, 1991). Topkapi Palace was an Ottoman version of such an
open, pillared hall; its form, too, is described in
48. Bacharach, "Administrative Complexes, Palaces, the sources as reflecting the free access to sultanic
and Citadels," 111-28. justice; see Necipoglu, Architecture, Ceremonial and
Power, 79-84.
49. Ibn Khaldfin, The Muqaddimah, 1:458.
59. The Byzantine emperors had already exhibited
50. Ibn Khaldfin, The Muqaddimah, 2:75-77. For the their receptiveness to Islamic palatial models at
decreased size of armies in late Abbasid Baghdad the suburban garden palace of Bryas in Constanti-
during the tenth century, see Hilal al-SabPl, Rusium nople, built in 832 for the emperor Theophilus on
Dar al-Khilafah, 20. the basis of plans brought by his ambassador to the
Abbasid court; see Steven Runciman, 'The Coun-
51. For the Alhambra and early-modem Maghribi try and Suburban Palaces of the Emperors," in
palaces not treated in this volume, see Oleg Gra- Charanis Studies, ed. A. E. Laiou-Thomadakis (New
bar, The Alhambra (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), and Brunswick, NJ., 1980), 223; and Semavi Eyice,
Marianne Barrucand, Urbanisme princier en Islam: "Bryas Sarayi," Belleten 23 (1959): 79-1 1 1.
Meknes et ks villes royales islamiques post-midievales
(Paris, 1985). 60. The mid-thirteenth-century Mongol imperial pal-
ace in Karakurum, for example, was the creation
52. J. S. Nielsen, "Mazifim,"EI2 (Leiden, 1991),6:933- of separate teams of Cathayan and Muslim build-
35. ers who were asked to construct pavilions in their
own respective styles and decorative modes; see
53. In addition to giving public audiences on Mondays Juwayni, The History of the World Conqueror, trans.
and Thursdays like the Abbasids, the Fatimid ca- J. A. Boyle, 2 vols. (Manchester, Eng., 1958), 1:236-
liphs held mazizlim sessions every evening at the 39; and Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Chinese Impe-
sakifa of their palace in Cairo; see Sanders rial City Planning (Honolulu, 1990), 148-50. Such
"Marasim," 6:518-20. Although the Abbasid ca- a deliberate mixture of styles finds a parallel in the
liphs seldom took charge of the mazalim court- construction of variegated garden pavilions at Sa-
they usually delegated that task to their viziers and marqand to commemorate Timur's victories over
watched the proceedings behind a curtained win- different kingdoms whose builders and artisans
dow-there seem to have been some exceptions. were transported there, and in the grouping of
For example, al-Muhtadi (869-70) had built in garden pavilions built in the Byzantine, Timurid-
Samarra "a great domed hall with four portals" Turkmen, and Ottoman modes at the fifteenth-
which he called qubbat al-mazalim (dome of com- century Topkapi Palace; see Alimad Ibn cArabshah,
plaints) where "he sat and heard the complaints of Tamerlane or Timur the Great Amir, trans. J. H.
his subjects, both high-born and low," Mas'tidl, Les Sanders (London, 1936), 309-10, and Necipoglu,
prairies d'or, 8:2, and Mas'udi, Meadows of Gold, 299. Architecture, Ceremonial and Power, 210-17, 244-45,
See also Nielsen, "MaZalim," 6:933-34; and A. K. S. 249-50.
Lambton, "Mahkama,"EI2 (Leiden, 1991), 6:11-14.
61. Grabar, Alhambra, 181-82.
54. Al-RavandT is cited inA. K. S. Lambton, "Marasim,"
EI2 (Leiden, 1991), 6:529. 62. Ibn Khaldfin, The Muqaddimah, 2:306-7.
55. The audience iwan in Aleppo with its muqarnas 63. Ibn Khalduin, The Muqaddimah, 3:315.
hood over a shadirwizn placed at the back wall
recalls a description of the Buyid ruler Samsam al- 64. The verse about the cat and lion is cited with
24 GULRU NECIPOGLU
reference to the caliphal ambitions of the Taifa 69. Khvandamir, Qaniin-i Humyaunit: Also Known as
kings of Spain in Ibn Khaldfin, The Muqaddimah, Humayufn-nama, trans. Bani Prasad (Calcutta,
1:469. 1940), 48.
65. See Lambton, "MarAsim," 6:524-34. 70. On one occasion the Safavid ruler Tahmasp I
invited the exiled Mughal emperor Humayun in
66. The function of Takht-i Sulayman as an encamp- 1543-44 on a hunting expedition to Persepolis
ment site was proposed by Roya Marefat in a paper which lasted several days; Jauhar, The Tezkereh al
she presented at the MESA meetings in 1991. Vak:izt or Private Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor
Humayiin, trans. C. Stewart (New York, 1969), 66-
67. Steinhardt, Chinese Imperial City Planning, 150-60. 68.
68. SeeJuwayni, History of the World Conqueror, 1:570-71; 71. These miniatures are reproduced in Esin Atil, ed.,
and al-Al*sarayi, Miisameret alahbibr, trans. M. N. Siileym&nname (Washington, D.C., and New York,
Gencosman and F. N. Uzluk (Ankara, 1943), 329. 1986), 170-71, 216-17.

An Outline Opf Shiftin

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Outline Opf Shiftin

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Smithsonian Institution

An Outline of Shifting Paradigms in the Palatial Architecture of the Pre-Modern Islamic

Norman palaces of Sicily, testifying to the relative the Maghrib.62

fluidity ofmedieval cultural boundaries thatwould

Notes P. K Hitti as The Origins of the Islamic State, 2 vols.

You might also like