NUHA N. N. KHOURY

THE MIHRAB IMAGE: COMMEMORATIVE THEMES IN MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

The mihrab raises a number of cultural, linguistic, and symbolic relationship between these compositions and architectural questions. Primary among these is the the Light of God in the mosque.4 This relationship is question of meaning. Today, the mihrab is convention­ based on the occurrence of the Light Verse on numer­ ally defined as a functional space, as an orientational de­ ous actual lamps and on the supposition that flat mih­ vice, or as areminder of the Prophet and sign of some­ rabs are representations of niche mihrabs in which such thing that is past and invisible.! These definitions, some of which appear in medieval dictionaries and are ac­ cepted by a majority of Muslims and Islamicists, apply to mihrabs as niches that perform specific functions. The basic element of mosque mihrabs, an arch on columns, is common to a number of flat and two-dimensional mih­ rab types, each ofwhich should be interpreted according to its iconographic details and the contexts in which it appears. Nevertheless, the formal similarity between niche and flat mihrabs has led scholars to connect one mihrab type with the other, without first testing for the possible presence of dissimilarities. Instead, a specific type of flat mihrab has been used to provide a definition for the niche mihrab, not as a functional object or tool, but as a symbol of the Divinein the context of the mosque.2 The idea of mihrabs as symbols rests primarily on interpretations of motifs that appear on one particular kind of mihrab, that is, mihrabs that are usually, but not always, flat or two-dimensional. These mihrabs fre­ quently incorporate depictions of lamps, often flanked by candlesticks, and suspended beneath an arch. The composition is usually framed by inscriptions (figs. 2, 3, 4). Variations of this composition occur in many parts of the Islamic world, including Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Yemen, and are known from the late eleventh cen­ tury onward. Because these flat mihrabs are sometimes located in the same position that niche mihrabs occupy in the qibla wall of a structure,3 scholars have associated them with the sacred focal point of the faith and hence with the act of submission in prayer. The lamps that are represented on them are assumed to be mosque lamps, also implying connections with prayer. References to the mysticism of Ghazali's Mishkiit al-Anwiir (The Niche 01 Lights) and to the Fig. 1. Cairo, al-Madrasa al-Budayriyya. Plaque, 14th century. (photo: Äyat al-nur (the Light Verse, Quran 24: 35) project a from Hertz, Catalogue, p. 10) 12 NUHA N. N. KHOURY

Fig. 2. Mosul, Panja (Ali. Mihrab, 1287-88. (photo: from Archäologische Reise, vol. 3, pI. 4) lamps are hung.5 Aside from an assumed symbolism, leum in which they frequently occur and which corre­ these interpretations disregard important differences in sponds to a specific definition of the word "mihrab".7 the forms, iconographic details, and contexts particular Mausolea and shrines thus form a second major type of to each type. commemorative mihrab that is represented in the flat A elose examination of the flat mihrab compositions, mihrab type. Because they act primarily as illustrations, and especially of the lamps and inscriptions that appear as opposed to the functional mihrabs that are found in on them, indicates that they are one of a number of dis­ mosques, and because they are referred to as shakl miJ;,riib tinct types of mihrabs, and are not related to mosque (mihrab shape) and siirat miJ;,riib (mihrab image) in a niche mihrabs.6 The contexts in which these particular medieval description of the type, I will refer to the flat flat mihrabs most often appear - in mausolea and on mihrab compositions as "mihrab images."8 Mihrab tombstones, cenotaphs, and a variety of shrine-related images are signs of commemoration which indicate dif­ objects - suggest an interpretation that is connected ferent types of commemorative acts through variations with death and eschatology. This interpretation is con­ in their own forms, inscriptions, and motifs. firmed by texts that codifY mies pertaining to death, Three iconographic details - two-dimensionality, the burial, and commemoration. Finally, these mihrabs will nature and function of the represented lamps and can­ be seen to be representations that are related to a specif­ diesticks, and the iconographic connections between ic type of architecture - the centrally planned mauso- these motifs and their associated texts - are critical for