Muqarnas Muqarnas

Editor: Gülru Necipoğlu

Founding Editor: Oleg Grabar

Managing Editor: Karen A. Leal

Consulting Editors: Peri Bearman András Riedlmayer

Imaging Consultant: Sharon C. Smith

Editorial Board: Ali Asani, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Eva Hoffman, Cemal Kafadar, Thomas W. Lentz, Roy Mottahedeh, Nasser Rabbat, David J. Roxburgh, Hashim Sarkis, Wheeler Thackston, James Wescoat

Advisory Board: Catherine Asher, Sussan Babaie, Michele Bernardini, Zeynep Çelik, Anna Contadini, Howard Crane, Jerrilynn Dodds, Massumeh Farhad, Finbarr B. Flood, Alain George, Lisa Golombek, Christiane Gruber, Robert Hillenbrand, Renata Holod, Machiel Kiel, Linda Komaroff, Lorenz Korn, R. D. McChesney, Marcus Milwright, Bernard O’Kane, Yves Porter, Scott Redford, Cynthia Robinson, J. Michael Rogers, D. Fairchild Ruggles, Avinoam Shalem, Priscilla Soucek, Maria Subtelny, Heghnar Watenpaugh

www.brill.com/muq Muqarnas An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World

Gazing Otherwise: Modalities of Seeing In and Beyond the Lands of Islam

Guest Editors Olga Bush and Avinoam Shalem

volume 32

Sponsored by The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

LEIDEN | BOSTON 2015 Notes to Contributors: Muqarnas will consider for publication articles on all aspects of Islamic visual cultures, historical and contemporary. Articles submitted for publication are subject to review by the editors and/or outside readers. Manuscripts should be no more than 50 double-spaced typed pages of text (not including endnotes) and have no more than 25–30 illustrations. Exceptions can be made for articles dealing with unpublished visual or textual primary sources, but if they are particularly long, they may be divided into two or more parts for publication in successive volumes. Both text and endnotes should be double-spaced; endnotes should conform to the usage of The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Illustrations should be labeled and accompanied by a double-spaced caption list. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted illustrations and for supplying the proper credit-line information. For the transliteration of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish, Muqarnas follows the system used by the International Journal of Middle East Studies. All transliterated words and phrases in the text and transliterated authors’ names and titles in the endnotes must follow this system. Exceptions are proper nouns (names of persons, dynasties, and places) and Arabic words that have entered the English language and have generally recognized English forms (e.g., madrasa, iwan, mihrab, Abbasid, Muhammad); these should be anglicized and not italicized. Place names and names of historical personages with no English equivalent should be transliter- ated but, aside from ʿayn and hamza, diacritical marks should be omitted (e.g., Maqrizi, Fustat, Sanʿa). A detailed style sheet and further information can be obtained at http://agakhan.fas.harvard.edu (under Publications), or by writing to the Managing Editor, Aga Khan Program, Sackler Museum, Harvard University, 485 Broadway, Cam- bridge, MA 02138. E-mail: [email protected]; fax: 617-496-8389.

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ISSN 0732-2992 ISBN 978-90-04-29898-9 (hardback) e-ISSN 2211-8993

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Acknowledgments ...... vii

Introduction

Avinoam Shalem, Amazement: The Suspended Moment of the Gaze ...... 3 Olga Bush, Prosopopeia: Performing the Reciprocal Gaze ...... 13

Conference Essays

Gülru Necİpoğlu, The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures: Sight, Insight, and Desire ...... 23

D. Fairchild Ruggles, Visible and Invisible Bodies: The Architectural Patronage of Shajar al-Durr . . . . . 63

Samer Akkach, The Eye of Reflection: Al-Nabulusi’s Spatial Interpretation of Ibn ʿArabi’s Tomb ...... 79

Olga Bush, Entangled Gazes: The Polysemy of the New Great Mosque of Granada ...... 97

Emİne Fetvacı, The Gaze in the Album of Ahmed I ...... 135

Matthew D. Saba, A Restricted Gaze: The Ornament of the Main Caliphal Palace of Samarra ...... 155

Avinoam Shalem, Experientia and Auctoritas: ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s Kitāb al-Ifāda wa’l-iʿtibār and the Birth of the Critical Gaze ...... 197

Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Arabesques, Unicorns, and Invisible Masters: The Art Historian’s Gaze as Symptomatic Action? ...... 213

Holly Edwards, Glancing Blows, Crossing Boundaries: From Local to Global in the Company of Afghan Women ...... 233

Laura U. Marks, The Taming of the Haptic Space, from Málaga to Valencia to Florence ...... 253

Contents v Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction 1 Olga Bush 3 Prosopopeia: Performing the Reciprocal Gaze 3 Avinoam Shalem 11 Amazement: The Suspended Moment of the Gaze 11 21 Conference Essays 21 Gülru Neci̇poğlu 23 The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures: Sight, Insight, and Desire 23 D. Fairchild Ruggles 63 Visible and Invisible Bodies: The Architectural Patronage of Shajar Al-Durr 63 Samer Akkach 79 The Eye of Reflection: Al-Nabulusi’s Spatial Interpretation of Ibn ʿArabi’s Tomb. 79 Olga Bush 97 Entangled Gazes: The Polysemy of the New Great Mosque of Granada 97 Emi̇ne Fetvaci 135 The Gaze in the Album of Ahmed I 135 Matthew D. Saba 155 A Restricted Gaze: The Ornament of the Main Caliphal Palace of Samarra 155 Avinoam Shalem 197 Experientia and Auctoritas: ʿAbd Al-Latif Al-Baghdadi’s Kitāb Al-Ifāda Wa’l-Iʿtibār and the Birth of the Critical Gaze 197 Eva-Maria Troelenberg 213 Arabesques, Unicorns, and Invisible Masters: The Art Historian’s Gaze as Symptomatic Action? 213 Holly Edwards 233 Glancing Blows, Crossing Boundaries: From Local to Global in the Company of Afghan Women 233 Laura U. Marks 253 The Taming of the Haptic Space, from Málaga to Valencia to Florence 253 Aknowledgmentsc

This volume is the outcome of a two-day conference conference proceedings as a special issue of the journal. held October 11–12, 2012, at the Kunsthistorisches Insti- Ann Hofstra Grogg, the copy editor, and Karen A. Leal, tut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut (KHI), in Florence, the managing editor of Muqarnas, guided the volume Italy. The conference, titled “Gazing Otherwise: Modali- expertly through the editorial process and deserve our ties of Seeing,” brought together sixteen distinguished many thanks. international scholars whose work explores the varied And last but not least special thanks go to the confer- modalities of seeing in the cultural production of the ence participants whose work is published here. We world of Islam. greatly appreciate their constant cooperation and posi- We wish to express our gratitude to the KHI, and es- tive response during the long editing process as they pecially its directors, Gerhard Wolf and Alessandro revised and expanded their work. We wish to note that, Nova, for their enthusiastic support of our conference. although not all of the papers were submitted for this We are grateful to the conference presenters for their publication, the essays in the volume follow the order of participation and to the members of the scholarly com- the thematic sessions of the conference. munity of the KHI for their contributions to the lively and engaging discussions that followed each paper. Olga Bush and Avinoam Shalem We also wish to acknowledge Gülru Necipoğlu, the Guest Editors editor of the Muqarnas, for her interest in publishing the

Itroductionn  :        

AVINOAM SHALEM

AMAZEMENT: THE SUSPENDED MOMENT OF THE GAZE

We find ourselves yet again in the situation of the alienating detected in other cities, including Jerusalem and Paris. choice. Let’s give it a radical, if not exaggerated formulation: The Jerusalem experience, which mainly involves delu- to know without seeing or to see without knowing. sions of a spiritual nature and seems to cross religious —George Didi-Huberman, Confronting Images™ boundaries, appearing in Jewish, Christian, as well as Muslim travelers to the city, was detected by several Is- On January 22, 1817, Marie-Henri Beyle, better known as raeli psychiatrists and could be called, in analogy to the Stendhal, described his peculiar and unexpected aes- Florentine Stendhal Syndrome, the Felix Fabri Syn- thetic experience in the city of Florence: “As I emerged drome.¸ The second one, the Paris Syndrome, seems to from the porch of Santa Croce, I was seized with a ¨©erce a°²³ict mainly Japanese tourists.¹ palpitation of the heart (that same symptom which, in The gaze is undoubtedly something that transcends Berlin, is referred to as an attack of the nerves); the well- the biological realm of optics and de¨©es investigations spring of life was dried up within me, and I walked in of purely physical matters. It a°fects one’s body and constant fear of falling to the ground.”¯ mind and in²³uences one’s behavior and, indeed, one’s This feeling of being dizzy, of tottering and almost way of thinking. The best example perhaps of the strong fainting while gazing at the beauty of Florentine master- e°fect that it can have on the body is o°fered by pornog- pieces, is recounted by numerous travelers to Florence, raphy, a visual phenomenon still largely neglected by especially those who visit the U°¨©zi. In 1979 the Italian most art historians.º psychiatrist Graziella Magherini diagnosed it as a spe- Powerful though it may sound, “the gaze” cannot be ci¨©c psychosomatic condition that tends to a°²³ict tour- discussed in terms of a monolithic experience—as “The ists exposed for the ¨©rst time to the artistic riches of Gaze.” There are indeed a multitude of gazes, and the Florence, some of them requiring ambulatory treatment visual material attests to its variety rather than its homo- in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. In La Sindrome di geneity.» During the Middle Ages and in the Muslim Stendhal (1989), she describes these patients as so im- cultural sphere at least two distinct perceptual habits mersed in speci¨©c works of art, to the point of identify- have been identi¨©ed and discussed. As early as the elev- ing with one of the represented ¨©gures, that they lose enth century, Abu ʿAli al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan Ibn al- their ability to distinguish between reality and ¨©ction, Haytham (Alhazen, d. ca. 1040), in his famous book Kitāb truth and imagination. She calls this process “personal- al-Manāẓir (Book of Optics), distinguished between izing art.”µ Magherini associates her experiences with glancing and contemplating as two di°ferent modes of patients at the hospital with Stendhal’s autobiographi- perception.¿ Interest in visual perception at the court of cal account and says: “The Stendhal Syndrome occurs the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–61) may well most frequently in Florence, because we have the great- have been generated by the court’s chief physician Abu est concentration of Renaissance art in the world.”· But Zayd Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-ʿIbadi (d. 877), who wrote a beyond Magherini’s pride in the artistic wonders of her famous treatise on the eye.™Â His discussion clearly dem- hometown of Florence, similar syndromes have been onstrates his particular interest in the ¨©rst stage of visual

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P02 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 3-12 Ê ÇÈ   É experience, which he classi¨©es as relating to the visual balance that exists between it and the Seen. This aspect spirit. Moreover, he obviously accords precedence to they wholly failed to understand. Similarly, annulment vision over the other senses, stating, “Its [the visual of the inward and invisible meaning is the opinion of the spirit] most important service and that which ranks ¨©rst Materialists [Hashawiyya].”™¹ in power and magnitude lies in the function of vision.”™™ This division goes hand-in-hand with the aesthetic And with regard to the visual spirit he adds, “This spirit concept in medieval Islam of the perceptible, visible, of the sensitive variety, as vision is unique among the and manifested (ẓāhir), as opposed to the inner, hidden, senses, the noblest of them and the most superior in invisible, and even esoteric (bāṭin). Ẓāhir and bāṭin in quality.”™¯ Interestingly, Hunayn ibn Ishaq compares the Islam are usually associated with philosophical theories various human senses to the cosmic elements, claiming of metaphysics and in particular with the idea of the that vision is ¨©ery and luminous, hearing is air-like, taste sublime beauty of God. But according to al-Ghazali is water-like, touch is earth-like, and the sense of smell these terms also apply to the human perception of the is vapor-like.™µ visible world, for he says, “Prophets used to see concrete Drawing on classical writings related to mathemati- objects, and have immediate vision of the spiritual ideas cal optics or physiology, Ibn al-Haytham was able to behind them.”™º particularize the entire mental activity associated with A case in point is al-Ghazali’s interpretation of the seeing, assigning central importance to the eye and the Light Sura (sura 24:35) in the Koran, which indicates a brain in processing visual knowledge gathered through desire to build a bridge between ẓāhir and the bāṭin, emitted rays of light. In distinguishing between glancing between light as a phenomenal entity and the idea of and contemplative perception, he states that while the God as an absolute concept. Moreover, a careful reading former is not yet an ascertained perception—although of this verse reveals that al-Ghazali suggests classifying he does concede that it requires previous knowledge of the idea of perceiving light—that is, knowledge—into the perceived object—the second is the result of a con- several hierarchically organized categories that range clusive, extended operation and gained through the use from a phenomenological level to a spiritual and mystical of judgmental faculties.™· Ibn al-Haytham’s theory of the level. His ideas on how we acquire knowledge and wis- gaze is indeed to be understood as a major improve- dom are thus fundamentally about the human processing ment on classical treatises on optics, as it conceives of of sensuous information and making meaning. Symbo- the perceived image as something occurring also inside lically interpreting the di°ferent components of the the mind. This understanding links his ideas to the psy- parable of the Light Sura as referring to the ¨©ve hierar- chology of vision and the ways in which objects and chically organized levels of the human spirit, he ex- signs are recognized.™¸ Ibn al-Haytham may thus be re- plains: the ¨©rst, the sensory spirit (al-rūḥ al-ḥassās), is garded as a medieval “Panofsky” in the history of the symbolized by the niche; the second, the imaginative visual. spirit (al-rūḥ al-khayālī), by the glass; the third, the intel- Much interested in the phenomenon and idea of light lectual spirit (al-rūḥ al-ʿaqlī), by the lamp; the fourth, the (nūr) and the human ability to gain divine knowledge, discursive spirit (al-rūḥ al-‡ˆkrī), by the tree; and the Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (d. ¨©fth, the most highly sacred prophetic spirit (al-rūḥ al- 1111) proposed an understanding of vision that is also qudsī al-nabawī), by the oil.™» Al-Ghazali’s division of the based on a clear dichotomy of outer and inner eye. He human process of acquiring knowledge into ¨©ve di°fer- posits two worlds, a materialist one and a spiritualist ent stages obviously expands the entire act of gazing one, and explains that a balance between the two is re- and understanding the data gathered from the phenom- quired. In his treatise on the permanent validity of the enal world. The sensory spirit is, according to him, “the outward and visible sign he states: “The annulment of recipient of the information brought by the senses,”™¿ the outward and visible sign is the tenet of the Spiritual- and “its [the phenomenal world’s] lights, you observe, ists [Batinniyya], who looked, utterly one-sidedly, at one come through several apertures, the eye, ears, nostrils, world, the Unseen, and were grossly ignorant of the etc.”¯Â The imaginative spirit is the recorder of the  :        Ð

information gathered by the senses. It is needed “in or- compared to spiritual observation (irṣād rūḥānī) is Shi- der that intelligential knowledge may be controlled by hab al-Din Yahya b. Habash b. Amirak al-Suhrawardi it…. The images supplied by the imagination hold to- (executed in Aleppo in 1191 and therefore also known as gether the knowledge supplied by the intellect.”¯™ In al-Maqtul).¯» Suhrawardi de¨©nes the epistemological fact, the imaginative spirit is the human faculty that process as made up of several stages. The ¨©rst stage in- memorizes and remembers images. It is our ability to volves the subject, the beholder (that is, the philoso- store images in the mind and call them back to mind pher), and demands speci¨©c activity that results in a even if they are not visible to our eyes and our senses. particular physical and mental condition. In the second The intellectual spirit enables us to apprehend ideas stage, light—that is, knowledge—will enter the sub- beyond the spheres of the senses and the imagination. ject’s being and establish itself within him to form the Al-Ghazali explains: “It [the intellectual spirit] is the speci¨©c basis for true science. The latter process forms speci¨©cally human faculty. It is not found in the lower the third stage and involves the subject’s discursive animals, nor yet in children. The objects of its apprehen- spirit. The experience is then assigned a place and can sion are axioms of necessary and universal applica - be later deduced. The ¨©nal stage consists in writing tion.”¯¯ It is an interesting stage in the processing of down these experienced illuminations (ishrāq).¯¿ As knowledge that engages our ability to abstract, that is, Hossein Ziai says, Suhrawardi’s theory marks “a transi- to theorize and conceptualize things; hence it gives, as tion from the mental approach to knowledge to the ap- al-Ghazali states, “cognizance of the divine ideas.”¯µ The proach that emphasizes direct ‘vision’ of essences of real discursive spirit, he says, “takes the data of pure reason things and insists that knowledge is valid only if the ob- and combines them, arranges them as premises, and jects are ‘sensed,’ seen, or experienced.”µÂ What he pro- deduces from them informing knowledge. Then it takes, vides us with is, in other words, an ontologically based for example, two conclusions thus learned, combines epistemological theory; according to him, the real and them again, and learns a fresh conclusion; and so goes the living creatures that exist, or existed, are the objects on multiplying itself ad in‡ˆnitum.”¯· What is described of our perception that are seen, sensed, and experi- here is an open-ended, synthetic approach. It is not sur- enced. Sight (mushāhada) is the actual encounter be- prising that al-Ghazali chooses the image of the tree, the tween the seeing subject and the object seen. Suhrawardi olive tree, to illustrate this speci¨©c human faculty, be- places this mode of mushāhada above predicated cause, as he says, “Its peculiarity is to begin from one knowledge and argues that it serves as the foundation proposition, then to branch out into two, which two be- by which the certitude of knowledge is established.µ™ come four and so on, until by this process of logical divi- Idrāk ḥissī, or sense perception, is thus seen as immedi- sion they become very numerous.”¯¸ The ¨©nal stage is ate and distinguished from the idrāk ʿaqlī, or intellec- the transcendental prophetic spirit, which is absolutely tual perception. luminous and clear and possessed by saints and proph- Hence it seems that in medieval Islam perception ets. It is the sphere that the intelligent and the discursive could be dissected and, indeed, divided into at least four spirit cannot encompass. Al-Ghazali goes a step further levels, ranging from its ¨©rst sensory stage to its fourth and tells us that all these ¨©ve human spirits are lights, discursive stage. In the period from 1000 until about “for it is through their agency that every sort of existing 1200, the experience of light obviously fascinated major thing is manifested, including objects of senses and philosophers and theologians of the Muslim world, lead- imagination.”¯¹ Therefore, he concludes, “Finally, the ing them to link it to the question of human perception existence, as we have seen, of a graded succession of and the acquisition of knowledge.µ¯ Lights explains the words of the text [the Light Sura] The ¨©rst stage pointed out by all these medieval Light upon Light.”¯º scholars as the speci¨©c moment of the sensed gaze, in Another major scholar who discussed the idea of which a ¨©rst connection is established between sub- knowledge as related to light and, more important, the ject and object in an immediate experience, is what notion of physical observation ( irṣād jismānī) as sparked the idea for the conference “Gazing Otherwise: Ô ÇÈ   É

Modalities of Seeing,” held in Florence, at the Kunsthis- and as a concept in the historiography of the phenom- torisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut, in enon of sight and the acquisition of knowledge; (3) the October 2012. Astonishment (taʿajjub) and amazement directing of the gaze in its various constructions, includ- (mutaʿajjib) were the points of departure for the subse- ing political, social, and gender manipulations; (4) the quent analysis and expansion of concepts that informed mind’s eye and the “meta-image” in imagination, fan- this conference.µµ tasy, and dreams; the poetic tropes of image-making; (5) Art history as a discipline has focused on vision as the the visualization of the invisible, concealing and reveal- main tool for gathering knowledge. However, a shift in ing in the expressions of the sacred and the mundane; scholarly interests occurred in the context of the so- and (6) the repositioning of the gaze in the colonial and called iconic turn and the establishment of the ¨©eld of postcolonial discourse. visual studies within art history departments. Various Yet, as mentioned earlier, what interested me most new avenues were explored, including the investigation was the particular ¨©rst moment of visual interaction be- of the bioneurological processes underlying the gaze tween subject and object, and that prompted the study and its interaction with the body, the mechanics of in- of the gaze for this conference. It is the very moment of struments that enhance vision, and the methods of ren- the beholder’s discovery of his or her object of observa- dering the phenomenal world into aesthetic expressions tion, the moment in which an invisible cord binds the and imagery. It almost seemed that art history could be beholder to a speci¨©c work of art and calls him or her to renamed “history of gazing.” But these new areas share stop and to concentrate and observe a single work. basic Western conceptions of the gaze with more tradi- While Olga Bush in her introduction focuses mainly on tional approaches to art history (for example, the scien- the capability of an object of art to dictate and convey a ti¨©c, philosophical, and artistic dimensions of speci¨©c code of behavior, mode of thinking, and even Renaissance perspective) that have also found their way ideas and feelings—in short, on the agency of the art into the study of Islamic art. The historicizing of the gaze object—my view of this moment focuses entirely on the in the context of art history in general and in the arts of mind of the beholder. I would like to draw attention to Islam in particular may well be called for. Not surpris- this particular cognitive and, indeed, emotional mo- ingly, Heinrich Wöl°²³in wrote at the very beginning of ment that creates a bond between the beholder and a the last century, in his introduction to Kunstgeschicht- speci¨©c work of art. This moment of the gaze embodies liche Grundbegri’fe (1915), “The mode of vision, or let us the entire Weltanschauung of the beholder and his Zeit- say, of imaginative beholding, is not from the outset and geist, because, as Wöll²³in clearly cautioned us: “It goes everywhere the same, but, like every manifestation of without saying that seeing is not a mere mechanical act, life, has its development.”µ· Art history is therefore An- but rather always emotionally contingent. ‘A new mean- schauunggeschichte (the history of beholding).µ¸ ing of the world crystallizes in each new mode of see- The conference was aimed at examining the gaze and ing.’”µ¹ the aesthetic experience of the beholder as they are con- I would like to illustrate this point with a speci¨©c im- structed, depicted, and theorized within the culture- age excavated by Ernst Herzfeld in Iraq: a fragment of a speci¨©c frameworks pertinent to the ¨©eld of Islamic wall painting, a fresco, from the ninth-century Abbasid studies, through approaches developed in the ¨©elds of city of Samarra (¨©g. 1). It is, in fact, a drawing made up art history, visual culture, and anthropology. Within the of relatively thick black lines that point to an utterly broader categories of the functions, constructions, and con¨©dent artistic hand. With just a few lines—quick, limits of the gaze, it intended to explore, among others, sketchy, and resolute—the artisan succeeded in draw- the following topics: (1) astonishment, the overwhelm- ing a human face. A continuous curved line forms the ing of the eye at the ¨©rst encounter with an object and contour of the face. Several other lines mark the neck the embodiment of vision at the interface with multi- and the shoulders. Within the oval face, a few lines sug- sensory experience; (2) the empirical eye as a scienti¨©c gest slightly curved, thick eyebrows, wide-open almond- tool and its impact on artistic perception and production, shaped eyes, and a straight nose. Two short scores,  :        Ö

Fig. 2. Terror. From a photograph by Dr. Duchenne. (After Fig. 1. Fragment of a wall painting, fresco. Abbasid Samarra, Charles Darwin, On the Expression of the Emotions in Man ninth century. Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, inv. no. and Animals [London, 1872], 299, fig. 20) Sam. o. Nr.- Deutsche Ausgrabung von Samarra 1911–13. (Photo: Ingrid Geske) which seem to have been done almost automatically, as In European art history this moment of freezing was if without thinking, suggest a closed mouth and some- largely discussed as a moment of amazement. In a bril- what tight chin. The impression this contoured face liant article titled “‘I Wonder’: A Short History of Amaze- conveys is that of an image that was written rather than ment,”µº John Onians explains this sensory experience painted or drawn. The black lines recall those made by in anthropological, or rather Darwinistic, evolutionary a skilled calligrapher, and the marks on this face accord- terms. Drawing mainly on Edmund Burke and Charles ingly appear like black letters. Darwin,µ» astonishment is de¨©ned as a fundamental And what about the gaze of the image? What kind of category of a universal aesthetic experience expressed sensation do the eyes convey? The gaze is directed at by the eye and mouth being opened wide and the eye- something particular that is beyond our reach, beyond brows being raised. Darwin, in his analysis of this par- us, the beholders. It is focused and intense, yet at the ticular expression (¨©g. 2)—the raising of the eyebrows same time contemplative. The image is entirely ab - and the opening of the eyes—addresses astonishment sorbed in the sight presented to its eyes. As if attempting as a result of either negative or positive experience. The to capture as much visual information as possible, the positive one, which could also be de¨©ned as admiration, eyes are wide open. is associated with pleasure, whereas the negative one So why is it that we are sometimes mesmerized by an involves fear and anxiety. Either way, the changes in the object of art and feel unable to disengage our gaze from expression on the face allow for better vision and breath- that object and free ourselves from its magnetic power? ing and involve essential behaviors and adaptations fa- And why is it that we sometimes become immobilized, voring survival. Astonishment is, according to Onians, like Lot’s wife amazed at the view of the burning city of “a fundamental adaptation which enhances the likeli- Sodom and turning into a column of salt? hood of survival.” And he continues, “The most obvious Ú ÇÈ   É situations in which survival is at risk are when there is danger of attack or when there is the need for food or for a mate.”µ¿ In fact, the gaze becomes intense, forceful, and focused, and all attention is given to the object of the gaze. The astonished gaze can be interpreted as the ¨©rst act of learning, controlling, and taming the marvel. The beholder tries to understand, to consume, and to digest the object of observation. In Islamic art there is yet another gesture that seems to signify this moment of amazement. This particular gesture, or rather iconographic motif, is frequently known as biting one’s ¨©nger. It appears mainly in Per- sian and Ottoman miniatures. The motif of a fore¨©nger placed to the side of the mouth has a long tradition. J. J. Tikkanen, in his corpus study, Zwei Gebärden mit dem Zeige‡ˆnger (Two Gestures with the Pointer Finger), traced it back to ancient times, particularly to the image of Harpocrates.·Â This Ptolemaic Greek deity is a syn- cretic Pharaonic-Hellenistic god adapted from the Egyp- tian child god Horus, one of the ancient and most important deities of Pharaonic Egypt.·™ It is usually de- picted as a standing ¨©gure raising one hand toward his head and placing his fore¨©nger directly on his mouth (¨©g. 3). This Hellenized Horus god was much venerated in Alexandria after the arrival of Alexander the Great in the region in 331 Û.Ü. The gesture refers to his role as the god of silence, the pointer ¨©nger on his mouth obvi- ously suggesting that no words can be spoken. Indeed, the speci¨©c motif in Islamic art also hints at the particu- lar facial expression of being wordless. Fig, 3. Statuette of Harpocrates. Egypt, late Ptolemaic period A prime example of this notion of being amazed can (664–30 Û.Ü.). Bronze or copper alloy, 13 cm (height). New be found in a relatively large illustrated page that was York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 37.5.2, gift most likely part of a mid-sixteenth-century Falnāma of Mrs. Abbot Low Moffat, 1937. (Photo: Metropolitan Mu- from Shiraz (¨©g. 4). It was acquired in Paris in 1942 and seum of Art, New York) is at present in the collection of the Museum für Isla- mische Kunst in Berlin.·¯ It depicts the story of the miracle of the camel from the Koran, in the Heights Sura Salih’s monotheistic prophecy; in the end the tribe de- (sura 7:73–78). According to this story, the prophet Salih cided not to accept it. The scene is rendered in amazing was asked by the king of the Thamud tribe to present detail. The Prophet Salih appears at the center. He rais- the unbelievers with a miracle, with the hope of con- es his hands, as if in prayer, apparently praising God for vincing them to abandon their idols and accept Allah. this miraculous divine manifestation on earth. A group To the astonishment of the unbelievers of the Thamud of ¨©ve ¨©gures appear behind Salih. They seem to illus- tribe, a rocky mountain was then miraculously trans- trate the hesitation and indecision among the tribe of formed into a she-camel and her young. This miracle Thamud. In fact, their hands point in di°ferent direc- was followed by a debate about whether to accept tions, suggesting a lively discussion, as can be seen, for  :        Ý

Fig. 4. The miracle of the camel. From a Falnāma, Shiraz, mid-sixteenth century, 59.5 cm (height) × 45 cm (width). Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, inv. no. I. 6945. (Photo: Reinhard Saczewski) ßà ÇÈ   É example, in the group of three ¨©gures at the top right beauty exceeds even the ability to feel pain. This is a corner of this painting. Two other ¨©gures at the top left particular, perhaps ecstatic, state of aesthetic ex pe- corner are more suspicious of this miracle, and one of rience in which physical pain is not felt and no longer them touches the rock with both hands as if to examine serves to indicate the di°ference between life and the miracle’s physical and tangible aspects. The ¨©ve ¨©g- fantasy.·· ures portray di°ferent states of mind, from puzzlement Yet whereas the depiction of amazement in Europe- and perplexity to recognition and belief. The two ¨©gures an art emphasizes the moment of being petri¨©ed and in the ¨©rst row seem to illustrate, as if in a slow motion, paralyzed as a preparatory stage, just before reacting, two stages in the movement of the hand toward the either defensively or aggressively, to the unknown mar- mouth and the biting of the fore¨©nger. The two other vel, the biting of ¨©ngers suggests perplexity or hesita- ¨©gures in the back row stare at the miracle, and an ex- tion, a suspended state of mind, indeed a pause to pression of deep devotion spreads across their faces. rethink the unknown. It is a particular stage in which One of them silently rests his hand on the upper shoul- the beholder is held between seeing and comprehend- der of his companion, as if expressing fear and looking ing, that is, between idrāk ḥissī and idrāk ʿaqlī. The ¨©nger for support from his friend. The other ¨©gure shows total gesture thus suggests a re²³ective gaze, a reconsideration devotion. His right hand is raised in a prayer and praise of the unknown and its place in the visual archive of our gesture, similar to the hands of the Prophet Salih. At any mind. The following description of the beholder’s reac- rate, the ¨©gure clearly biting his ¨©nger appears thor- tion in front of the pyramids, which is to be found at the oughly amazed: his eyebrows are raised and tensely con- very end of al-Maqrizi’s (d. 1442) account on the pyra- tracted at his forehead, just above his nose. mids, may explain the speci¨©c gesture—or, indeed, The varied expressions depicted in this Persian illus- state of mind—best: “In the heart of the man who gazes tration remind us of Tamim al-Dari, one of the Prophet’s at (the pyramids) for understanding their essence, many companions, and his encounter with the black-horned thoughts are awaken, thoughts which cause one to bite jinni. It is related that Tamim was so amazed that he lost one’s ¨©ngers’ tips [ṭarf banānihi].”·¸ his mind (went insane) and was no longer able to speak (dahasha wa-kharaja min ʿaqlihi wa-lam yaqdir ʿala Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia ’l-kalām).·µ Indeed, words usually signify the desire to University understand images or at least to control them within the New York, N.Y. scope of human understanding. Tamim’s particular state demonstrates the superiority of the image over the word because, for while his eye is able to grasp the bizarre NOTES image of the jinni, his mind is unable to comprehend it, and therefore he is left speechless. 1. The epigraph is from George Didi-Huberman, Confront- It is quite interesting that, in the pictorial world of Is- ing Images: Questioning the Ends of a Certain History of Art (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, lam, the biting of the ¨©nger rather than the Darwinistic 2005), 140. state of fear, with mouth open and eyebrows raised, turns 2. Stendhal, Rome, Naples and Florence, trans. by Richard N. out to be the common symbol for amazement. It is the Coe (New York: George Braziller, 1960), 302. For the origi- urge to feel physical pain that serves here to distinguish nal French text, see Stendhal, Rome, Naples et Florence, ed. Daniel Muller, preface by Charles Murras (Paris: É. Cham- reality from dream. Sensing pain clearly indicates to the pion, 1919), 207. amazed beholder that he is awake and that what he sees 3. Graziella Magherini, La Sindrome di Stendhal (Florence: does, indeed, exist. Thus, the famous scene of the ban- Ponte Alle Grazie, 1989). See also Melinda Guy, “The Shock quet of Potiphar’s wife, in which women amazed by the of the Old,” Frieze, no. 72 (January–February 2003), http:// www.frieze.com/issue/article/the_shock_of_the_old/ beauty of Yusuf cut their ¨©ngers with sharp knives yet (accessed July 9, 2014). feel no pain, underscores the astounding beauty of the 4. Graziella Magherini, interview by Maria Barnas, “Confron- young Yusuf: the aesthetic experience in the face of his tations: An Interview with Florentine Psychiartist Graziella  :        ßß

Magherini,” Metropolism Magazine, no. 4 (2008), http:// 9. On Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Alhazen, see metropolism.com/magazine/2008-no4/confrontaties/eng- S. D. Goitein, Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition (hence- lish (accessed July 9, 2014). forth EI¦) (Leiden, 1954–2002), s.v. “Ibn al-Haytham.” See 5. Moshe Kalian and Eliezer Witztum, “Facing a Holy Space: the translation and commentary by Abdelhamid I. Sabra Psychiatric Hospitalization of Tourists in Jerusalem,” in in Ibn al-Haytham, The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books I– Sacred Space: Shrine, City, Land, ed. Benjamin Kedar-Kopf- III, On Direct Vision, ed., trans., and introd. Abdelhamid I. stein and Raphael Jehudah Zwi Werblowsky (Jerusalem: Sabra, Studies of the Warburg Institute 40, 2 vols. (London: MacMillan and Israel Academy of Sciences and Humani- University of London, 1989), esp. “On Direct Vision” and ties, 1998), 316–30; Moshe Kalian and Eliezer Witztum, “The “Discourse on Light,” 2:9–10. See also the discussion on Ibn Jerusalem Syndrome—Fantasy and Reality: A Survey of al-Haytham by J. Baarmann, “Abhandlung über das Licht Accounts from the 19th and 20th Centuries,” Israel Journal von Ibn al-Haitam,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlän- of Psychiatry 36 (1999): 260–71; Yair Bar-el, Rimona Durst, dischen Gesellschaft 36 (1882): 195–237. Gregory Katz, Josef Zislin, Ziva Strauss, and Haim Y. Kno- 10. Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-ʿIbādī, The Book of the Ten Treatises on bler, “Jerusalem Syndrome,” British Journal of Psychiatry 176 the Eye, Ascribed to Hunain ibn Is-Hâq (809–877 °.±.): The (2000): 86–90; Moshe Kalian and Eliezer Witztum, “Com- Earliest Existing Systematic Text-Book of Ophthalmology, ments on Jerusalem Syndrome,” British Journal of Psychia- trans. Max Meyerhof (Cairo: Government Press, 1928). try 176 (2000): 492; Eliezer Witztum and Moshe Kalian, “The 11. Ibid., 27. Quest for Redemption: Reality and Fantasy in the Mission 12. Ibid., 28. to Jerusalem,” in Israel as Center Stage: A Setting for Social 13. Ibid., 37. and Religious Enactments, ed. A. Paul Hare and Gideon M. 14. See the discussion on Ibn al-Haytham by Gülru Necipoğlu Kressel (Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 2000), 15–29; in “The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Moshe Kalian and Eliezer Witztum, “Jerusalem Syndrome Cultures: Sight, Insight, and Desire,” in this volume. See also as Re²³ected in the Pilgrimage and Biographies of Four John Onians, Neuroarthistory: From Aristotle and Pliny to Extraordinary Women from the 14th Century to the End Baxandall and Zeki (New Haven and London: Yale Univer- of the Second Millennium,” Mental Health, Religion and sity Press, 2007), 38–41. Culture 5, 1 (2002): 1–16; A. Van der Haven, “The Holy Fool 15. Gérard Simon, “The Gaze in Ibn al-Haytham,” special issue, Still Speaks: The Jerusalem Syndrome as a Religious Subcul- Medieval History Journal 9, 1 (2006): 89–98. ture,” in Jerusalem: Idea and Reality, ed. Tamar Mayer and 16. Al-Ghazzālī, Mishkat al-Anwar:“The Niche for Lights,” trans. Suleiman Ali Mourad (London and New York: Routledge, and introd. W. H. T. Gairdner (New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 2008), 103–22; Eliezer Witztum and Moshe Kalian, “Over- 1991), 77. whelmed by Divinity in Jerusalem,” in Emotion in Motion: 17. Ibid., 80. Tourism, A’fect and Transformation, ed. David Picard and 18. Binyamin Abrahamov, “Al-Ghazali’s Supreme Way to Know Mike Robinson (Farnham, Surrey, and Burlington, Vt.: God,” Studia Islamica 77 (1993): 141–68, esp. 163–64. See also Ashgate, 2012), 99–116. See also David Browman, “Pilgrim al-Ghazzālī, Mishkat al-Anwar, 81–82, 84–86. Narrative of Jerusalem and the Holy Land: A Study in Ideo- 19. Al-Ghazzālī, Mishkat al-Anwar, 81. logical Distortion,” in Sacred Journey: The Anthropology of 20. Ibid., 84. Pilgrimages, ed. Alan Morinis (Westport, Conn.: Green- 21. Ibid., 85. wood, 1992), 149–68. 22. Ibid., 82. 6. Professor Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist working in 23. Ibid., 85. France, ¨©rst diagnosed this syndrome in 1986. See A. Viala, 24. Ibid., 82. Hiroaki Ota, M. N. Vacheron, P. Martin, and F. Caroli, “Les 25. Ibid., 85. Japonais en voyage pathologique à Paris: Un modèle origi- 26. Ibid., 84. nal de prise en charge transculturelle,” Nervure journal de 27. Ibid., 86. On this aspect, see Abrahamov, “Al-Ghazali’s Psychiatrie 5 (2004): 31–34. Supreme Way to Know God,” 141–68, esp. 162–63. See also 7. See Milton D. Heifetz, Sexuality, Curiosity, Fear, and the Richard Ettinghausen, “Al-Ghazzali on Beauty,” in Art and Arts: Biology of Aesthetics (New York and Washington, D.C.: Thought: Issued in Honor of Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy Peter Lang, 2001), esp. 15–24. On distinguishing art, eroti- on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, ed. K. Bharatha Iyer cism, and pornography, see Hans Maes, “Drawing the Line: (London: Luzac, 1947), 160–65. See also several essays on Art Versus Pornography,” Philosophy Compass 6, 6 (2011): this subject published in Christopher J. Bürgel and Alma 385–97. See also Desmond Collins and John Onians, “The Giese, eds., Gott ist schön und Er liebt die Schönheit: Fest- Origins of Art,” Art History 1, 1 (1978): 1–25. schrift für Annemarie Schimmel zum 7 April 1992 (New York: 8. See the discussion of Nadia Al-Baghdadi, “Introduction: Peter Lang, 1994). Mapping the Gaze-Vision and Visuality in Classical Arab 28. See mainly Max Hörten, Die Philosophie der Erleuchtung Civilisation,” special issue, Medieval History Journal 9, 1 nach Suhrawardi (Halle: M. Niemeyer, 1912); Helmut Ritter, (2006): 1–16, esp. 10–15. I would like to thank Barry Flood “Philologika IX: Die vier Suhrawardi,” Der Islam 24 (1937): for calling my attention to this introductory article. 270–86. See also Goitein, EI¦, s.v. “al-Suhrawardi.” ßì ÇÈ   É

29. Hossein Ziai, “Suhrawardi on Knowledge and the Experi- 40. See mainly Richard Ettinghausen, “Some Paintings in ence of Light,” in The Presence of Light: Divine Radiance Four Istanbul Albums,” Ars Orientalis 1 (1954): 93. Recently and Religious Experience, ed. Matthew Kapstein (Chicago: Alberto Sa viello has discussed this gesture. See Alberto University of Chicago Press, 2004), 25–44. Saviello, “See and Be Amazed! Spectator Figures in Per- 30. Ibid., 32. sian Manuscript Painting,” in The Public in the Picture, ed. 31. Ibid., 33n17. Beate Fricke and Urte Krass, forthcoming. See also J. J. Tik- 32. See also my article in this volume on the twelfth-century kanen, Zwei Gebärden mit dem Zeige‡ˆnger (Helsingford: scholar ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, who was part of the same Finnische Literaturgesellschaft, 1913); Marcus Mrass, Gesten intellectual discourse and milieu as Suhrawardi (al-Maq- und Gebärden: Begri’fsbestimmung und -verwendung im tul), “Experientia and Auctoritas: ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghda- Hinblick auf kunsthistorische Untersuchungen (Regensburg: di’s Kitāb al-Ifāda wa’l-iʿtibār and the Birth of the Critical Schnell and Steiner, 2005). Gaze.” 41. Sandra Sandri, Har-Pa-Chered (Harpokrates): Die Genese 33. Nasser Rabbat, “Ajib and Gharib: Artistic Perceptions in eines ägyptischen Götterkindes, Orientalia Lovaniensia ana- Medieval Arab Sources,” special issue, Medieval History lecta 151 (Leuven: Peeters, 2006). Journal 9, 1 (2006): 99–114. 42. Jens Kröger, ed., Islamische Kunst in Berliner Sammlungen 34. Heinrich Wöl°²³in, Principles of Art History: The Problem of (Berlin: Parthas, 2004), 102, ¨©g. 81. the Development of Style in Later Art, 7th ed., trans. M. D. 43. René Basset, “Les aventures merveilleuses de Temim ed Hottinger (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1932), vii. Dari,” Giornale della Societa Italiana 5 (1891): 15. See also Avi- 35. See also Gérard Simon, Archéologie de la Vision: Optique, le noam Shalem, “Tamim al-Dari: A Portrait of Him as the First Corps, la Peinture (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2003). Muslim Artisan,” Oriente Moderno, n.s., 23, 2 (2004): 507–15. 36. Heinrich Wöl°²³in, Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegri’fe: Das 44. It could be argued that self-²³agellation as part of mourning Problem der Stilentwicklung in der neueren Kunst, 5th ed. rituals likewise involves a desire of mourner to return back (Munich: Hugo Bruckmann, 1921), xi: “Daß das Sehen nicht to reality by in²³icting pain on his or her body, especially ein bloß mechanischer Akt ist, sondern seelisch bedingt in cases in which an intense state of empathy with the bleibt, darüber ist doch kein Wort zu verlieren. ‘In jeder object of mourning causes the mourner to loose his or her neuen Sehform kristallisiert sich ein neuer Inhalt der link to actual existence. In this sense, ²³agellation suggests Welt.’” empathy and illusion but at the same time a turning point 37. John Onians, “‘I Wonder’: A Short History of Amazement,” toward reality. in Sight and Insight: Essays on Art and Culture in Honour of 45. For the Arabic text, see Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī, Das E. H. Gombrich at 85, ed. John Onians (London: Phaidon, Pyramidenkapitel in al-Makrīzī’s “Ḫiṭaṭ,” ed. and trans. 1994), 11–33. Erich Graefe, Leipziger Semitistische Studien 5 (Leipzig: 38. Edmund Burke, Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of the J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1911), 48. The German Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 5th ed. (Berwick: translation on p. 89: “In dem Herzen dessen, der sie (die R. and J. Taylor, 1772); Charles Darwin, On the Expression of Pyramiden), um ihr eigentliches Wesen zu erkennen, the Emotions in Man and Animals (London: J. Murray, 1872). beschaut, bewegen sich Gedanken, bei denen er in seine 39. Onians, “‘I Wonder,’” 15. Fingerspitzen beißt.” PROSOPOPEIA: PERFORMING THE RECIPROCAL GAZE 13

Oa lg Bush

Pr osopopeia: Performing the Reciprocal Gaze

T heories of the gaze, usually drawing directly or indi- since Edward Said’s groundbreaking work on oriental- rectly on the psychoanalytic writings of Jacques Lacan, ism recognizes “the West” as an ideological construct have been crucial to the development of art history for rather than as an impermeable geopolitical and cultural more than a generation.1 Issues concerning the gaze boundary,4 the distinction between Western and non- have also proved central to an internal critique of art- Western art continues to have institutional weight in historical practices that has coalesced as the field of vi- the practice of art history. In that context, one finds sual culture. In either case, the gaze in question is some work in visual culture that extends Western theo- deeply rooted in the Western pictorial tradition—Filip- ries of the gaze to non-Western art—for example, stud- po Brunelleschi, too, could be considered a theorist of ies by W. J. T. Mitchell, Norman Bryson, and Nicholas the gaze—which in turn is set within a long philosoph- Mirzoeff5—but one may state unhesitatingly that theo- ical tradition in the West connecting thought and sight. ries of the gaze familiar to other areas of art history have Indeed, in the Western context, to speak of theories of as yet had limited impact on the study of Islamic art. the gaze is almost a tautology (like “theater,” “theory,” is The most significant contribution in this direction related etymologically to “beholding”); all theorizing was made in an interdisciplinary conference of Islami- may be a form of gazing, and gazing may always mean cists, whose proceedings were published under the title gazing in theory. “Mapping the Gaze: Considerations from the History of The cultural category of “the West” poses its own Arab Civilization.”6 Aziz Al-Azmeh offered there a chal- problems, needless to say, and not least with respect to lenging summary of the corresponding research agenda: the gaze. Commerce, gift exchange, diplomacy, and con- quest ensured ongoing intercultural contacts, so that the What needs to be mapped, on reflection, is not only the gaze and the frames it freezes, but also the glance, the vi- West and its “Others”—in the Middle Ages, most nota- sual or visible index, visual practices overall, metaphors bly the Islamic world—were always gazing at each oth- and figures of visual practice and of its organ which has a er, so to speak, and incorporating what they saw into greater involvement with the body and with its surround- their own artistic traditions. Also, quite concretely, ings … and, finally to gesture towards the outward and in- Western consideration of the processes of visual percep- ward eyes, two eyes, one located on the visible face and the tion at the base of any theory of the gaze, such as articu- other, according to Arabic usage, in the “heart”, veiled by lated in the writings of Roger Bacon (d. 1294), John the visible body. Both of these are equally organs of percep- Pecham (d. 1292), and Witelo (d. after 1278) in the 1250s tion whose relationship goes beyond the contrast of the ordinary and the extraordinary or uncanny, and reaches and 1270s,2 drew upon the scientific research of Ibn al- into the very structure [of] being, in which the visible and Haytham (Alhazen, d. ca. 1040), whose Kitāb al-Manāẓir, the invisible are both equally present.7 translated into Latin as Perspectiva or De aspectibus in the early thirteenth century, set forth a theory of optics I n gathering a new group of Islamicists to discuss the in which imagination played a crucial role linking per- gaze, then, for the conference titled “Gazing Other- ception and cognition.3 Nevertheless, even if ­scholarship wise: Modalities of Seeing,” we took the theoretical

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P03 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 13-18 14 OLGA BUSH

­developments in the study of Western art as a provoca- developed during the medieval period in al-Andalus, tion and anticipated two fundamental lines of inquiry exemplified here in Ibn al-Khitab’s verses, I note that I in response. First, we thought Islamicists might return am led to this text by its connection to the Alhambra. to Lacan and Michel Foucault, Laura Mulvey, and Mar- The Nasrid palatial city is well-known for its abundant tin Jay for theoretically informed approaches to their parietal epigraphy, but a characteristic feature of those familiar objects of study.8 Second, we thought Islami- inscriptions, namely, not simply the use of poetry but cists might draw upon the cultural contexts, philosoph- more particularly of poetry also speaking in the first per- ical traditions, and visual evidence of their own field to son, has the effect—writ large—observed in the verses speak of “gazing otherwise.” It is this second approach cited above.11 The “I” inscribed on the walls gives a figu- that proved to be the prevalent mode of inquiry in the rative voice to the otherwise mute and inanimate archi- papers delivered at our conference in Florence and in tecture. The figurative invention is known in poetics as the more fully elaborated texts collected here. In the the trope of prosopopeia,12 and often in the Alhambra it remainder of this introduction I will briefly illustrate the allows the walls to speak for themselves and to articu- latter approach, pointing to the initial bifurcation and late, in theory, the experience of beholding. To trace the to at least one of its implications. workings of prosopopeia in the Alhambra is too large a Like semiotic theory, which, in any variety, assumes task for this introduction,13 so, aware as I am of the irony a sender and receiver of the message, theories of visual- of introducing the topic of the gaze without providing ity generally begin with the poles of the subject and the an example to gaze at, I turn to the more limited but by object of the gaze. In his part of the introduction, Avi- no means isolated case of Ibn al-Khatib’s poetic inscrip- noam Shalem concentrates on the pole of the subject; I tions for his palace. will concentrate on the object. Or more precisely, in tak- I also acknowledge at the outset that the reference to ing up the agency of objects—a subject explored in the the mirror in the verses might well open the alternative art-historical work of Aby Warburg and developed by approach, that is, assimilating Ibn al-Khatib’s text (and the anthropologist Alfred Gell9—I will turn to Islamic by extension his palace and its architectural decoration) art for a base upon which to reconsider the status of the to the Lacanian gaze rather than investigating it as an object in the formation of social interactions through articulation of gazing otherwise. Something would be the gaze. gained, but much would be lost. I take as my theoretical source—that is, an exem- The image of the palace as a bride, taken as an object plary articulation of a certain understanding of the of desire, might provide the cornerstone for a psycho- gaze—a brief poem by Ibn al-Khatib, a prolific four- analytic disposition, in which desire is the key to under- teenth-century writer and vizier of the Nasrid rulers of standing the gaze. Following that line of thought, al-Andalus (1238–1492), whose verses embellish the pal- Lacan’s discussion of the idealization occasioned by the aces in the Alhambra. The poet’s divan indicates that integrity of the mirror image, for instance, might pro- the following verses were composed to be inscribed on vide insight into the palace’s claim to uniqueness. That the cupola of a pavilion built over a pool in his own pal- such a claim would be a misrecognition, in Lacanian ace, which once stood on the outskirts of Granada. I call terms, would not have been lost on the contemporane- attention in advance to the use of the first-person pro- ous fourteenth-century readers of the poet’s divan and/ noun that enunciates the text: or of the parietal inscriptions in situ, for they would have N othing like me has been seen in the past, been altogether familiar with the distinguished lineage nor will be seen in the future; of a palace-pool-garden setting in the medieval archi- I am unique, though I unite different things. tecture of al-Andalus (fig. 1). But the Islamic context I am the bride; myrtles are my vestments; would give pause to those meditations. the pavilion is my crown; the pool is my mirror.10 In the literary culture of the Andalusi readers, the hy- Before proceeding to the analysis of this poem and the perbolic claim, “I am unique,” would have had a clear elucidation of what I propose as a theory of the gaze that rhetorical basis, fulfilling the formal demands of the PROSOPOPEIA: PERFORMING THE RECIPROCAL GAZE 15

F ig. 1. Patio de Comares (The Court of the Myrtles), Palace of Comares, Alhambra, Granada, Spain. (Photo: Olga Bush) genre of the fakhr, or praise poetry, which, when em- specifically, prosopopeia creates the fiction of a direct ployed in connection with architecture, was intended address in language. For, as the linguist Emile Ben- to express the glory of the patron through the supposed veniste observes of all uses of the first-person pronoun, perfections of the building. Likewise, the reader/behold- in saying “I” a “you” is implied.15 In Ibn al-Khatib’s vers- er would have been well prepared for the extended use es, this relationship is introduced explicitly as a problem of metaphor—considered the chief trope in medieval of visuality. The building, or its likeness, cannot be seen Arabic poetics. The metaphors develop the description in the past or the future; it can only be seen now, in the of the architecture from the initial image of the building present moment of address when, in the act of reading as bride (a common figure)14 through the further substi- the inscriptions, the building speaks to the beholder. tutions of vestments, crown, and mirror for the architec- What is unique, then, is this present moment of visu- tural elements of the garden, pavilion, and reflecting ality wholly distinct from the customary flow of before- pool. and-after (the times when “nothing like me can be Contrary to a Lacanian analysis, it is the bride here, seen”)—a state of suspended temporality, to recall Jon- and not her mirror image, that represents integrity, uni- athan Crary’s terms.16 By imparting agency to the inani- fying diverse parts of the architectural ensemble. But mate architecture, prosopopeia, through its efficacious this is another way of saying that what is most remark- and authoritative “voice,” enables the imagination of a able in the verses is that the bride—that is, the palace— moment when “you” and “I,” beholder and palace, enter says “I.” The bride/palace speaks for itself as a subject into a relationship in which each are subjects. Indeed, a and is not merely an object of the gaze and its desires, certain intimacy is established by the reference to the idealizations, and misrecognitions. bride, who, it is implied, addresses her groom. The Whereas Lacan’s mirror stage, at least in its initial ­subject/object poles of the experience of art are sub- formulation, is resolutely prelinguistic and asocial, Ibn verted in favor of a fundamental reciprocity—what Paul al-Khatib’s poem stages the gaze within language. More Crowther explains in a phenomenological analysis of art 16 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 2. Azra Akšamija, Dirndlmoschee, 2005. (Photo: Rahkeen Gray and Azra Akšamija) as “the ontological reciprocity of the subject and object bear on the study of Islamic art of other times and plac- of experience.”17 The palace’s unequivocal declaration, es. That is, one of the benefits of taking a theoretical “I unite different things,” may also be understood as a concept—here, the gaze—as the point of departure for reinforcement of the reciprocity of such an encounter. discussion is to provide common ground for topics that Ibn al-Khatib’s metaphors of vestments and crown would otherwise be incommunicable across the barriers for garden and pavilion suggest that the subject position of historical period, political geography, or even mate- of the work of art is embodied. If the architecture has a rial of composition. figurative voice, that is so because its implicit body has To close with a case in point, I leap ahead seven cen- a mouth to speak. But then, the metaphor of the mirror turies and cross from a monument, even if now lost, to indicates that the palace must also have figurative eyes the work of a contemporary artist, who is as well an art to see: to look at itself in the reflection of the pool and historian and political activist, Azra Akšamija. The gaze also to look out at the beholder whom it addresses. Ibn articulated poetically by the inscription of prosopopeia al-Khatib’s text speaks for a theory of a reciprocal gaze. in the example of medieval Islamic architecture dis- Ibn al-Khatib’s prosopopeia, or the deployment of the cussed above, I will now suggest, is literally embodied same poetic trope in inscriptions in Islamic art from gift by Akšamija’s Wearable Mosques.18 In one such work, objects to the walls of the Alhambra, theorizes a gaze in the Dirndlmoschee (Dirndl-Dress Mosque) (2005), for which the work of art represents an embodied subject instance, the artist’s vestments first appear as a tradi- position and not only an object of perception, idealiza- tional Austrian dress, still worn today in some areas, tion, or desire. This understanding of the subjectivity of giving the wearer a very specific cultural location the object—to put matters paradoxically—and of the (fig. 2).19 When the artist undoes her belt, however, her work of art as a performance, revealing that subjectivity apron unfolds into connected prayer rugs, literally con- through the staging of a direct address in an emphatic structing the ritual space of an open-air mosque, or mas- and ever renewable present, might then be brought to jid, which is to say quite another cultural location. In PROSOPOPEIA: PERFORMING THE RECIPROCAL GAZE 17 either case, dirndl or mosque, the seeming object of an And again much as Ibn al-Khatib does, Akšamija explic- exoticizing gaze that might hold the wearer at the dis- itly articulates the issues raised by her reconstruction of tance of the folkloristic or religious Other proves instead the object of the gaze as a subject position in terms of to be a subject position and a place of enunciation. In visuality. She speaks of her wearable mosques as an ef- this and similar Wearable Mosques by Akšamija, the per- fort to “evoke a more active involvement of Muslims in formance reveals that the body of the artist and the por- the discussions about their visibility and integration in table textile architecture occupy not merely a virtual, the West.”24 Or, as I would say, in the terms drawn from but in fact a real, shared space and a single, shared sub- my reading of Ibn al-Khatib’s text, she proposes and em- ject position, “an ephemeral space,”20 she says, in which bodies a theory of reciprocal gazes. “the minimal volume [is] actually defined by the human The essays that follow do not make such leaps across body” and “in that sense … represent[ing] customized periods, places, and materials, each on its own, but, we architectural expressions” of identity.21 believe, as an ensemble “unit[ing] different things,” em- Here, of course, the “I” that expresses itself from the body such movement between them across the bridge textile architecture is not only a poetic fiction but a real of the theory of the gaze, and so constitute a coherent person—Akšamija herself—who can actively destabi- and innovative scholarly dialogue within Islamic studies lize cultural presuppositions (e.g., a woman in a dirndl, and, perhaps, an opening toward a critical engagement that is, an Austrian, is not a Muslim). Furthermore, from between Islamic and other art histories on a more recip- her place in and as the architectural space, she can in- rocal footing. vite beholders to join her, since the Wearable Mosques are large enough to accommodate three people in com- Vassar College munal prayer.22 Relying on reception and participation Poughkeepsie, N.Y. in her performative art, Akšamija’s socially and politi- Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-­ cally engaged work results in the unsettling of the mul- Institut tiple boundaries: between body and architecture, public Florence, Italy and private, secular and religious, inclusion and exclu- sion, gender segregation, and, most crucially for the is- sue at hand, the subject/object opposition. This Notes possibility of changing a spectator into a participant in Akšamija’s Wearable Mosques activates the potential for 1. Among the many introductions to theories of the gaze relationship constructed by Ibn al-Khatib’s prosopo- grounded in Lacanian psychoanalysis, see Gillian Rose, peia, for there, too, the beholder/reader could (and no Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials (London: Sage, 2001). doubt often would) move from a place outside, gazing 2. For assessment of Ibn al-Haytham’s contribution to the at the palace, to a place inside, gazing from the subject- theories of vision articulated by Roger Bacon, John Pecham, position marked by the palace. Once the subject/object and Witelo, see David C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from dichotomy is transformed into a balanced relation of al-Kindi to Kepler (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 58–86. subject positions, reciprocity can even become an ex- 3. For a critical analysis of Ibn al-Haytham’s theory of optics, change of shifting identities. see Ibn al-Haytham, The Optics of Ibn al-Hayham, Books Although Akšamija does not rely on prosopopeia, as I–III, On Direct Vision, trans. Abdelhamid I. Sabra, Studies Ibn al-Khatib does in fourteenth-century al-Andalus, of the Warburg Institute 40, 2 vols. (London: University of London, 1989); Abdelhamid I. Sabra, “Ibn al-Haytham’s she subverts, if not to say deconstructs, the subject/ob- Revolutionary Project in Optics: The Achievement and the ject dichotomy and the one-sided gaze of the beholder. Obstacle,” in The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspec- Her wearable mosques have eyes—her eyes—to see tives, ed. Jan P. Hogendijk and Abdelhamid I. Sabra (Cam- and a voice to address the passersby, to create relation- bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003), 85–118; Abdelhamid I. Sabra, “The ‘Commentary’ That Saved the Text: The Hazardous ships where there had been distance and disconnection, Journey of Ibn al-Haytham’s Arabic Optics,” Early Science “to critically engage both Muslims and non-Muslims.”23 and Medicine 12 (2007): 117–33; A. Mark Smith, “­Alhacen’s 18 OLGA BUSH

Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical Edition, with Eng- Los códigos de utopía de la Alhambra de Granada (Granada: lish Translation and Commentary, of the First Three Books Diputación Provincial de Granada, 1990). of Alhacen’s ‘De Aspectibus,’ the Medieval Latin Version 12. For a valuable theoretical introduction to prosopopeia in of Ibn al-Haytham’s ‘Kitāb al-Manāẓir,’ Volume One,” the context of modern European and American literary Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s., 91, studies, see Barbara Johnson, Persons and Things (Cam- 4 (2001): 1–337; A. Mark Smith, “Alhacen’s Theory of Visual bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008). Perception: A Critical Edition, with English Translation 13. For an analysis of prosopopeia and the agency of objects and Commentary, of the First Three Books of Alhacen’s and architecture in Nasrid cultural practices, see Olga ‘De Aspectibus,’ the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Hay- Bush, “‘When My Beholder Ponders’: Poetic Epigraphy in tham’s ‘Kitāb al-Manāẓir,’ Volume Two,” Transactions of the the Alhambra,” in “Pearls from Water, Rubies from Stone: American Philosophical Society, n.s., 91, 5 (2001): 339–819; Studies in Islamic Art in Honor of Priscilla Soucek,” ed. A. Mark Smith, “What Is the History of Medieval Optics Linda Komaroff and Jaclynne Kerner, special issue, Arti- Really About?,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical bus Asiae 66, 2 (2006): 55–67; Olga Bush, “Reframing the Society 148, 3 (June 2004): 180–94. See also Gülru Neci­ Alhambra: Architecture, Poetry, Textiles and the Construc- poğlu’s contribution to this volume, “The Scrutinizing Gaze tion of Social Space,” a monographic study in preparation. in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures: Sight, Insight, I have also presented my work on inscribed objects in the and Desire.” context of gift-giving, “Prosopopeia: The Gift of Tongues, 4. Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, The Tongues of Gifts” (paper presented at the symposium 1978). “Unwrapping Gifts of the Sultan,” Los Angeles County 5. See, for instance, W. J. T. Mitchell, Cloning Terror: The War Museum of Art, June 11, 2011). of Images, 9/11 to the Present (Chicago and London: Univer- 14. In the context of palatial architecture, see José Miguel sity of Chicago Press, 2010); Norman Bryson, “The Gaze in Puertas Vílchez, Leer La Alhambra: Guía visual del Monu- the Expanded Field,” in Vision and Visuality, ed. Hal Foster mento a través de sus inscripciones (Granada: Patronato (Seattle: Bat Press, 1988), 87–114; Nicholas Mirzoeff, Watch- de al Alhambra/Edilux 2010), and for related usage of the ing Babylon: The War in Iraq and Global Visual Culture (New image, see also William C. Young, “The Ka‘ba, Gender, and York: London: Routledge, 2005); Nicholas Mirzoeff, ed., the Rites of Pilgrimage,” International Journal of Middle East Diaspora and Visual Culture: Representing Africans and Jews Studies 25 (1993): 285–300. (London and New York: Routledge, 2000). 15. Emile Benveniste, “The Nature of Pronouns,” in Problems 6. Nadia al-Bagdadi and Aziz Al-Azmeh, eds., “Le Regard dans la Civilisation Arabe Classique/Mapping the Gaze: Con- in General Linguistics, trans. Mary Elizabeth Meek (Coral siderations from the History of Arab Civilization,” special Gables, Fla.: University of Miami Press, 1971), 218. See also issue, Medieval History Journal 9, 1 (2006). This volume the closely related essay by Benveniste in the same volume, constitutes the proceedings of an interdisciplinary confer- “Subjectivity in Language,” 223–30. ence that was held in the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme 16. John Crary, Suspension of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, (MSH) in Paris in September 2001. and Modern Culture (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999). 7. Aziz Al-Azmeh, “Preamble,” in ibid., 20. 17. Paul Crowther, Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the 8. In addition to such standard references as Jacques Lacan, frame) (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009), 3. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as 18. I wish to thank my friend and colleague Mirela Ljevaković, Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience,” in Jacques Lacan, who introduced me to the work of Azra Akšamija. Ecrits: A Selection (London: Taylor & Francis, 1990), 1–8; 19. Akšamija states that Dirndlmoschee “connects the local Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Austrian traditions and the Turkish immigrant culture Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan, 2nd ed. (New York: Vintage in the small town of Strobl/Wolfgangsee, Austria.” For Books, 1995), see Laura Mulvey’s early and influential trans- Akšamija’s description of the creation and function of the position of the Lacanian gaze to film theory in Visual and Dirndlmoschee and other Wearable Mosques, as well as for Other Pleasures (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, her analytic descriptions of performing the prayer ritual in 1989) and the comprehensive review of Western ocular- various public spaces, see the artist’s website: http://www. centrism in Martin Jay, Downcast Eyes: The Denigration azraaksamija.net (accessed August 10, 2011). For exhibitions of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought (Berkeley: of Akšamija’s Wearable Mosques, see Mirela Ljevaković, University of California Press, 1993). Divine Connections, exh. cat., Zeughaus (Augsburg: Frie- 9. See the development of Warburg’s thought on the agency of densstadt Augsburg, 2010), 40–47; Jessica Hunter-Larsen, the object in Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropologi- “Azra Akšamija,” in Cross-Currents: Tradition and Innova- cal Theory (Oxford: Berg, 1992). tion in Contemporary Art of the Islamic World, ed. Jessica 10. My translation, based on María Jesús Rubiera Mata, La Hunter-Larsen, exh. cat., University of North Texas Art arquitectura en la literatura árabe: Datos para una estética Gallery (Colorado College: InterDisciplinary Experimen- del placer (Madrid: Hiperión, 1988), 89. tal Arts, 2012), 10–11; Azra Akšamija, “Nomadic Mosque, 11. For an analysis of the poetic inscriptions in the Alhambra, ­Dirndlmoschee, Frontier Vest,” in Kubus oder Kuppel: see publications by José Miguel Puerta Vílchez, especially Moscheen—Perspektiven einer Bauaufgabe, ed. Christian PROSOPOPEIA: PERFORMING THE RECIPROCAL GAZE 19

Welzbacher, exh. cat., ifa-Galerie Stuttgart (Tubingen T he Mosque in the West,” Cultural Analysis 6 (2007): and Munich: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 2012), 16–17; Azra 106–7. Akšamija, “Dirndlmoschee,” in Heimatkunde: 30 Künstler 22. Azra Akšamija describes her wearable mosques as the pro- blicken auf Deutschland, exh. cat., Jewish Museum in Ber- cess of transforming an individual’s dress into a communal lin (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, for Jewish Museum in Berlin, ritual space. Azra Akšamija, “Nomadic Mosque: Wearable 2011), 14–18. Prayer Space for Contemporary Islamic Practice in the 20. Azra Akšamija, “Echo of Islam in the West: Reactions to West,” Thresholds 30 (2005): 50–55; Azra Akšamija, “Dare the Wearable Mosque,” ArteEast Online, ed. Diana Allan to Wear—a Mosque! Immigrant Protest as Cross-Cultural (March 1, 2009), http://www.arteeast.org/pages/artenews/ Pedagogy,” in Immigrant Protest: Politics, Aesthetics, and art-engagement/205/ (accessed December 12, 2013). Everyday Dissent, ed. Katarzyna Marciniak and Imogen 21. Quoted in Régine Debatty, “Several Ways to Wear a Tyler (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014), Mosque,” We Make Money Not Art, http://we-make- 25–44. I wish to thank Azra Akšamija for sharing her essay money-not-art.com/archives/2007/10/ (accessed Decem- with me prior to its publication. ber 9, 2013). For an analysis of Akšamija’s Wearable Mosque 23. Akšamija, “Echo of Islam in the West.” projects as alternative forms in the representation of Mus- 24. Ibid. lim identity, see Nebahat Avcioğlu, “Identity-as-Form: PROSOPOPEIA: PERFORMING THE RECIPROCAL GAZE 21

Confen re ce Essays The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 23

Gülru Neci̇poğlu

The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures: Sight, Insight, and Desire

This essay engages with the subject of the gaze and aes- and in the Islamic Middle East.2 The author proclaims thetic experience by exploring the enticement and won- that derment of the eye, the embodiment of vision through a conception of pictures was as foreign to Arab science as emotional states and desire, the disembodiment of the it was to Arab art, where geometry was dominant…. In this eye in introspective vision, and the cognitive capacity of particular case, the issue of pictures separates the two cul- sight to produce insight. With these diverse yet inter- tures precisely because it reflects their different practices related themes in mind, I consider the modalities of the with regard to visuality and the gaze. The difference in- gaze in sixteenth- to early seventeenth-century Safavid volves not just art but also a mindset and relationship to and Ottoman texts on the arts and architecture, starting the world.3 with their origin in medieval paradigms of visual percep- The diversified visual cultures of the Islamic domains tion and artistic creation. were no doubt informed in varying degrees by restric- As I argued in The Topkapı Scroll: Geometry and Orna- tions placed on the gaze. These included constraints im­ ment in Islamic Architecture (1995), the realm of visual posed on figural representation (particularly but not aesthetics was shaped not only by religion but also by an exclusively in religious contexts), on conspicuous con- eclectic mix of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic concepts sumption (luxury materials such as gold, silver, silk), and shared with Christendom. The dissemination of these on the permissibility of ornaments or inscriptions in philosophical concepts was initiated by the ninth-cen- specific building types and objects. Such stipulations, tury translation into Arabic of sections from Plotinus’s which were primarily articulated in hadith literature Ennead as the Theology of Aristotle, with its Neoplatonic and texts on jurisprudence (fiqh), nevertheless allowed emanationist cosmology that elevates the immaterial a wide margin of options open to negotiation, resulting luminosity of spiritual beauty above material form.1 Be- in a broad spectrum of varying interpretations.4 Hence cause my forays into theories of visual perception and there is little justification for positing a typical Islamic aesthetic philosophies in that book were framed spe- “mindset,” transcending time and space, that left its im- cifically with regard to late medieval geometric orna- print on the modalities of the gaze. The predilection for ment, their broader relevance for the visual arts has abstraction in the pictorial arts may have responded in been eclipsed. I therefore welcome the opportunity to part to religious constraints. However, as we shall see, revisit my former reflections by focusing here on the this predilection was generally theorized as a matter of ­Islamic tradition of figural representation in diverse me- aesthetic preference in the early modern literature on dia, including architecture, which has particularly been the visual arts, where the power of the abstractive inner misunderstood with respect to the question of the gaze. gaze reigns supreme. A recent example directly relevant to this issue is Hans Engaging with Belting’s arguments at various points Belting’s timely book, Florence and Baghdad: Renais- of this essay, I discuss primary written sources on the sance Art and Arab Science (2008, translation 2011), with visual arts that yield a more complex and more accurate its comparison between the gaze in Renaissance Europe understanding of the gaze in both cultures. The next

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P04 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 23-61 24 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

­section provides a synopsis of his thesis and introduces and geometry, and to impose a filter between the world some of the relevant early modern Islamic texts to which and the gaze, which is thereby tamed and cleansed of I shall return after considering their medieval prece- the senses and their images.” This geometric screen was dents. Themes highlighted from selected textual sourc- “of a fundamentally different kind than the geometry es in the following sections include the esteemed used to construct perspective painting in the West.”5 In position of the cognitive faculties of vision, of skilled support of his assumption about the absence of an Is- human artistry, and of mimetic abstraction. In consider- lamic “domain of representational depiction,” Belting ing the scientific gaze, emphasis will be placed on the extensively refers to my interpretation of the fifteenth- treatise by Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen, d. ca. 1040) on op- to early sixteenth-century Topkapı Scroll (figs. 1 and 2) tics, with its humanistic emphasis on the mental dimen- and Ibn al-Haytham’s eleventh-century Kitāb al- sion of visual perception and its distinction between Manāẓir (Book of Optics). He thereby sets up a binary glancing and gazing. opposition between the cultures of the gaze in the West and the Middle East during the Renaissance. These two sources are not particularly pertinent, Early Modern Cultures of the Gaze in however, for pictures and pictorial theory in the Islamic ­Western Europe and the Islamic Lands lands during the early modern period, which is the main subject of Belting’s book. To begin with, the two- and According to Belting, the “Arab-Islamic” aesthetic aimed three-dimensional geometric matrices of the Topkapı to “encode the sensory world through the use of script Scroll, which were primarily intended for Timurid-­

a

b F ig. 1, a and b. Topkapı Scroll, repeat-unit designs for three-dimensional muqarnas vaults, with generative geometric grids incised on paper. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. 1956. (After Gülru Necipoğlu, The Topkapı Scroll: Geom- etry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture [Santa Monica, Calif., 1995], 245, 294) The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 25

a

b F ig. 2, a and b. Topkapı Scroll, repeat-unit designs for two-dimensional star-and-polygon girih patterns, with generative geometric grids incised on paper. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. 1956. (After Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 262, 319)

Turkmen architectural construction and ornament in diverse genres of image-making, which at times contrib- Iran, are by definition irrelevant for the theorization of uted to the blurring of boundaries between figural rep- representational depiction. For Belting’s project, com- resentation and ornamental design (figs. 3 and 4). The paring Renaissance perspective painting with contem- genres in question—comprising decorative design poraneous traditions of Islamic figural painting would (naqqāshī), animal painting (jānvār-sāzī), and portrai- have been more germane, but the multifocal spatial con- ture/figural painting (ṣūrat-garī)—were applied to mul- structions of these paintings do not conform to the tiple media, ranging from the arts of the book and Topkapı Scroll’s rigid geometric matrices. Besides, Safa- portable objects to architecture.6 vid and Ottoman sources on the pictorial arts list geo- Thus the visual cultures of the Islamic lands during metric ornament as only one of the “seven fundamental the Renaissance can hardly be characterized as “ani- modes of decorative design” (haft aṣl-i naqqāshī) dis- conic.” The geometric mode of ornamental design codi- cussed below. These modes were deployed by painter- fied in the Topkapı Scroll marked the last stages of a long decorators (sing. naqqāsh) and figural painters (sing. medieval tradition that would soon be supplanted by muṣavvir) alike, whose manifold talents extended over more naturalistic modes of floral ornament and figural 26 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

F ig. 3. Illuminated page with margins decorated by an abstract vegetal (islīmī) scroll and a calligraphic frame around a standing princely figure facing a smaller one, signed by Hasan, before 1566. From the Amir Ghayb Beg Album, Safavid Iran. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. 2161, fol. 93a. (Photo: courtesy of David J. Roxburgh) The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 27

F ig. 4. Illuminated page with margins decorated by a floral chinoiserie (khaṭāʾī) scroll and a frame with a landscape popu- lated by animals and divs around a standing courtly figure, signed by ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, before 1566. From the Amir Ghayb Beg Album, Safavid Iran. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. 2161, fol. 52b. (Photo: courtesy of David J. Roxburgh) 28 GüLRU NECİPOğLU design which radically marginalized geometry by the gaze uniquely fused pictorial theory with Ibn al-Hay- mid-sixteenth century. Rather than newly formulated tham’s geometrical theory of optics, a fusion that did not fifteenth-century Renaissance methods of perspective happen in Islamic lands. I, too, have interpreted the projection in pictorial theory, more appropriate com- nonperspectival mode of geometric construction codi- parisons for the Topkapı Scroll are late Gothic manuals fied in the Topkapı Scroll as representing a “disjunction of architectural and geometric design, which similarly between internal and external vision, an aesthetic atti- marked the final stages of a long medieval tradition in tude that would be reversed in Renaissance Europe the West that extended well into the sixteenth century.7 where these two types of vision became coordinated by However, Belting prefers to consider the scroll designs perspectivalism, with its ‘neutral’ gaze that separated in the context of perspective construction in Renais- subject and object.” Embodying a multiplicity of view- sance painting: points, the scroll’s geometric matrices “yielded an infi- Whereas Necipoğlu was looking for parallels with medieval nite isotropic space,” differing from the “Renaissance architectural drawings of the West, we must keep in mind concept of the picture plane as a window frame that cuts in our context that the designs on the scroll are structur- through the spectator’s cone of vision, where rays con- ally the antithesis of the kind of spatial thinking used in verge at a central vanishing point.”11 perspective and its relation to the gaze. They are opposites Where I differ with Belting is his questionable attri- on the same level, an opposition in which different world- bution of this divergence to the lack of a pictorial theo- views find expression. Just as perspective was a symbolic ry due to the aniconic geometricism of “Arab-Islamic” form, so too were muqarnas in another culture, a culture culture, which constituted the essential quality of its with different priorities.8 “mindset.” For this viewpoint, Belting often resorts to The Topkapı Scroll compiled in Iran is seen by Belting evidence derived from prescriptive texts on Islamic ju- as an “Arab-Islamic” counterpart to Renaissance per- risprudence and on modern fiction that serve him better spective because the muqarnas, which had been in use than the art-historical literature. For instance, he relies “since the lifetime of the mathematician Alhazen,” on the novelist Orhan Pamuk’s Turkish novel, My Name reached a “peak in the fifteenth century, when Florence Is Red (1998, translation 2001) for the alleged deadly re- was discovering perspective.”9 In actuality, it was during ligious illicitness of mimetic representation at the Otto- the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that the muqar­ man court and for the unsubstantiated claim that nas reached a “peak,” losing its former preeminence af- Islamic artists depicted the world from “the eye of God” ter the early fifteenth century. The anachronistic that is “both above and outside this world.” It is on the juxtaposition of Renaissance Florence with the elev- basis of the modernist Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy’s enth-century Baghdad of Ibn al-Haytham implies that literary work, Fable of the Mashrabiyya (1949), that Belt- only the Western gaze had a history, which is denied to ing defines the geometric window screen known as the its somewhat static “Arab-Islamic” foil whose postme­ mashrabiyya as a barrier that “tames the gaze and puri- dieval trajectory has not been elucidated. This asym- fies it of all sensuous external images through its strict metry may partly be explained by Belting’s decision to geometry of interior light.” Contrasting this window combine a series of lectures on “the history of the gaze” screen with the “Western type of window” that found its with an unforeseen “shift of focus so as to include two emblem in Renaissance painting, which represents the cultures” in his book. The result is an essentialized, ahis- curious gaze seeking images in the world, Belting con- torical treatment of the second “culture of the gaze.”10 cludes that the mashrabiyya and muqarnas “should be As we shall see later, Ibn al-Haytham’s treatise on op- recognized as symbolic forms” in Arab-Islamic art, in tics remained confined largely to the realm of the scien- contradistinction to the geometry of perspective that is tific gaze in the post-Mongol Islamic East, where the a symbolic form in Western culture.12 pictorial arts were more closely allied with aesthetic dis- Unlike modern fiction, early modern primary sources courses on poetics, music, and calligraphy. Belting cor- considered in this essay provide a less dichotomous un- rectly observes that Renaissance Europe’s perspective derstanding of the gaze in Christian Europe and the The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 29

­Islamic lands. Sharing many similarities overlooked in ­surviving documents, testify to the multiple talents of Belting’s antithetical account, both visual cultures were calligraphers and painter-decorators (sing. naqqāsh) nourished by the same sorts of classical texts and were specializing in the arts of the book, who collaborated in equally complex, just as their modalities of the gaze var- court scriptoria that institutionally, though not always ied according to time and place. Rather than opposites, spatially, combined a workshop and library. This col- then, it may be more productive to see them as two sides laboration extended beyond manuscript production to of the same coin. Premodern discourses on visual aes- the creation of designs for diverse media, including ar- thetics in both Christendom and Islamdom combined chitecture.18 Neoplatonic concepts, characterized by a “distrust of Some painter-decorators were skilled in calligraphy the eye,” and variants of a more positive Aristotelian and poetry as well, belonging as they did to the inner view that acknowledged the mental dimension of visual circles of royal and elite courts where they participated perception mediated by distinctly human faculties in in assemblies (sing. majlis).19 Such intimate intermin- the brain known as the “inner senses.” Focusing almost gling undermines the widespread assumption that ear- entirely on the geometry of vision in Ibn al-Haytham, lier artists in the medieval Islamic lands were illiterate Belting downplays the Aristotelian psychological com- and unlikely to keep up with intellectual currents that ponent of his optics, which assigns a central position to surrounded them.20 The primary sources point to a these perceptual faculties.13 Those faculties would play more connected universe, at least in the better-docu- a prominent role in late medieval and Renaissance pic- mented early modern Islamic courts, where the rising torial theory in the West.14 prestige of practitioners of the visual arts and architec- Translations and creative reinterpretations of classi- ture paralleled that of their colleagues in Europe and cal written sources by early Arab philosophers and sci- East Asia. The emergence from relative anonymity of entists rapidly became assimilated into the mainstream named calligraphers, painter-decorators, and architects of medieval Islamic culture at the turn of the eleventh with “star status” was among the factors contributing to and twelfth centuries, continuing to enjoy currency in the invention of unprecedented genres of writing.21 the post-Mongol era, when they were complemented by One of the new breed of multitalented artists, Ahmad commentaries and translations into other languages.15 b. ʿAbdullah al-Hijazi, wrote a petition for employment In the more specialized early modern literature in Per- that traces his career from Timurid Shiraz in 1422 to sian and Ottoman Turkish, conceptualizations of the ­Edirne in 1441–42. There he sought to enter the service gaze came to be articulated through new genres of writ- of the Ottoman court, like many other fifteenth- to ear- ing, including treatises on the visual arts (calligraphy, ly sixteenth-century Iranian artists, before the Persian- painting, architecture), prefaces of albums mounted speaking Mughal courts in India began to provide a lu- with calligraphies and images, biographical memoirs of crative alternative. Such circulations of talent further architects, and anthologies combining the biographies enhanced the shared Persianate visual cultures of early of calligraphers and painter-decorators. modern Turco-Mongol dynasties in the eastern Islamic These literary genres were partly rooted in late fif- lands. The petitioner points out that he began his train- teenth-century Timurid precedents such as album pref- ing by studying poetry according to the dictum “Poetry aces and biographical dictionaries of poets, which is necessary” and by learning calligraphy, which is “half started to incorporate artists and calligraphers who of learning.” He then goes on to describe his other artis- wrote poetry.16 Anthologies focusing exclusively on the tic skills: lives of calligraphers and painter-decorators appeared The [Timurid] sultans of the age too, like Ibrahim-Sultan, around the late sixteenth century in the context of the Baysunghur, Ulughbeg and their father Shahrukh Mirza [r. growing prominence of court scriptoria (kitābkāna/ 1405–47], have taken notice of this art [calligraphy], for kutubkhāna, naqqāshkhāna) in the Safavid and Otto- “people follow their kings’ religion.” In the kutubkhana of man realms, with their shared Timurid-Turkmen ar­- each of these there was a group of learned people without tistic heritage.17 Narrative sources, complemented by equal in the world—copyist, illuminator, illustrator, ­binder. 30 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

I too laid some claim [to proficiency] in these arts by virtue to which I shall return later by focusing on Safavid and of my aspiration and ardor, and through service and ap- Ottoman sources. prenticeship I acquired from every harvest a gleaning, and from every gleaning a seed, until during a voyage in the year 845 [1441–42] I arrived in Edirne … I did this because I found that the market for my wares was sluggish and buy- Medieval Texts on Visual Perception and ers were scarce.22 the Inner Senses

Given the interaction among poets, calligraphers, and Islamic texts generally accorded a lofty stature to skilled painter-decorators, it is not surprising that aesthetic artistry, especially in arts addressing the highest of the concepts articulated in the biographies of literati paral- five “outer senses”: sight and hearing. In some cases, lel those informing the visual arts. The coupling of cal- sight predominates over hearing, an early example be- ligraphers with painter-decorators in early modern ing the treatise on the eye by the Nestorian Iraqi court biographical anthologies and album prefaces also found physician Hunayn b. Ishaq (d. 873), which emphatically an echo in the Safavid theories of the “two pens” (the affirms that “vision is unique among the senses, the no- scribe’s “vegetal” pen and the painter’s “animal” pen/ blest of them and the most superior in quality.” Like- brush) and the aforementioned “seven fundamental wise, two Cordoban scholars, Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) and modes of decorative design.” Formulated around the Ibn Rushd (Averroës, d. 1198), ranked vision higher than mid-sixteenth century, these complementary theories audition.25 Nevertheless, Belting categorically asserts: attempted to augment the religious legitimacy and sta- “The question is whether one can speak of a gaze in the tus of painting by linking its origin with calligraphy. positive sense at all in Arab culture. The many social and Both theories were articulated in Safavid album pref- religious limitations imposed on the gaze suggest the aces and biographical anthologies, genres that largely opposite.”26 disappeared by the early seventeenth century. Variants The intimate connection between sight and insight is of these texts were produced around the same time by a leitmotif in medieval Islamic sources, which em­ Ottoman writers, but not in Uzbek Central Asia or Mu- phasize the cognitive potential of the arts and architec- ghal India, where similar concepts informed artistic ture. Another leitmotif is the creative imagination of the practices.23 ­artist/artisan, nurtured by the inner (spiritual) senses Interestingly, Chinese pictorial theorists of the Yuan that complement the outer (corporeal) senses, thereby dynasty (1279–1386), such as the scholar-artist Zhao- testifying to the elevated productive and perceptual Mengfu (d. 1322), a calligrapher and painter affiliated capa­cities of humankind.27 These concepts are encoun- with the Mongol court, developed a comparable claim tered in an early encyclopedia of philosophical sciences that calligraphy and painting had a “common origin.” A and the arts, the tenth-century Rasāʾil (Epistles) of the key factor that triggered new artistic trends in the east- Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ), attributed to a ern Islamic lands was the increasing resonance with group of scholars based in Basra with an associated Chinese paradigms after the sack of Abbasid Baghdad in branch in Baghdad. This popular work, which interprets 1258 by the Mongols.24 Including the emergence of court the inner senses within a Neoplatonic and Pythagorean scriptoria and the production of albums, these trends cosmological framework, circulated among Shiʿi and remained restricted mostly to the Turco-Iranian polities Sunni elites, generally educated people, and artisans of the Islamic East (Mashriq), extending from Anatolia over the ages. One of its manuscript copies, produced in all the way to China. The relative cultural unification of post-Mongol Baghdad in 1287, features a double frontis- this region owed partly to being brought under the um- piece illustrating the sagelike authors who collectively brella of Mongol rule, unlike the western Islamic lands compiled this text (fig. 5). (Maghrib), where sinicizing tastes in the arts met resis- The Epistles list the inner senses of imagination, cog- tance. The next section turns to forerunners of the post- itation, and memory, along with two human faculties: Mongol literature on representational arts and the gaze, the “faculty of speech” and the “productive faculty The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 31

F ig. 5. Double leaf frontispiece, Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), Baghdad, 1287. Istanbul, Süley- maniye Library, Esad Efendi, 3638, fol. 4r–3v. (After Richard Ettinghausen, Arab Painting [Geneva, 1962], 98–99)

[al-ṣāniʿa­ ], the seat of which is in the hands and fingers knowledge, and insight.”30 The arts of painters (ṣināʿat and by means of which the soul produces the art of writ- al-muṣawwīrīn) and musicians are deemed particularly ing and the other arts.” The epistle on the “loftiness of lofty in terms of their connection to the soul. Artists ex- the artist/creator” (sharaf al-ṣāniʿ) exalts the intellec- press love for their objects of creation by beautifying tual basis of the arts, implemented by a thinking hand and adorning them. The Neoplatonic metaphor of mys- intimately linked with the “productive faculty” of the tical love and desire also extends to the yearning of the soul. Comparing human creation with its divine coun- eye of the beholder for harmoniously proportioned terpart, the Brethren define the arts as the imprints on forms and colors, which remind the human soul of its raw matter of mental images (al-ṣūra) abstracted in the noble origin in the realm of intelligible entities. The in- minds (fikr) of their creators, who aspire to imitate the stinctive love of beauty, then, embraces the bodies of art of the divine creator to assimilate his wisdom.28 They both producers and beholders of the visual arts by si- associate art (al-ṣanʿa) with knowledge (al-ʿilm) and ex- multaneously engaging their sensuous and spiritual- plain that God loves the skillful and diligent artisan, for cognitive faculties. This innate attraction to beauty seeking perfection in the arts is to be “in the likeness of carries the potential of going beyond mere pleasurable the wise artificer, who is God.”29 wonder to the threshold of cognition, which is the do- The Epistles aim to disclose the subtleties of the sci- main of the intellect and guides intuitive knowledge. ences and arts, all of which reveal the wisdom of the The Brethren regard hearing and sight as “the best divine artificer, the Creator, who created human “artists and noblest of the five senses,” reminding their audience and inspired them with their crafts, with wisdom, of the Koranic affirmation that God endowed humans 32 GüLRU NECİPOğLU with the gift of “hearing, sight and hearts” (Koran 23:78). ­intellectually unsophisticated laborers. This view Nonetheless, their Neoplatonic view of mimesis (recall- amounts to a segregation of Islamic art from other artis- ing the Parable of the Cave) accords a superior status to tic traditions that are commonly interpreted in relation hearing: the species that inhabit this world are only rep- to aesthetic philosophies predominating in particular resentations and likenesses of forms (ṣuwar) and beings contexts, a complex correspondence that cannot sim- of pure substance that inhabit the higher world of the plistically be reduced to a provable “causal relation- celestial spheres and heavens, “just as the pictures and ship.”35 Al-Tawhidi’s treatise on calligraphy suggests images [al-nuqūsh wa-l-ṣuwar] on the surface of walls that such philosophical aesthetic concepts would have and ceilings are representations and likenesses for the been familiar at least among chancellery secretaries and forms” of animate beings of flesh and blood.31 This state- calligraphers, who must have collaborated with manu- ment takes for granted the presence of figural painting script illuminators and perhaps painter-decorators. Af- on architectural surfaces. Besides calligraphy, ranked by ter all, it was in the same Baghdadi milieu where the them as the noblest of the arts, the Brethren cite, among geometric mode of ornament, dominated by interlock- examples of visual beauty that rely on proportionality, ing star-and-polygon patterns based on the modular use the harmoniously combined colors and images (taṣāwīr) of the circle, came to be codified along with propor- of painters (al-muṣawwirīn) that trigger a pleasurable tioned cursive scripts (al-khaṭṭ al-manṣūb). In their sense of wonderment (taʿajjub) in viewers. As is the case epistle on ratio and pro­portion the Brethren explicate in proportionally executed scripts, in the production of that geometry and proportion provide the shared basis pleasing pictures artists must observe the right propor- of every art, referring in particular to prosody in poetry, tions of colors and shapes and sizes of figures.32 It is letters in proportioned script, and harmoniously joined without any theological qualms that the Brethren refer figures in painting and mechanical devices. They explic- to mimetic representations by skilled artists who, while itly state that the proportions governing prosody and emulating as their model God’s creation in figurative music are similar to those underlying calligraphy and works—whether “shaped, sculpted, or painted” (ashqāl, painting, a statement repeated in later sources.36 tamāthīl, ṣuwar)—seek to achieve that they should be In their epistle on music, which has the capacity to well-proportioned in construction, composition, and mediate between corporeal and spiritual senses, the arrangement. The human artist must imitate the divine Brethren explain that God created the human body ac- artist in mimetic works, “just as it has been stated in cording to the most eminent proportions of the uni- defining philosophy that is an imitation of the deity to the extent that human faculties allow.”33 verse, derived from the curved circumference of the Similar views expressed in the Neoplatonic writings circle and its diameter, from which the letters of propor- of the polymath Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. ca. 1010) and tioned calligraphy also originate. They specify that his associates in Abbasid Baghdad, then under Buyid man’s height equals the distance between his fingertips tutelage, negate the assumption that mimesis invariably when both arms are extended “right and left like a bird has a negative connotation in Islamic visual cultures.34 stretching its wings,” which defines a square inscribed A treatise on penmanship written by al-Tawhidi—a in a circle, whose center lies at the midpoint of the body. protégé of the mathematician-engineer Abu’l-Wafa⁠ʾ al- This concept has convincingly been likened to the no- Buzjani (d. 998), a man of letters, philosopher, and pro- tion of the “Vitruvian man” as a microcosm of the mac- fessional scribe associated with at least three principal rocosm, which would later form the basis of the drawing members of the Brethren of Purity—should dispel by Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519) of the “Renaissance man.” doubts as to whether the Neoplatonic-Pythagorean The close parallel affirms the lofty status of humankind ­conceptualization of the arts in the Epistles had any con- in Islamic cosmology, where humans inhabit the very nection with artistic/artisanal practice. As noted above, center of the universe, specifically created as their these doubts revolve around the insistence that ­habitat. Visual aesthetics and mimesis occupy the core ­me­dieval artists/artisans were mostly illiterate and of this Islamic version of humanism.37 The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 33

The Central Asian Aristotelian philosopher Ibn Sina ­inner beauty of these men. Just as the greatness of a poet, (Avicenna, d. 1037) and his father are known to have writer, or artist becomes all the more notable the more you studied the Epistles. Ibn Sina argued that although ani- know of the wonderful works of poetry, writing, and art, in the same way, miracles of the creation of God are a key to mals transform matter by building nests, theirs is a the knowledge of the greatness of the Creator.40 spontaneous activity of “sensitive imagination” when compared to the creation of artificial environments by Admiration for beautiful works of art and architecture, humankind through work and creative invention in- then, extends to their author as well, which in turn in- volving “rational imagination.” Nonetheless, his emana- creases love and ardent desire (shawq) for the divine tionist cosmology is imbued with illuminationist and creator. Al-Ghazali also acknowledged the love of beau- mystical tendencies that were subsequently elaborated ty for its own sake in a celebrated passage, whose rele- by al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and Suhrawardi (d. 1191). Drawing vance for aesthetic theory has long been recognized: upon Aristotle’s Poetics, Ibn Sina linked “mimesis” (al- A nother cause of love is that one loves something for its muḥāqā) in the arts with the “imagination” (al-takhyīl), own sake…. To this category belongs the love of beauty…. constituting one of the five inner senses or faculties that Do not believe that love of beautiful forms is conceivable were less systematically explicated by Aristotle: the only for the satisfaction of sensual desire…. However, the common sense (which centrally coordinates the inner perception of beauty also gives pleasure and can be loved senses from the brain), the faculty of imagination (ca- for its own sake alone…. The reaction of every healthy con- pable of abstracting matter), the faculty of estimation stitution proves that the contemplation of flowers and birds and of a beautiful colour, graceful design and form gives (capable of a more elevated form of abstraction going pleasure. On seeing them even worry and grief leave the beyond material accidents), the faculty of cogitation, human mind, though there is no benefit to be derived be- and the faculty of memory.38 yond the mere looking. These objects give pleasure and The Epistles were also studied by the Sufi theologian, everything pleasurable is loved.41 jurist, and philosopher al-Ghazali, who was affiliated The love of visual beauty therefore allowed for both the with the Seljuq court in Iran and Iraq. He added to the formal autonomy of aesthetic value and its place within five inner senses housed in the brain a sixth sense lo- a unitary scheme of values in a cosmos that opened onto cated in the heart—comprising the spirit and rational the transcendent and sublime. Since al-Ghazali regard- soul—that he likened to a polished mirror manifesting ed the source of all beauty as no other than God, visual the light of truth. Through this sixth sense—referred to beauty could induce in those spiritually or intellectually variously as the soul, the spirit, or the heart—al-Ghaza- inclined a contemplation of the wonders of creation, li further assimilated the perceptual theories of Arab semiotically replete with the signs of divine wisdom. philosophers into a framework of mystical love and de- The intuitive passage from aesthetic pleasure and won- sire, whose highest goal is the intuitive perception of der to metaphysical or mystical rapture could thus be absolute divine beauty, partially reflected in the beau- virtually instantaneous. This passage was facilitated by ties of the universe and of humankind. According to an anagogical mentality (ascent from the visible to the him, the sixth sense could perceive the superior beauty spiritual/heavenly) and the habit of connective thinking of the inner world, which is far more perfect than that that equated microcosm with macrocosm in both Chris- of the outer one, since inner vision (al-baṣar al-bāṭina) tian and Muslim contexts alike, well into the modern is stronger than outer vision (al-baṣar al-ẓāhir).39 Em- era. phasizing the capacity of initiated Sufis to penetrate Even though medieval philosophers had criticized hidden beauties with “the eye of the heart and the light the Sufis for embracing criteria of knowledge below rea- of insight” (bi-ʿayn al-qalb wa-nūr al-baṣīra), al-Ghazali son—such as intuition, inspiration, and immediacy of wrote: mystical experience—these criteria would gain increas- The beautiful work of an author, the beautiful poem of a ing currency in the post-Mongol eastern Islamic lands. poet, the beautiful design of a painter-decorator [naqsh al- In this context, the augmented importance of Sufi mys- naqqāsh] or the building of an architect reveal also the ticism, the metaphysics of light, and the Neoplatonic 34 GüLRU NECİPOğLU tradition loomed large. But the simultaneous preva- biographer’s claim that he had studied perspective at lence of Aristotelian notions of visual perception and length: “Perspective, no, because it seemed to me to be aesthetics speaks against attempts to postulate a mono- a waste of too much time!” Giorgio Vasari’s (d. 1574) lithic Islamic gaze. Like Ibn Sina, another contemporary Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Archi- scholar subscribing to an Aristotelian model of visual tects (1550, revised edition 1568) similarly demoted per- perception was Ibn al-Haytham, whose monumental spective to the level of a technique. This critical stance seven-volume treatise on optics allocated a prominent has been attributed to the “irreparable fissure” that the role to the inner senses coordinated by the common invention of perspective painting opened in “humanist” sense in the brain.42 culture, a point I shall revisit in relation to an implicit critique of “Frankish” illusionistic painting in some six- teenth-century Safavid sources.44 Ibn Al-Haytham’s Book of Optics and its As is well known, Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics, translated Early Modern Reception into Latin by the early thirteenth century as Perspectiva or De aspectibus, became available by the fourteenth Known as Alhazen in the West, this polymath flourished century in an Italian translation. The Florentine sculp- in Abbasid Basra and Baghdad during the Buyid period tor of the early Renaissance, Lorenzo Ghiberti (d. 1455), and spent his later years in Fatimid Cairo. He is famous extensively copied the latter’s section on the perception for his intromissionist visual theory, which synthesized of beauty in his Commentarii. Leonardo’s treatise on the geometry of vision with the physiology of the eye painting also includes recognizable echoes of Ibn al- and the psychology of perception. Ibn al-Haytham’s in- Haytham’s theory of visual perception.45 The Book of novative theory was concerned primarily with under- Optics explains that beauty (al-ḥusn) is perceived with standing the sense of sight through a model of light and respect to contingent factors, involving a complex inter- vision. He conceptualized vision as a cumulative pro- action among twenty-two visual properties (light, color, cess moving through stages, passing through the eye distance, position, solidity, shape, size, separation, con- into the brain: from physical radiation, to visual sensa- tinuity, number, motion, rest, roughness, smoothness, tion, to perceptual and conceptual representation, with transparency, opacity, shadow, darkness, beauty, ugli- each successive stage involving a degree of abstraction ness, similarity, and dissimilarity). Only two of these, that yielded a relatively subjective image of objective light and color (a corporeal property of light)—and to reality.43 some degree proportion (the geometric order of light)— Besides positing the necessity of “unconscious infer- are in themselves capable of producing beauty.46 ences” such as comparison and memory for sensation to Unlike light and color that are perceived by “pure sen- be transformed by the brain into conscious perception, sation,” other visual properties require “perceptual in- Ibn al-Haytham recognized the crucial importance of ferences” of two kinds, mediated by the sense of sight: eye movement for observing the visible world. This in- glancing and contemplation. Ibn al-Haytham defines sight contrasts with the reduction of the beholder to an immediate or “glancing” perception as an instantaneous immobile and disembodied eye in Renaissance single- recognition of familiar forms firmly embedded in visual point perspective, which constituted a human subject memory. By contrast, “contemplative perception” is a that is hardly “humanist.” The problem was noted in longer operation involving the inspection of complex Leonardo da Vinci’s treatise on painting, in which he visual elements by the inner faculty of judgment. He criticized the painters’ perspective for reducing the explains that intricate designs with subtle proportions viewing subject to a kind of Cyclops, in contradistinc- and color combinations can be fully apprehended only tion to the actual circumstances of perception and the by contemplative vision, involving the inner senses.47 complexity of painting. Likewise, a marginal note in a Visually complicated forms that require the concen- copy of Ascanio Condivi’s Life of Michelangelo (1553) by trated contemplation of the gaze include the “painted his last assistant quotes the artist’s contradiction of his designs and decorations [nuqūsh wa tazayīn] of a wall” The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 35 and “minute designs, letters of a script, tattoo marks, ­wrinkles, creases, although the surfaces of those pictures wrinkles and the difference between closely similar co- are smooth and polished. But if sight perceives a smooth lours.” Ibn al-Haytham adds: “Indeed all fine features picture as being rough then it will have erred in regard to its roughness. appear only after they have been scrutinized and con- templated.”48 This statement does not imply, as Belting Ibn al-Haytham goes on to explain that the smoothness maintains, that his optical theory was entirely aniconic. of the surfaces of painted pictures can be perceived only Assuming that the author “lived in a culture with no by “contemplation” from close up, and that sight cannot figurative pictures” and that the surfaces of muqarnas contemplate them unless they are “very near.”50 forms contained “no picture that is tied to an observer,” At the time Ibn al-Haytham was writing, painted Belting writes, “The insight that Alhazen’s optical theo- decorations on walls, muqarnas surfaces (fig. 6), and ry was just as aniconic as Islamic culture itself poses objects often combined figurative images with propor- entirely new questions.”49 tionally harmonized geometric, vegetal, and calligraph- In fact, Ibn al-Haytham, like the Brethren of Purity ic designs, except for religious contexts characterized by before him, explicitly refers to painter-decorators who aniconic imagery. To be sure, such pictorial representa- mimetically represented animate beings and even por- traits of individuals. It is worth quoting this passage, which Belting discusses but selectively considers only the animals and plants mentioned therein. Here, pic- tures painted “on a wall or on a piece of wood or paper” are discussed with respect to errors of sight, caused when the seen “object’s distance exceeds the moderate range”: This frequently happens with paintings [tazāwīq]. For painters [al-muzawwiqūn] make their pictures [ṣuwar] and paintings [tazāwīq] look like the visible bodies to which they correspond, and by means of flat pictures [ṣuwar musaṭṭaha] they represent particular animals, individuals, plants, utensils or other solid objects, and their features. For this purpose they make skilful use of colours and draw- ings [nuqūsh], paying particular attention to points of re- semblance…. They also make pictures of individual people, imitating what is visible in their forms of the outlines of their faces and bodies, their hair, the pores and wrinkles in their skin, and the creases in their clothes; thus they repre- sent the roughness visible in their skin on account of the hair and the pores, and the roughness of their clothes due to their creases. Painted pictures will be perceived to be like the forms they represent if those who made them were skilled in the art of painting. Therefore looking [for exam- ple] at a picture of a hairy animal painted on a wall or on a piece of wood or paper, sight will perceive the [painted] hair as if it were real. And, similarly it will perceive the F ig. 6. Plaster muqarnas fragment with painted decoration pictures of rough leaves as if they were [really] rough; and of a seated prince or noble holding a goblet in one hand, the same will be true of pictures of visibly rough bodies. Fatimid, eleventh century. From the Bath of Abu Suʿud in Again it will perceive the painted pictures of individual men Fustat (Cairo). Cairo Museum of Islamic Art, MIA 12880. (Af- as if they were solid forms, their painted hairs and wrinkles ter The Treasures of Islamic Art in the Museums of Cairo, ed. and creases in their clothes appearing as [real] hairs, Bernard O’Kane [Cairo and New York, 2006], 64, fig. 51) 36 GüLRU NECİPOğLU tions, like their counterparts in medieval Byzantium (yuṣawwiru) a figure in such a way that the beholder and the Latin West, differed from the illusionistic natu- would think it is coming out of the wall. His Egyptian ralism of Renaissance perspective painting. Yet the pas- competitor proposed to depict the same subject as if the sage quoted above demonstrates the value attached to figure were going into the wall, whereupon those pres- verisimilitude within the conventional parameters of ent exclaimed, “This is more wondrous [aʿjab]!” Their figural depiction. response captures the curiosity value of the feat and the The widespread combination of figural with aniconic performativity of the ensuing artistic show. The painters imagery in medieval Islamic artifacts and the outspoken each painted the picture of a dancing girl, in two niches appreciation of mimetic affects are expressed in a poem opposite one another—that of al-Qasir wearing a white by the celebrated Abbasid poet al-Mutanabbi, who died dress against a black background, and that of Ibn ʿAziz near Baghdad in 965, the year Ibn al-Haytham was born in a red dress against a yellow backdrop. Each artist suc- in nearby Basra. It has been observed that al-Mutanab- ceeded in achieving the painterly illusion he set out to bi’s poem sheds light on a tenth-century Muslim intel- create, and Yazuri lavishly rewarded them both.52 lectual’s attitude toward figural depiction and the This episode, which stresses the importance of life- question of “mimesis and animation in art.”51 This Ara- likeness within the bounds of prevailing seminaturalis- bic poem, probably written in Aleppo around 948–49, tic modes of abstract representation, indicates that the describes the surfaces of a lavishly decorated royal tent scholar al-Maqrizi harbored no religious misgivings that amazed the beholder with its naturalistic animal about illusionistic figural painting animated by move- designs, depicted against a backdrop of gardens with ment. Recalling anecdotes on organized competitions trees and plants and framed by a decorative border of among ancient Greek painters, the leitmotif of the con- pearl motifs. These designs were brought to life and test is a trope encountered in other Islamic texts that animated by the blowing wind that bestowed move- will be discussed later. The trope of the contest may per- ment to the realistically represented plants, flowers, haps carry the echoes of such classical sources as Pliny trees, birds, and animals in combat. the Elder’s Natural History, according to which the high- The fascination with verisimilitude in animated fig- est artworks are created by artists granted by nature an ural representations also finds testimony in the account “insight into art” that enables them to better imitate na- by the Mamluk-period Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi (d. ture. Besides stressing verisimilitude and mimetic per- 1442) of a mid-eleventh-century contest between an fection as the principle aim of art, Pliny’s “art-historical” Egyptian and Iraqi painter, close to the time Ibn al-Hay- chapters underline the value attached to artworks that tham resided in Cairo. The contest was organized by the are curious, wondrous, and daring (mirabilia).53 Fatimid vizier Yazuri (r. 1049–58), who is said to have Al-Maqrizi explains that the Fatimid vizier’s contest been especially fond of “illustrated books” (kitāb was described in greater detail in a (now-lost) book en- muṣawwar) and “images and pictures” (ṣūrat wa tazwīq). titled Ṭabaqāt al-muṣawwirīn, or Ḍawʾ al-nibrās wa anas The vizier invited the painter Ibn ʿAziz from Iraq, whose al-jullās fī akhbār al-muzawwiqīn al-nās (Biographies of fame equaled that of the calligrapher Ibn al-Bawwab (d. Painters, or The Guiding Lamp and the Pleasure of Com- 1022), to challenge the conceited Egyptian painter al- pany in the Biographies of Painters among People).54 Qasir who demanded high wages because he was as The title hints at the entertainment value of representa- great in painting as Ibn Muqla (d. 940) was in calligra- tional paintings in courtly gatherings (also the case with phy. This comparison of the painters to the two leading figural automata), for which there is ample evidence in calligraphers of Abbasid Baghdad, who codified propor- early modern sources as well. For instance, in a courtly tioned cursive scripts, is an indication of the prestige of majlis of the Turkic vizier of Timurid Herat, ʿAli Shir calligraphy as the standard against which painting is be- Nava⁠ʾi (d. 1501), the celebrated painter Bihzad (d. 1535– ing measured. The vizier introduced both painters to his 36) presented a portrait of the vizier standing in a “assembly” (majlis) and incited them against one an- ­garden, leaning on a cane. The portrait was passed other. The Iraqi artist announced that he would “paint” around and evaluated by those present in terms of its The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 37

­verisimilitude, even though painted portraiture on pa- per was governed by a marked tension between realism and convention.55 Individualized portraits were not confined just to the arts of the book but also enlivened the painted palace murals of the Timurid, Turkmen, and later Islamic courts.56 To return to Ibn al-Haytham’s Book of Optics, this Arabic treatise was disseminated in the post-Mongol Islamic East through the expanded Persian translation and commentary (1309) of Kamal al-Din al-Farisi, which explicitly refers to the “figurative arts” (ṣināʿat al-taṣvīr). The author of this updated translation, entitled Kitāb Tanqīḥ al-manāẓir (Revision of the Optics), was a scien- tist who had studied with the polymath Qutb al-Din al- Shirazi (d. 1311) at the Maragha observatory of the Mongols.57 His Persian text, in turn, was abridged in 982 (1574–75) with a discussion of its main topics in Arabic and dedicated to the Ottoman sultan, Murad III, by the chief court astronomer, Taqi al-Din Muhammad b. Maʿruf (d. 1586).58 Just around that time, in 1572, Fried- rich Risner’s edition of Alhazen’s Latin translation was F ig. 7. Print showing Archimedes setting Roman ships on published in Basel under the title Opticae thesaurus fire with the help of parabolic mirrors. Frontispiece of the (fig. 7). Latin translation of the Book of Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, The reworking of Ibn al-Haytham’s treatise by both Opticae thesaurus … Libri Septem, nunc primùm editi. Eiusdem Kamal al-Din al-Farisi and Taqi al-Din within the con- liber De Crepusculis & Nubium ascensionibus. Item Vitellonis text of astronomical observation exemplifies its confine- … Libri X. Omnes instaurati, figuris illustrati & aucti, adjectis ment to the realm of the scientific gaze in the eastern etiam in Alhazenum commentariis, a Federico Risnero (Basel, 1572). (Photo: Gülru Necipoğlu) Islamic lands, where the pictorial arts were not concep- tualized as a field of applied optics (fig. 8). It is therefore important to distinguish between two kinds of perspec- A note Taqi al-Din wrote on a copy of the Arabic transla- tive: the “painters’ perspective” exclusively developed in tion of Claudius Ptolemy’s (d. ca. 168) Almagest explains early modern Europe, and the perspective of astrono- that he had researched Greek manuscripts to determine mers, geometers, and architect-engineers that contin- the vocalization of the name Claudius and found the ued to flourish in both the Islamic and Christian meaning of Almagest in the Latin book of Ambrogio Ca- domains.59 lepino (d. 1511). The discovery of the note has suggested For the Damascus-born Arab astronomer-engineer, that he was “almost up-to-date on whatever philological Taqi al-Din, a royal observatory had been built in the works were being published during the European Re- Galata district of Istanbul, which was dominated by the naissance.”61 It also points to a hitherto underestimated European residents of the Ottoman capital. This court two-way traffic of scientific exchanges between Western astronomer, who spent most of his professional life in Europe and the Ottoman empire, demonstrating the Istanbul after an initial stage of astronomical experi- continuing vibrancy of Arabic sciences.62 Such a conclu- mentation in Ottoman Cairo, was keen to keep up with sion finds support in the striking correspondence be- contemporary scientific advances in Europe. His col- tween the high-precision observational instruments for laborators included a Jewish astronomer from Ottoman stargazing constructed by Taqi al-Din for the Galata ob- Thessaloniki known as Davud “the Mathematician.”60 servatory (ca. 1575–80)—built on the site of the former 38 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

F ig. 8. The court astronomer Taqi al-Din using a quadrant to observe a comet that appeared in the skies of Istanbul in 1576. From Mustafa ʿĀli, Nuṣretnāme, 1584. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. 1365, fol. 5b. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe, courtesy of Emine Fetvacı) The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 39

F ig. 9. The court astronomer Taqi al-Din with his colleagues working at the Galata observatory. From Seyyid Lokman, Shahanshāhnāma, 1581. Istanbul University Library, Ms. F. 1404, fol. 56b–57a. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) palace of the Venetian merchant Alvise Gritti (d. 1534)— Sinan’s (d. 1588) masjid in Istanbul, built and endowed and those deployed in the observatory (ca. 1576–80) of in his own name, is suggestive indeed. The collection Tycho Brahe (d. 1601) in Uraniborg, Denmark.63 Taqi al- may have included Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics, all known Din explained that one of the precision instruments he manuscript copies of which are currently in Istanbul created for the royal observatory was his own invention, libraries. If so, this treatise and others on the mathemat- inspired directly by the Almagest and previously un- ical sciences must have been deemed relevant for Otto- known.64 man architectural practice by Sinan and his team of The extensive library of the Galata observatory also architect-engineers. It is not a coincidence that an as- included a major collection of Islamic scientific manu- tronomer called Molla Fütuh was part of a survey com- scripts on astronomy and geometry that once belonged mittee, headed by Sinan in 1582, whose members were to the Ottoman scholar and royal librarian Molla Lutfi assigned to prepare an estimate for a canal project con- (d. 1494). The latter was a student of the Timurid astron- necting Lake Sapanca to the Bay of Izmit.65 omer-mathematician ʿAli Qushji (d. 1474), who had Ibn al-Haytham’s influential Arabic treatise, along joined the Ottoman court before 1472 (fig. 9). The fact with its translations and commentaries, circulated that this manuscript collection, which Sultan Murad III widely in Europe as the major work on the science of ordered to be handed over to the “pride of astronomers,” optics and the study of vision until the early seventeenth Taqi al-Din, in 1578, was being kept at the chief architect century. It was then that the treatise on optics by 40 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

­Johannes Kepler (d. 1630) advanced the modern under- their often underestimated value, Islamic narrative standing of the nature of light and the formation of the sources, poetry, and literary inscriptions provide valu- retinal image, based on data collected by the astronom- able insights into aesthetic values that informed the ical observations of Tycho Brahe (d. 1601).66 In The Judg- modalities of the gaze and attitudes toward the visual ment of Sense (1987), David Summers notes the parallel arts, including the appreciation of lifelike figural repre- yet differing trajectories of Ibn al-Haytham’s theory of sentation. visual perception, coordinated by the faculty of judg- ment, in premodern Europe and the Islamic lands. Link- ing the rise of the inner senses in late medieval and The Contemplative Gaze and Renaissance Europe to the new authority of artists, the Fascination with Mimetic Images Summers regards these human faculties as the ancestor of modern aesthetics and the unconscious that paved The late fourteenth-century poetic epigraphy in Arabic the way to Surrealism and Modernist Abstraction. By at the Alhambra Palace in Granada, for instance, implies contrasting the transformation of nature in Islamic art, that sight could lead to cognition through pleasurable which gives free reign to the faculty of imagination, with wonderment (fig. 10). One such inscription encourages the Renaissance enterprise of making internal and ex- the beholder to ponder the beauty of its architectural ternal vision mutually reinforce one another, Summers support, the visual perception of which exceeds the anticipates Belting’s more detailed comparison between most extravagant conceptions of the “imagination.” This these two visual cultures. The union of naturalistic rep- is a beauty that resonates with cosmological metaphors: resentation and optics in one-point perspective entailed “I am the garden appearing every morning with adorned the fixed point of view of an observer, a bipolar separa- beauty; contemplate my beauty and you will be pene- tion between subject and object that, in Islamic art, re- trated with understanding.” Another inscription refers mained relatively fluid. While the immobile perspective to the unfolding of so many wonders that “the eyes [of gaze produced static images, the kinetic gaze allowed the beholder] remain forever fixed on them, provided for the entry of the body, the senses, and desire into the he be gifted with a mind [to estimate them].” The Al- fractured unity of visual spaces in Islamic art and archi- hambra’s poetic epigraphy thus acknowledges the men- tecture.67 tal dimension of aesthetic perception, which is not Late medieval and early modern written sources, limited simply to the eye.69 along with monumental inscriptions, capture the po- It has been argued that the poems in the first-person tential of architectural spaces to promote the type of voice directly engage with and guide the beholder “from prolonged contemplative gaze theorized in Ibn al-Hay- visual perception to imaginative cognition.”70 While the tham’s Book of Optics by stimulating the cognitive facul- Hall of the Two Sisters and the Mirador de Lindaraja ties of vision. The cases considered in the next section accessed from it, where some of the inscriptions are con- show how ravishing multisensory architectural ensem- centrated, feature entirely aniconic ornaments, the bles could attract the subjectivity of attentive beholders roughly contemporary Hall of Justice (Hall of Kings) in like seductive visual magnets by inviting an intimate, the same courtyard boasts figural paintings in a late me- close-up way of viewing. The willful complication of the dieval European style. Attributed to the Nasrid ruler optical field in architecture and the arts can be inter- Muhammad V (ca. 1362–91), these large paintings on preted as a calculated way of inducing contemplative leather, which adorn three contiguous vaulted ceilings, vision, a “way of seeing” that is often referred to in Otto- are seamlessly incorporated into an otherwise aniconic man texts as the “scrutinizing gaze” (imʿān-i naẓar).68 decorative program (fig. 11).71 The North African scholar Regardless of the debate on whether or not theories of Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) observed that decorating the walls vision and aesthetics had an impact on artistic produc- of buildings and houses in Nasrid al-Andalus with Euro- tion, such texts offer precious glimpses into widespread peanate figural images was a widespread practice. Pre- sensibilities that framed visual hermeneutics. Despite sumably because such murals were uncommon in his The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 41

exchange for the captive son of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, after crushing the Crusader armies at Nicopolis in 1396. In response to that request, the duke sent two packhorses laden with the finest-quality Arras tapestries portraying “the history of King Alexander [the Great], with the major part of his life and his con- quests.”73 One of these Alexander tapestries was among the booty Timur brought from the Ottoman palace in Bursa to his own capital, Samarqand, upon defeating and capturing Bayezid I in 1402. The Arab chronicler Ibn ʿArabshah (d. 1496), who had been carried off by Timur from Damascus to Samarqand in 1400–1401, saw this 10-cubit-wide “curtain” with lifelike naturalistic figural representations and deemed it “one of the wonders of the world,” whose “fame is naught to the sight of it.” His detailed description once again testifies to the unre- strained admiration aroused by mimetic figural imag- ery, animated by affects of motion, as noted above in al-Mutanabbi’s and al-Maqrizi’s verbal accounts. The tapestry was

decorated with various pictures of herbs, buildings and leaves, also of reptiles, and with figures of birds, wild beasts and forms of old men, young men, women and children and painted inscriptions and rarities of distant countries and joyous instruments of music and rare animals exactly portrayed with different hues, of perfect beauty with limbs firmly jointed: with their mobile faces they seemed to hold secret converse with you and the fruits seemed to approach F ig. 10. Alhambra Palace, Granada, Mirador de Lindaraja, as though bending to be plucked.74 fourteenth century, interior view showing the northern win- dow overlooking a garden below. (Photo: Harvard Univer- E uropeanizing images, attested in the figural mural sity Fine Arts Library Visual Collections) paintings of Nasrid Granada, also began to appear in the Persianate arts of the book in the Islamic East during the homeland, he regarded this practice as a sign of foreign fourteenth century. This trend would accelerate in sub- domination. Although this may well be the case, Ibn sequent centuries until figurative representations in the Khaldun did not take into consideration the reciprocity “Frankish manner” eventually displaced the post-Mon- of artistic exchanges between the Nasrids and their Cas- gol taste for sinicizing imagery around 1600.75 tilian allies, which complicates the matter because both The practice of “contemplative perception” described parties manipulated a collective Iberian language of by Ibn al-Haytham was not only confined to secular im- courtly culture for self-fashioning.72 ages but also induced by religious architecture. His con- The late medieval fascination with Frankish mimetic temporary al-Thaʿalibi (d. 1038) recounts in The Book of figural representations is also documented in another Curious and Entertaining Information the story of a Islamic frontier region at the edge of Western Europe, shaykh who was utterly captivated by the visual splen- namely the Ottoman territories ruled by Bayezid I (r. dor of the Umayyad Great Mosque in Damascus (705– 1389–1402). This sultan demanded a ransom of Arras 15), “one of the wonders of the world in its beauty and tapestries depicting “appropriate ancient histories” in uniqueness.” This old man of Damascus used to say that 42 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

a

b

c The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 43

d e Fig. 11d and 11e. each time he went to pray in that mosque, ever since his lavish aniconic ornaments, accompanied by intricate youth, “he had never once entered it without his eyes Kufic inscriptions, included representational Byzan- alighting on some piece of inscriptional carving or orna- tinizing mosaics depicting ethereal architectural land- mentation or other aspect of its beauty which he had scapes without animate figures (fig. 12). never noticed before.”76 The shaykh’s enthusiastic aes- This narrative once again illustrates the positive val- thetic response to the allure of wondrous visual forms, ue attributed to gazing. By contrast, some puritanical continually revealing new beauties, can be likened to a hadith and texts on jurisprudence (fiqh) criticized the process of mystical unveiling (kashf) that was particu- use of distracting ornaments and even inscriptions in larly upheld in Sufi circles. The mosque’s partly extant, mosques, indicating differences in opinion that were

← Fig. 11. Alhambra Palace, Granada, Hall of Justice, late fourteenth century. (After Jesús Bermúdez Pareja, Pinturas sobre piel en la Alhambra de Granada [Granada, 1987]) a. Northern ceiling b. Central ceiling c. Southern ceiling d. Detail from the northern ceiling, depicting noble couples gazing from belvedere windows and arches, with a fountain in the foreground e. Detail from the southern ceiling, depicting a noble lady and her attendant looking out from the belvedere window of a castle at the landscape and battles scenes below 44 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

F ig. 12. Umayyad Great Mosque, Damascus, 705–15, mosaic Fig. 13. Selimiye Mosque, Edirne, 1568–74, interior. (Photo: revetments at the west arcade of the courtyard. (Photo: Anna Reha Günay) Gonosova, Harvard University Fine Arts Library Visual Col- lections) negotiated according to the preferred orientations of Turkish endowment deed of a mosque complex he built diverse regimes of visuality across time and space.77 An (1577–90) for the princess Shahsultan and her husband account comparable to that of the medieval Damascene Zal Mahmud Pasha in a delectable garden along the shaykh is narrated centuries later about an Ottoman shores of the Golden Horn. The mosque’s aniconic inte- painter-decorator called Nakkaş Ahmed Çelebi. This rior is portrayed as capable of triggering visionary expe- artist became so enamored of the Selimiye Mosque in rience by sharpening ocular vision. It could almost Edirne (built by the Ottoman chief architect Sinan be- restore eyesight to the blind with its light-filled windows tween 1568 and 1574) that he dedicated all his time after commanding spectacular vistas (fig. 14). An excerpt the prayers to gazing at its wondrous forms, which daily from this astonishing description reads: unveiled to him concealed beauties as a kind of visual Truly the mosque is a charming and immaculate sanctuary revelation (fig. 13). He then reported these newly re- … its windows are like doors opening from the belvederes vealed marvels to his friends each evening in convivial of paradise for the eyes of worshippers. They provide vistas gatherings.78 This state of affairs is described in an epis- for eyes desirous of encountering God by making manifest tle on the Selimiye Mosque, written by Dayezade Mus- the miracle-filled illumination of the true path. Those enter- tafa Efendi in 1741, where the author himself engages in ing there for the joy of God are granted spiritual states [ḥālet]. It is a meeting place where people are caught in a prolonged visual meditation and hermeneutical reflec­ rapture and ecstasy [vecd u ḥāl]. This beautiful and alluring tion on the mosque’s architectural forms in a stream-of- mosque is joy-giving and illuminated to such a degree that consciousness narrative mode. Dayezade individually the eyes of humans, normally limited to perceiving the vis- ponders distinctive architectural elements as a source ible world, can almost penetrate the concealment of the of spiritual revelation, involving a meditative exercise of sublime hosts of angels. This mosque embodies such a de- unrestrained freedom that is deeply imbued with cos- gree of charm and delight that it is possible for even the mological metaphors.79 blind eye to behold brightness from its world-viewing bel- vedere windows.81 Like earlier narratives, sixteenth-century descrip- tions of Ottoman monuments frequently highlight the In similar fashion, the mid-sixteenth-century historian amazement aroused in discriminating beholders who Eyyubi exclaims that inside the Süleymaniye Mosque are “clear-sighted” (ṣāḥib-naẓar, erbāb-i naẓar).80 That in Istanbul (built by Sinan, 1550–57), “the garden of Sinan’s mosques could even transport their congrega- ­paradise becomes visible to the mystically inclined tions into states of spiritual rapture is suggested by the [ehl-i ḥāl].”82 According to another observer, the visual The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 45

the “eye offered the gaze control over the world,” ­perspective painting became a “symbolic mirror in which the gaze depicted itself.” The picture plane in Re- naissance painting therefore came to be conceptualized as a mirror reflecting the artist’s optical gaze, in which the viewers found their own gaze.87 Drawing upon a rich medieval tradition, the mirror is also a recurrent meta- phor in early modern Islamic written sources discussed in the following section.88

The Mirror Metaphor and Mimetic ­Abstraction

F ig. 14. Mosque of the Couple Shahsultan and Zal Mahmud In Safavid and Ottoman texts on the arts, the eye of the Pasha, Eyüp, Istanbul, 1577–90, interior. (Photo: Reha Günay) artist and architect intently gazes at the world and uni- verse beyond, not to record itself but rather to hold a mirror to ideal images reflected in the polished mirror ­continuity between this mosque’s interior and the gar- of the mind, heart, or soul. While this is a gaze that con- dens outside (seen through windows descending all the tinues to prioritize inner vision, insight is nevertheless way to the floor level) created a feeling of transparency mediated by sight instead of being “purely mental.”89 within the prayer hall where the odor of flowers “per- The ongoing preference to place inner vision above the fumed the minds” of the congregation, as if they had outer kind is more about a divergence in pictorial theo- entered paradise.83 The late sixteenth-century court his- ry—a favoring of abstraction over optical naturalism— torian Seyyid Lokman poetically describes the same than about “aniconicism” or the lack of a “conception of spatial effect: “All four sides are opened up with plea- pictures,” as Belting proposes. sure-increasing windows on multiple layers, from which We have seen ample examples that render these no- Space and Time is exposed.”84 tions irrelevant. Besides, the abstractive faculty of cre- Expansive vistas were commanded by windows not ative imagination, which foregrounds the agency of the only in Sinan’s mosques but also in Ottoman palaces artist and beholder, is privileged not only in Islamic vi- and garden pavilions whose belvederes find numerous sual cultures but also in East Asian and Western Euro- parallels in Islamic palatial architecture, such as those pean nonperspectivist image theories, such as those of the Alhambra (see fig. 10). The latter, in addition, fea- pertaining to medieval, Baroque, and Modernist art. tures paintings of fortified palaces with open belvedere A comparable notion in Chinese art theory, for instance, towers, from whose arched windows courtly personages is that the picture comes not entirely “from an observa- gaze at surrounding landscapes and activities (see tion of external phenomena” but “from within the heart/ fig. 11d, e).85 The prevalence of view-commanding bel- mind of the artist.” Even Pliny the Elder, whose anec- vederes makes it difficult to maintain the aforemen- dotes are permeated by a preoccupation with mimetic tioned theorization of the mashrabiyya as a symbolic perfection, credits the agency of the artists’ mind, intel- form of Arab-Islamic culture, “directed toward the inte- lect, and insight, thanks to which painting was recog- rior instead of drawing the gaze toward the outside,” nized in Greece as the foremost among the liberal arts. which differs from windows and the view from them He thus characterizes the artist Timanthes’s art as em- that are “inseparably linked in Western culture.”86 bodying a “sense of some more profound content” and Belting explains that the window and the mirror were having “behind it an intellect that reached beyond “key concepts” in the Renaissance. In this context, where art.”90 46 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

Unlike Renaissance single-point perspective painting that sought to scientifically map the outer gaze on the picture plane, contemporaneous artists in the eastern Islamic lands aspired to mirror the insightful gaze by means of soulful and evocative mimetic abstractions that enlighten the beholder. Directed toward subjectiv- ity rather than objectivity, such seminaturalistic, multi- focal pictorial images solicited close attention from discerning eyes. They came closer to poetry, conceptual- ized as a mode of imaginative creativity arousing plea- surable wonder, than to the science of optics, with its own geometry of the gaze. Like poetic discourses, picto- rial representations manipulated codified imagery and conventions, selectively integrating more naturalistic representational devices from the fifteenth century on- ward into the international Persianate painting tradi- tion embraced by diverse Turco-Iranian polities. The degree of naturalism varied in accordance with specific regional traditions, genres, and styles. It has been shown that the assimilation of theories of visual perception into literary discourses is already ap- parent in the writings of the Persian poet Nizami Gan- javi (d. 1209), referring to the mental origin of images, painted from memory and from forms stored in the imagination.91 The terminology of Neoplatonism and Islamic mysticism, adopted in the medieval Persianate F ig. 15. Contest between Greek and Chinese painters. From literary tradition and perpetuated in early modern texts Nizami, Khamsa, mid-fifteenth-century, probably Shiraz, Qa- on the visual arts, revolved around the dichotomy of raqoyunlu Turkmen. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Li- outer appearance (ṣūrat) and inner reality (maʿnī), con- brary, Ms. H. 753, fol. 304r. (After Sultanların Aynaları, exh. cat., Topkapı Palace Museum [Istanbul, 1998]), 18, fig. 5) nected to the Sufi concepts of exterior (ẓāhir) and inte- rior (bāṭin). Ideal beauty arose from a harmonious fusion between outward form and inner meaning, through the creative deployment of conventional imag- Chinese artist wins the competition in the “art of design ery that would become invigorated with an increasing and painting” (ṣanʿat al-naqsh va’l-ṣuvar) by polishing dose of naturalism in the post-Mongol era. his wall like a mirror. When the curtain is lifted, its bur- The image theory that pervades Nizami’s oeuvre is nished surface reflects with greater luminosity and in- visually articulated in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century creased beauty the Greek artist’s mural painting. While manuscripts of his Khamsa (Quintet), produced in the the winner is likened to the Sufi who polishes his heart Turkmen and Safavid courts of Iran. Paintings in these until divine radiance shines in it, his rival is compared manuscripts illustrate the parable of a competition be- to the ulema who strive for external knowledge. Accord- tween Chinese and Greek painters, who are asked by ing to Nizami’s modified version of the parable, both Alexander the Great to decorate with murals two facing mural paintings appeared to be nearly identical in draw- walls of a palace, separated by a curtain (figs. 15–17).92 ing and color, except for one difference: one was giving In the version of Nizami’s parable narrated about eighty and the other receiving. The Greek mural was judged years earlier by the Iranian Sufi scholar al-Ghazali, the superior in figural painting (ṣūrat-garī) and the Chinese The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 47

F ig. 16. Contest between Greek and Chinese painters. From Nizami, Khamsa, Shawwal 900 (June 25–July 23, 1495), Shiraz, Aqqoyunlu Turkmen. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. 778, fol. 324r. (After Sultanların Aynaları, 20, fig. 7)

one superior in polishing (ṣaql). The conclusion of the contest was that “both are an aid to vision [baṣar].”93 Different interpretations have been proposed for Nizami’s enigmatic account. According to Ibn Khaldun’s commentary, al-Ghazali’s version of the parable was meant to elucidate the difference between alternative modes of cognition by the soul, envisioned as turning on one side toward the material world and on the other side toward the eternal Preserved Tablet (lawh al-maḥfūẓ) of divine creation. The curtain of corporeal impurities separating the soul from the Tablet could be lifted by purification, so as to more effectively receive the reflec- Fig. 17. Contest between Greek and Chinese painters. From tions of luminous supranatural realities. The painter Nizami, Khamsa, Rabiʿ II, 919 (June 6–July 4, 1513), Shiraz, who polishes his wall thus represents the Sufis, for Safavid. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. whom the reception of inspired knowledge (ilhāmī) 788, fol. 319r. (After Sultanların Aynaları, 19, fig. 6) through dreamlike visions constitutes the highest proof, 48 GüLRU NECİPOğLU whereas the other painter personifies those who seek ­fingers in awe and wonderment. The doubled murals in acquired external knowledge (kasbī). Ibn Khaldun ex- one example represent an idealized garden with a plains that between these two facets of cognition, the standing couple (see fig. 15), whereas the other two vari- brighter specular reflection alludes to the supremacy of ants feature abstract gardens composed entirely of dec- mystical enlightenment, on which Plato, “the greatest orative scrolls: a chinoiserie or Cathayan (khaṭāʾī) floral philosopher and Sufi of antiquity,” placed a premium. scroll (see fig. 17) and an inhabited scroll with human Given Nizami’s own Sufi proclivities, the polished wall and animal heads (vāq) (see fig. 16), respectively. Like in his version of the allegory is probably a metaphor for these Iranian manuscript paintings, sixteenth-century the purity of the soul, affirming the value judgment that Safavid album prefaces that will be discussed below reflective mirror vision is a more profound mode of mi- conceptualize vegetal and floral scrolls as mimetic ab- metic imaging than illusionistic painting, although he stractions, distilled from the divine creation rather than does not explicitly state this. The equivocal conclusion as purely decorative motifs. of the contest in his account recalls al-Maqrizi’s above- According to a later version of the parable in the bio- mentioned narration of another competition without graphical anthology of calligraphers and painters by the an obvious winner at the court of a Fatimid vizier, in Ottoman polymath Mustafa ʿĀli (d. 1600), written in which both an Iraqi and Egyptian painter are rewarded 1587–88, the legendary “Chinese artist Mani” (founder for their equally successful realistic representations.94 of Manicheism) wins the contest against three other Early modern paintings illustrating Nizami’s parable masters of painting, each of whom is ordered to paint can be interpreted as self-reflexive images, reflecting one of four walls in an emperor’s garden pavilion. All the upon their own operation and upon their role in posi- other artists’ “wondrous creations” had been crafted tioning the viewer/subject. It is tempting and not im- with “inventions and [works of] originality,” as if they plausible to read into them an implicit critique of the were signs of the divine “perpetual decorator and eter- deceptive mimicry of Renaissance perspective painting, nal artist’s” adornments in the highest gardens of para- which sought to mirror “reality,” as if what one saw on dise. Yet the winner, Mani, the picture plane seemed to mirror “truth itself.”95 As that peerless master, gave the wall such a burnishing that noted above, even some Renaissance artists expressed [even] pure water had never been so transparent. And he skepticism about the claim to truth of painters’ perspec- gave his every image such a bright appearance that the tive. Such a critique is, in fact, hinted at in a mid-six- world-illuminating mirror [i.e., the sun] has never furbished teenth-century Safavid version of the contest of painters plants and flowers in that tone. Verses by the author: (naqqāshān), now involving Chinese and European (fa- With their pure, natural quality, Mani’s rang) figural painters (ṣurat-garān), in which the former Designs became a mirror for his enemies. triumph. This competition conflating the painters of He gave [his] world-renowned pictures such a light that “China and Cathay” and “Greek and Frankish” painters From end to end they began to manifest God’s provi- ends with a description of the talismanic world-reflect- dence.97 ing mirror of Alexander the Great installed above the lighthouse of Alexandria (a metaphor for the heart of The metaphor of the polished mirror or pure tablet of the Perfect Man in mysticism), and of how Aristotle the painter-decorator’s heart/mind/soul is a recurring made an astrolabe to view the heavens.96 theme in sixteenth-century Safavid and Ottoman texts, One of the three manuscript paintings from Nizami’s rooted in an international Timurid-Turkmen cultural Khamsa that are reproduced here shows the Chinese heritage that increasingly became infused with Sufi artists intently burnishing their wall like a mirror, in the paradigms of enlightened inner vision and inspired manner of Sufi masters who purify the soul to increase ­creativity. The eminent Timurid historian and stylist its reflective capacity (see fig. 17). In each example, the Khvandamir (d. ca. 1535), for example, described a glass wall paintings, whether figurative or nonfigurative, vessel with figurative representations of thirty-two arti- ­astound Alexander and his company, who bite their sans, made in 1465, as “such a configuration that no The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 49 more beautiful picture could be reflected in the mirror With their gazes fixed on creation, they take an image from of the imagination.”98 Khvandamir’s late fifteenth- or every prototype.103 early sixteenth-century preface to a now-lost album of These lines of poetry imply that depictions on the al- calligraphy and painting samples, assembled by the bum’s folios echo the mirroring in the tablet of the painter Bihzad, eulogizes the album folios, which de- painter-decorator’s mind of cosmic prototypes, in- light the soul with their “pictures” (ṣūrat) that “the artist scribed with the Divine Pen on the eternal Preserved of the mind [muṣavvir-i khāṭir] has transferred from the Tablet. It is not surprising, then, that Safavid prefaces tablet of the heart/mind/soul [lavḥ-i dil] to the pages of often conceptualize albums as microcosms, comparable this book.”99 to the patchwork (muraqqaʿ) of the sky, which have In the preface of an album dedicated to the Safavid been assembled to praise God’s creation and to invite prince Bahram Mirza in 1544–45, the court calligrapher an intimate gaze from insightful viewers. Their “pure” Dust Muhammad declares that “when the desired form images drawn by the “spirit and soul” arouse “spiritual is manifested from the invisible world, like a mirror, the pleasure and eternal delight.”104 surface of a pure heart is the best.”100 The same preface Similar statements are encountered in the preface of mentions the Artangi Tablet, consisting of images paint- an Ottoman album combining images and calligraphies ed on silk by the legendary artist Mani, the likes of which that was assembled by the artist Kalender for Sultan “occur only in the mirror of the mind [āyīna-yi ʿaql] Ahmed I around 1610. Also conceptualized as a micro- through the eye of imagination [dīda-yi khiyāl].”101 cosm of the divine creation, this album is likened to the The mirror metaphor also appears in the preface of a Mirror of Time, whose polished surface revealing kalei- Safavid album, dated 1564–65 and compiled by Mir Sayyid Ahmad for Amir Ghayb Beg. This preface exalts doscopic images is the object of esteemed gazes. Kalen- the status of vision by defining the visual arts as the “key der’s preface explains that gazing at the album’s to wisdom” and the pen as the “key to art.” The charac- wonder-arousing beautiful contents, created by talent- terization of the pen as the “designer of patterns” and ed artists and calligraphers, will perfect in the sultan “an unveiler of faces” encapsulates the fluidity between “the eye of learning by example” (ʿayn-i ʿibret) and in- modes of ornamental and representational design, crease his capital in “the science of wisdom” (ʿilm-i which multitalented Iranian artists mastered during ap- ḥikmet). Contemplating the album’s wondrous artworks prenticeship (see figs. 3 and 4). The author of the preface will console the monarch’s troubled heart by enlivening praises the “amazing images and wonderful motifs” of his mind and please his soul by adding beauty to his this “art” (ṣanʿat), which are the “object of contempla- radiant inner world. The skillful manner in which the tion for those possessed of insight.” Stating that the album’s contents have been seamlessly joined together “imaginative power and elegance of nature” of its prac- will be obvious to those with “acute perception” titioners is not possessed by experts in the other arts, he (ḫurdebīnān) and to “sagacious people of insight” adds: “The beauty that unveils her face in the tablet of (ḫurdedān-i ehl-i ʿirfān), if each work is viewed with a the painter-decorator’s mind [lavḥ-i khāṭir-i naqqāsh] is “scrutinizing gaze” (imʿān-i naẓar).105 Briefly put, gazing not reflected in everyone’s imagination.”102 In Mir Say­ at the album’s artistic beauties will not only beautify the yid Ahmad’s preface, decorative designs in the seven beholder’s inner world but also promote pleasure, fundamental modes, which parallel the six pens in cal- knowledge, and wisdom. ligraphy, are regarded as mimetic abstractions modeled on the divine artist’s wondrous creation: The Cosmic Gaze and the Rhetoric of What marvelous wielders of pens of sorcery who bestow ­Superrealism life with magic-making pens! Latched onto every created thing, they reproduce the like- ness of every thing. Glimpses of pictorial theory can also be gleaned from They follow God’s craft from the compass of the spheres to early modern technical manuals expounding the can- the surface of the earth. ons of painting and calligraphy. A Safavid example 50 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

­entitled Qānūn al-Ṣuvar (The Canons of Painting, 1597) One was composed by the Safavid scholar and man of was written by the Turkmen court painter and poet letters, Qadi Ahmad, around 1596 (revised second edi- Sadiqi Beg Afshar (d. 1609–10), the head of the library tion 1606), so that it “may prove useful to connoisseurs (kitābdār) of Shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629). The author and find a place in the flourishing kitābkhāna of the praises the multitalented master who trained him as Shah of the World [ʿAbbas I], by the side of masters of having “piercing eyes” capable of gazing upon expansive writing and artists.”109 Written a decade earlier, Mus- cosmic vistas: tafa ʿĀli’s Ottoman-Turkish version of the same bio- When drawn to picture animate life, his achievements were graphical genre, introduced above, attests to the sheer wizardry and miracle. When minded to portray a currency of similar yet divergent discourses on the vi- certain person, his creative imagination [khiyāl] could pen- sual arts in the “lands of Rūm” (i.e., the formerly Roman etrate to the inner man beneath. And none could truly realm of the Ottoman empire). This work was intended distinguish between original and likeness—unless, perhaps to educate uninformed collectors of paintings and cal- purely physical considerations of motion were invoked. ligraphies, who were “addicted” to albums. It signals the Indeed, when he painted “Maiden Beauty,” Passion’s thighs, emergence of an open market for the sale of artworks by beside themselves, went a-quivering uncontrollably. And renowned past and present masters.110 when he portrayed “Sir Valor,” Prowess, cut the quick, was sent a-questioning the philosopher’s elixir. Then again, Mustafa ʿĀli highlights the regional distinctiveness of when he turned his brush [from the figural] to the decoral Ottoman (rūmī) aesthetic sensibilities from those of the genre [naqqāshī], the fabled gardens of Iram rose re-creat- Iranian (ʿacemī) artistic tradition. He characterizes ed a-fresh on earth. And lastly, in view of his color-varnish- some Ottoman artists and calligraphers as the “inven- ing technique, Dame Purity would take one look and flush tors” (mūcid) of new styles differing from the “manner crimson to her shame.106 of the Iranian world” (üslūb-i ʿacemī), where stricter What drew the author to his profession was an inner imitative practices passing from master to disciple were voice insinuating: “Your true vocation is art [hunar], preferred.111 Thus the paragone set up in Dust Muham- seek it diligently the rest of your days. Pursue it mili- mad’s and later Safavid album prefaces among Chinese, tantly, and cling to it mightily; for life without art is Frankish, and Persianate artists has been substituted bleak.” Sadiqi Beg passionately resolved to find a “mas- here by a competitive comparison between practi­ ter-follower of the Bihzadian line” of figural painting tioners of the arts in Iran and the lands of Rum.112 It has and to bind himself in apprenticeship and learn to been shown that such a comparative gaze informs the “paint the bazaar-world of pictured things with the sole organizational strategy of the Sultan Ahmed Album, idea of drawing near to their Real Nature.”107 Sadiqi, where Iranian and Ottoman works are juxtaposed to upon finding his incomparable master, Muzaffar-ʿAli (d. invite comparison.113 ca. 1576), faithfully bound himself to him in apprentice- The divinely bestowed power of artistic invention ship: and individualism is a key concept in Ottoman texts, in which the ideal of mimetic abstraction and the cosmic So assiduously did I abandon myself to figural painting [ṣūrat-garī] that I was able to discover how, by this art, what gaze occupy a central position. The autobiography that was intrinsically real within a subject [maʿnā] could be the chief architect Sinan dictated to Mustafa Saʿi in the represented, to all appearances, through its external form 1580s is the prime example of the exaltation of innova- [ṣūrat]. I prided myself on having become a conquistador tion and creative genius, not unlike the lives of Italian in the realms of these genres and techniques [fann]. For all Renaissance artists and architects. Since Sinan’s oral ac- these conquests were in the name of Muzaffar [i.e., counts were recorded with literary embellishments by Muzaffar-ʿAli], that saintly shaykh among men, my mas- his poet friend, who was also a painter and calligrapher, ter.108 they closely echo concepts encountered in the biogra- Comparable praises of artistry and mimesis are encoun- phies of calligraphers, painters, and poets. The chief tered in late sixteenth-century Safavid and Ottoman architect’s self-assertive autobiographies stress his men- biographical anthologies of calligraphers and painters. tal powers of invention. His God-given talent wins him The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 51

F ig. 18. Parade of royal architects with a model of the Süleymaniye Mosque during the circumcision festivities of a prince in 1582 at the Hippodrome in Istanbul. From İntizami, Sūrnāme-i Humāyūn (Book of Festivities), ca. 1587. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. H. 1344, fol. 190b–191a. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) the status of “perfect man” (insān-i kāmil), which is the of that chief architect, in order to commemorate his highest station attainable by humankind in Sufi par- master’s life and achievements.115 lance. Modeled on the lives of miracle-working saints, Among their intended readers (including Sultan Mu- the autobiographies elevate Sinan to the status of saint- rad III, the crown prince Mehmed, and the grand vizier hood (velāyet) and style him the “patron saint of master Siyavush Pasha), the autobiographical memoirs of Sinan architects” (pīr-i ustādān). Existing in several versions, address fellow architects and experts capable of appre- these autobiographical texts have no parallel in the Sa- ciating his innovations with their special powers of vi- favid context, or elsewhere in Islamic art history.114 It is sual discrimination. They are referred to as “brethren of suggestive that the proud first-person voice in them dis- purity” (ḫullān-i ṣafā), “companions” (dost), and “con- appears in an early seventeenth-century biographical noisseurs” (erbāb-i teʾlīf). Sinan’s autobiographies are treatise on architecture, narrating the career of a stu- also replete with allusions to the possessors of “skill/art” dent and successor of Sinan, Mimar Mehmed Agha (ehl-i hüner, maʿrifet ehli) and “clear-sighted ones” (d. 1617). Its author independently decided to write this (erbāb-i naẓar). Their prefaces reflect a humanist ethos biographical memoir as a longtime household member in the exaltation of humankind as a mirror of God’s 52 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

­perfection. They refer to special skills divinely bestowed and naturalistic imitation, all mimesis required acute on select individuals (the foremost being the Prophet visual observation, the only way human beings could Muhammad), among whom Sinan represents the earth- acquire knowledge of the cosmos. Hence Leonardo da ly counterpart of the divine architect.116 Vinci (d. 1519) stated, “The eye, that is the window of the Sinan is also glorified in a book of festivities depicting soul, is the principal way whence the common sense the parade of royal architects in 1582 at the Hippodrome may most copiously and magnificently consider the in- in Istanbul (fig. 18). His farsighted cosmic gaze, capable finite works of nature.”119 Leon Battista Alberti’s (d. 1472) of mimetically abstracting the universe on the tablet of statement in a collection of writings dated 1431 that his perceptive mind, is praised along with his fingers, “when we investigate all things [with the human eye], which are endowed with extraordinary skills. The con- we emulate the divine”120 is not fundamentally different nection between his mind and fingers is reminiscent of from comparable statements in Islamic texts, although the “productive faculty” of artists described above by the it found artistic expression in a pictorial mode that priv- Brethren of Purity: ileged optical reality. The “anthropomorphism” of the Renaissance “cult of the eye” was, after all, not liberated A talented person he was indeed from a theocentric ethos in an early modern world, Each of his fingers had a thousand skills. where the cosmos constituted the basis for mimesis in His intellect [ʿaḳl] was endowed with power in geometry the Christian and Islamic lands alike. His cultivated mind [fikr-i maʿmūr] was an architect for all Ottoman biographical anthologies of literati, which types of work. include some references to painter-poets, shed further When he drew the form of the universe on the tablet [levḥ] light on parallels between the conceptualization of vi- of his mind sual and literary arts. In an anthology completed in 1546, He would instantly turn it into a working drawing [kār­ the Ottoman poet Latifi (d. ca. 1582) asserts that the true nāme]. masters of poetry are the inventors (mūcīd) of personal When he lacked compasses, his fist styles (ṣāḥib-i ṭarz) because they directly imitate God’s Would suffice to him with two fingers. creation instead of deriving art from art. Latifi considers When he resolved to fashion the heavenly vault himself the creator of a “new style” (ṭarz-i nev) of elo- He would turn Saturn’s palace into muqarnases. quent prose, which nobody else invented (ihdās̱) in the Ottoman lands (rūm) conducive for talented natures to When his adze struck a melodious tune Dough would turn into wax and iron into stone. flourish.121 This was a divinely inspired, beautiful style “drawn and pictured” on the “tablet/page of my heart,” When he designed a plan and elevation a conceptualization that echoes discourses on the vi- Many a Euclid would draw lessons from it. sual arts.122 Latifi partially quotes a qasida of his that he When he drew a wheat bud on marble, he would harvest it describes as a “mirror from which to learn lessons” When he carved a rose on stone, he would create a rose (ʿibret aynası). Gazing at the beauties of the cosmos is garden.117 the main theme of this poem whose first couplet ex- claims: This eulogy echoes the same kind of rhetoric deployed for painter-decorators, whose pictorial representations O soul, purify yourself like water from turbidity and gaze are often described as more real than optical reality, as at the [divine] beloved in Sadiqi Beg’s acclamation of his master quoted earli- Polish the mirror of the heart [āyine-i ḳalb], and gaze at the [divine] beloved’s face!123 er.118 Rather than mere hyperbole, I prefer to interpret such rhetoric as the emphatic expression of an aesthet- Some Ottoman poets mentioned by Latifi even pro- ic ideal of “superrealism.” From this perspective, ab- claimed the possibility of a reciprocal gaze between God straction is more mimetic than optical illusionism and humans, using the metaphor of the lover and divine because it better captures the essence of what is repre- beloved. This concept was developed, among others, by sented. Regardless of the tension between abstractive the Andalusian Sufi, Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 1240), whose The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 53

­pantheistic mystical writings were widely disseminated ­sen­sation, and memory, thereby raising the status of the in the lands of Rum and beyond.124 For example, the visual arts and architecture into potential sites of knowl- Ottoman Sufi poet Shaykh Bayezid of Edirne, who wrote edge. Suspended between embodiment and disembodi- a commentary on Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Fusūs al-ḥikam (The ment, and between sensation and contemplation, the Bezels of the Wisdoms) composed a couplet which de- intimacy of the scrutinizing gaze involved diverse inter- clared that God is both the seer and the seen, for he actions of sight, insight, and desire. created humankind in his own image and gazes at him- self through human eyes. It addresses God as follows: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Y ou created your own beauty in the form of [human] beau- Department of History of Art and Architecture, ties Harvard University Then you turned around to gaze at it from the eye of the Cambridge, Mass. lover.125 Similarly, the mid-sixteenth-century Ottoman poet and calligrapher Gubari of Larende wrote a poem before re- Notes tiring as an ascetic in Medina that expressed the reci- Author’s note: This essay further explores some ideas introduced procity between the “forms of the microcosm” (ṣuver-i in a shorter article, Gülru Necipoğlu, “L’idée de décor dans les ʿālem-i ṣuġrā) and images of the “macrocosm” (ʿālem-i régimes de visualité islamiques,” in Purs décors? Arts de l’Islam, kübrā). This tantalizing poem commends humans to regards du XIXe siècle: Collections des Arts Décoratifs, ed. Rémi “gaze with the soul’s eye to comprehend the cosmos” Labrusse, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée du Louvre (Paris, 2007), 10–23. I am grateful to the editors Olga Bush and (naẓar it dīde-i cān ile cihānı añla) because it is a store- Avinoam Shalem, and to Finbarr Barry Flood for their insightful house of wisdom, manifesting knowledge of the divine comments on an earlier version of this essay. mysteries with “symbols and signs” (remz ü işāret). The 1. On the integration of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic thought poem’s last two couplets read: in early Islamic philosophy, see Gerhard Endress, “Mathe- matics and Philosophy in Medieval Islam,” in The Enterprise O Gubari, come to understand your own essence! of Science in Islam: New Perspectives, ed. Jan P. Hogendijk Listen with all ears to my advice, as it is filled with good and Abdelhamid I. Sabra (Cambridge, Mass., and London, tidings. 2003), 121–76. For the assimilation of Neoplatonic and Aristotelian aesthetic concepts, see Gülru Necipoğlu, The Do not be oblivious, open your eye, you are the macrocosm Topkapı Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Archi- itself tecture, Topkapı Palace Museum Library MS H. 1956, With You are the very Tree of Paradise, and the Tablet, and the an Essay on the Geometry of the Muqarnas by Muhammad Pen, and the Divine Throne!126 al-Asad (Santa Monica, Calif., 1995), 185–96. Following the publication of my book, there has been a growing interest These daring verses hint at the currency of an alterna- in discourses on visual aesthetics in medieval Arabic texts. tive gaze of anthropomorphic humanism with a per- See José Miguel Puerta Vílchez, Historia del pensamiento estético árabe Al-Andalus y la estética árabe clásica (Madrid, spectivism of its own. 1997); Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Beauty in Arabic Culture In conclusion, the coexistence of different modalities (Princeton, N.J., 1999); Valérie Gonzales, Beauty and Islam: of gazing, which also included the scientific gaze, speaks Aesthetics in Islamic Art and Architecture (London, 2001). against a monolithic Islamic way of seeing or mindset. I 2. Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and have emphasized the aesthetic, emotive, and cognitive Arab Science, trans. Deborah Lucas Schneider (Cambridge, Mass., 2011), originally published in German as Florenz und dimensions of seeing, along with the “humanism” of Sufi Bagdad: Eine westöstliche Geschichte des Blicks (Munich, discourses on the power of vision, positing a reciprocal 2008). Belting’s book has been widely acclaimed in numer- gaze between God and humans possessing special ous reviews. Critical book reviews that intersect with ­visionary abilities that enabled them to perceive the some of my own criticisms in the present essay include Frank Buettner, “Hans Belting, Florenz und Bagdad: Eine ­reflexivity of macrocosm and microcosm. The subjectiv- westöstliche Geschichte des Blicks, München, Verlag C. H. ity of the gaze and its engagement with human experi- Beck, 2008,” Kunstchronik, 62, 2 (2009): 82–89; David J. Rox- ence had the capacity to incorporate the body, affect, burgh, “Two-point Perspective: On Hans Belting’s Florence 54 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

and Baghdad,” Art Forum 50, 8 (April 2012): 61–64. See also review Roxburgh notes that another modern source of Belting’s related article, “Afterthoughts on Alhazen’s Visual Belting is Hamid Naficy, who writes about the veil in con- Theory and Its Presence in the Pictorial Theory of Western temporary Islam and uses Persian miniature painting to Perspective,” in Variantology 4, On Deep Time Relations of describe “the averted look,” or the habit of constructing Arts, Sciences and Technologies in the Arabic-Islamic World pictorial space as hermetic cells separating actors from one and Beyond, ed. Siegfried Zielinski and Eckhard Fürlus another. Roxburgh, “Two-point Perspective,” 64. in cooperation with Daniel Irrgang and Franziska Latell 13. This omission is also noted in Buettner’s critical book (Cologne, 2010), 43–52; and a shorter version, “Perspective: review, “Hans Belting, Florenz und Bagdad.” Arab Mathematics and Renaissance Western Art,” Euro- 14. See Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 185–215. The inner senses are pean Review 16 (2008): 183–90. discussed in Harry Austryn Wolfson, “The Internal Senses 3. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 90. in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew Philosophical Texts,” Harvard 4. Daan van Reenen, “The Bilderverbot, a New Survey,” Der Theological Review 28, no. 2 (1935): 69–33. Belting refers Islam 67 (1990): 27–77. to Aristotelian and Neoplatonic ideas that coexisted in 5. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 165–66. Belting believes that fifteenth-century Europe without mentioning parallels in a comparison between Western and East Asian art “cannot the Islamic lands, where he assumes that Muslims always provide a model for the task of undertaking a cultural com- “distrusted” the eye. See Belting, Florence and Baghdad, parison of the gaze between the worlds of the West and the 211–38, esp. 216. Middle East, since in the Far East we remain in the domain 15. Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco- of representational depiction that separates the West from Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early the Middle East” (p. 266). ʿAbbasid Society (2nd–4th / 5th–10th Centuries) (London 6. For the seven fundamental modes, see n. 23 below. The and New York, 1998); Abdelhamid I. Sabra, “The Appro- different genres of painting and decorative design are out- priation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science lined in a sixteenth-century Safavid manual: Ṣādiqī Beg in Medieval Islam: A Preliminary Statement,” History and Afshār, Qānūn al-ṣuvar (The Canons of Painting), trans- Science 25 (1987): 223–43. lated into Russian as Ganun ös-sövär by A. Yu. Kaziev (Baku, 16. Selections from Mīr Dawlatshāh Samarqandī’s Tadhkirat 1963). The Persian text is also edited by Muḥammad-Taqī al shuʿarāʾ (Memorial of Poets), completed in 1487, are Dānish-Pazhūh, Hunar va mardum 90 (1349): 13–20, and translated in Wheeler M. Thackston, A Century of Princes: published in Qāḍī Aḥmad Ibrāhīmī Ḥusaynī Qummī, Sources on Timurid History and Art (Cambridge, Mass., Gulistān-i hunar: Tazkira-i khushnivīsān va naqqāshān, ed. 1989), 11–62; Dawlatshāh Samarqandī, Tadhkirat al shuʿarāʾ, Aḥmad A. Suhaylī-Khvānsārī (Tehran, 1973), 153–64, trans- ed. Muḥammad ʿAbbāsī (Tehran, 1337). Another biographi- lated into English as “The Canons of Painting by Ṣādiqī Bek” cal dictionary was written in 1491–92 by the Timurid poet by Martin B. Dickson in an appendix to Martin B. Dickson and vizier ʿAlī Shīr Navāʿī, Majālis al-nafāʾis, ed. Suiima and Stuart Cary Welch, The Houghton Shahnameh, 2 vols. Ganieva (Tashkent, 1961). For late Timurid album prefaces, (Cambridge, Mass., 1981), 1:259–70. Porter finds Dickson’s see Wheeler M. Thackston, Album Prefaces and Other Docu- translation “too innovative” and prefers to translate the ments on the History of Calligraphers and Painters (Leiden, title as “Canon of Forms,” in Yves Porter, Painters, Paint- 2001), 22–23, 41–42. ing, and Books: An Essay on Indo-Persian Technical Litera- 17. Sixteenth-century Ottoman and Safavid biographies of ture, 12th–19th Centuries, trans. S. Butani (New Delhi, 1994), calligraphers and painters include Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī, Menāḳıb-ı originally published as Peinture et arts du livre: Essai sur la hünerverān, ed. İbnü’l Emīn Maḥmūd Kemāl (Istanbul, litérature technique indo-persane (Paris and Tehran, 1992). 1926); Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī, Mustafa ʿÂli’s Epic Deeds of Artists: A 7. A comparison with medieval European Gothic architec- Critical Edition of the Earliest Ottoman Text about the Cal- tural practice extends throughout my Topkapı Scroll, esp. ligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World, ed. and trans. 41–53, 160–66, 196, 214–15, 222. The scroll codified a geomet- Esra Akın-Kıvanç (Leiden, 2011); Qāḍī Aḥmad, Gulistān-i ric mode of design, which was only “one of the canonical hunar, ed. Suhaylī-Khvānsārī; translated into English as visual idioms that dominated the Islamic lands during the Calligraphers and Painters by Vladimir Minorski, Freer early (950–1250) and late (1250–1500) medieval periods” (p. Gallery of Art Occasional Papers 3, 2 (Washington, D.C., 222). 1959). See also a biographical compendium written ca. 1550 8. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 106–7. by the Safavid prince Sām Mīrzā, Tuḥfa-i Sāmī, ed. Waḥīd 9. Ibid., 205. Dastgardī (Tehran, 1314). 10. Ibid., 267. The lectures were delivered in 2003 at the Collège 18. A petition (ʿarzadāsht), datable to ca. 1427–28, that has de France, Paris. been identified as a progress report addressed to the Timu- 11. Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 210, 166. rid prince Baysunghur Mirza (d. 1433) by the head of his 12. Fiction by these two modern authors is extensively cited in scriptorium in Herat mentions the completed construc- Belting’s Florence and Baghdad, 48–54, 83–84, 211–13, 255– tion of a kutubkhāna for painter-decorators (naqqāshān) 56, 260. For his thoughts on the muqarnas and mashrabi- and scribes (kātibān). It itemizes projects that include yya, see pp. 206–11, 252–55, 260, 265–66. In a critical book illustrated manuscripts; a little chest; painted tent poles; The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 55

decorative designs made for binders, illuminators, and laborers. The case of Abu Zayd shows us that they were any- tile-makers; and a design for a saddle being executed in thing but. As potter, poet, scholar, and scribe, he created mother-of-pearl. This document is published and trans- works of art that were designed to appeal to his contem- lated into English in Thackston, Album Prefaces, 43–46; poraries, who were as visually and literarily sophisticated it is discussed with reference to questions about the as he was.” Sheila S. Blair, “A Brief Biography of Abu Zayd,” nature and activities of Timurid workshop-cum-libraries Muqarnas 25 (2008): 155–76. (kitābkhāna/kutubkhāna) in Shiraz, Isfahan, and Herat in 21. Transformations in the early modern period are discussed David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album, 1400–1600: From Dis- in Necipoğlu, “L’idée de décor dans les régimes de visualité persal to Collection (New Haven and London, 2005), 28–29, islamiques,” 10–23. See also Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Concept 133–44. For an early Timurid royal workshop-cum-library of Islamic Art: Inherited Discourses and New Approaches,” (kutubkhāna-i ʿāmira) established in Isfahan by Iskandar- in Islamic Art and the Museum: Approaches to Art and Sultan (ca. 1412–13) and staffed with painters-decorators, Archaeology of the Muslim World in the Twenty-First Cen- scribes, and binders, see Francis Richard, “Un témoignage tury, ed. Benoît Junod, Georges Khalil, Stefan Weber, and inexploité concernant le mécénat d’Eskandar Solṭān à Gerhard Wolf (London, 2012), 57–75. Eṣfahān,” Oriente Moderno, n.s., 15 (1996): 53–59. In the 22. Translated in Thackston, Album Prefaces, 48–50, quotation early Mughal context, the court scriptorium featured a on 49–50. separate royal library (kitābkāna/kutubkhāna) and work- 23. Both theories were formulated during the reign of Shah shop (naqqāshkhāna). See Chahryar Adle, “Les artistes Tahmasp (r. 1524–76) when the “classical” Safavid artis- nommés Dust-Mohammad au XVIe siècle,” Studia Iranica tic language and album design became codified. See Yves 22, 2 (1993): 281. This was also the case in Ottoman Istan- Porter, “From the ‘Theory of the Two Qalams’ to the ‘Seven bul, where the court scriptorium (naqqāşḫāne) located Principles of Painting’: Theory, Terminology, and Practice near the Hippodrome was a workshop separate from, but in Persian Classical Painting,” Muqarnas 17 (2000): 109–18; institutionally linked to, the imperial library-cum-treasury Adle, “Les artistes nommés Dust-Mohammad au XVIe within the third court of the Topkapı Palace. For the cen- siècle,” 240–44; Gülru Necipoğlu, “Early Modern Floral: tralized organization of court workshops in Istanbul, see The Agency of Ornament in Ottoman and Safavid Visual Cultures,” in Histories of Ornament: From Global to Local, Gülru Necipoğlu, “A Kanun for the State, a Canon for the ed. Gülru Necipoğlu and Alina Payne (Princeton, N.J., forth- Arts: Conceptualizing the Classical Synthesis of Ottoman coming). For the seven prin­ciples or fundamental modes, Art and Architecture,” in Soliman le Magnifique et son see Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 112–14, 206–12; Necipoğlu, temps, ed. Gilles Veinstein (Paris, 1992), 195–216; Gülru “L’idée de décor dans les régimes de visualité islamiques,” Necipoğlu, The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the 12–13; Porter, Painters, Painting, and Books, 109–12; Porter, Ottoman Empire (London and Princeton, N.J., 2005; 2nd Peinture et arts du livre, 110–16. rev. ed., 2011), 153–86. 24. Craig Clunas, Art in China (Oxford, 2009), 145–48. For the 19. For Timurid majlises, see Maria Eva Subtelny, “The Poetic cultural legacy of the Mongols, see Linda Komaroff and Circle at the Court of the Timurid, Sultan Ḥusain Baiqara, Stefano Carboni, eds., The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly and Its Political Significance” (PhD diss., Harvard Univer- Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1358, exh. cat., Metro- sity, 1979); Maria Eva Subtelny, “Art and Politics in Early politan Museum of Art (New York and New Haven, 2003); 16th Century Central Asia,” Central Asiatic Journal 27, 1–2 Linda Komaroff, ed., Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan (1983): 121–48; David J. Roxburgh, Prefacing the Image: The (Leiden and Boston, 2006). Writing of Art History in Sixteenth-Century Iran (Leiden, 25. Ḥunayn b. ʿIsḥāq, The Book of the Ten Treatises on the Eye 2001); Roxburgh, Persian Album. Ascribed to Hunain ibn Ishāq (809–877 a.d.), trans. Max 20. For this assumption and the consequent skepticism about Meyerhof (Cairo, 1928), 16, 28. According to Hunayn, the the relevance of texts on aesthetics for the visual arts, see Greeks, Jews, and Muslims decorated sanctuaries to attract Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan Bloom, “Ornament in Islamic the eyes for the “refreshment of souls and the engagement Art,” in Cosmophilia: Islamic Art from the David Collection, of hearts.” Ḥunayn b. ʿIsḥāq, Nawādir al-falāsifah, in Franz Copenhagen (Chestnut Hill, Mass., 2006), 18, 25–27; Sheila Rosenthal, The Classical Heritage of Islam, trans. Emile S. Blair and Jonathan Bloom, “The Mirage of Islamic Art: ­Marmorstein and Jenny Marmorstein (London and New Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy Field,” Art Bul- York, 1994), 73. For Ibn Hazm and Ibn Rushd, see Puerta letin 85, 1 (March 2003): 171: “There is no reason to believe Vílchez, Historia del pensamiento estético árabe, 484–92, that the literate milieus that produced texts were identical 642–85. to those that produced works of art.” While these milieus 26. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 30. were obviously not identical, they did intersect, as my 27. For the “inner senses,” see Wolfson, “Internal Senses,” present essay demonstrates. In fact, Blair contradicts her 69–133. The “inner senses” are discussed in relation to the and Bloom’s earlier view in a more recent article on the arts and aesthetic theory in Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 185– career of the Iranian potter Abu Zayd Kashani at the turn 215. of the thirteenth century: “We sometimes envision medi- 28. Discussed in Wolfson, “Internal Senses,” 77–82; Necipoğlu, eval craftsmen as anonymous, impoverished, and illiterate Topkapı Scroll, 199, 187–89; Puerta Vílchez, Historia del 56 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

pensamiento estético árabe, 183–39. See also Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, that craftsmen made objects with sophisticated orna- Kitāb Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa Khullān al-Wafāʾ, ed. Wilāyat ment, the connection between the two is unproven. In Ḥusayn, 4 vols. (Bombay, 1305–6 [ca. 1888]); Ikhwān other words, she was unable to demonstrate any causal al-Ṣafāʾ, Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, ed. Khayr al-Dīn al-Zirikli, relationship between what learned and erudite scholars 4 vols. (Cairo, 1928); Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Arabische Philosophie wrote and what craftsmen did.” Sheila S. Blair and Jona- und Wissenschaft in der Enzyklopädie Kitāb Iḫwān aṣ-ṣafāʾ than M. Bloom, “Cosmophilia and Its Critics: An Overview (III): Die Lehre von Seele und Intellekt, ed. and trans. Susan of Islamic Ornament,” Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Diwald (Wiesbaden, 1975); Amnon Shiloah, trans., The Epis- Archäologie 3 (2012): 45–47. The authors approvingly quote tle on Music of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ: (Bagdad, Tenth Century) Terry Allen’s verdict that my book on the Topkapı Scroll is (Tel Aviv, 1978); Owen Wright, ed. and trans., Epistles of the based on a “logical fallacy.” Like them, Allen rejects a priori Brethren of Purity on Music: An Arabic Critical Edition and any connection between the formulation of proportion- English Translation of Epistle 5 (Oxford, 2010). based abstract design principles (particularly in Islamic 29. Quoted in Samer Akkash, Cosmology and Architecture in geometric ornament) and the widespread dissemination Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical of popular texts on Neoplatonic philosophy and on practi- Ideas (Albany, N.Y., 2005), 45, 50; Puerta Vílchez, Historia cal geometry addressing the particular needs of artisans, del pensamiento estético árabe, 206–7. which I demonstrated in Topkapı Scroll through specific 30. Shiloah, Epistle on Music, 32; Wright, Epistles of the Brethren examples. Terry Allen, Islamic Art and the Argument from of Purity on Music, 112–13. Academic Geometry, published by Solipsist Press, Occiden- 31. Shiloah, Epistle on Music, 67–68; Wright, Epistles of the tal, Calif., 2004, http://sonic. net/~ tallen/palmtree/aca- Brethren of Purity on Music, 167–71. The Brethren cite one demicgeometry.htm (accessed September 11, 2014). On the argument made by an ancient sage that “sight is superior assumption concerning the illiteracy of artists, see n. 20 to hearing, since it is comparable to the day while hearing above; on the synthesis of Neoplatonic and Aristotelian is comparable to the night,” but this viewpoint is margin- thought in early Islamic philosophy and mathematical sci- alized by many other quotations by sages who considered ences, see n. 1 above. hearing as superior to sight. Wright, Epistles of the Brethren 36. Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 188–89, see also 103–7. of Purity on Music, 167–71. 37. For the Brethren’s epistle on man as microcosm (Risālā 32. Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Arabische Philosophie und Wissenschaft, al-insān ʿālam ṣaġīr, Book II, 12), see Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Ara- ed. and trans. Diwald: on the love of beauty, 257–96, esp. bische Philosophie, ed. and trans. Diwald, 195–96; Shiloah, 275, 279; on calligraphy and painters (al-muṣawwirīn), 190, Epistle on Music, 53–56; Wright, Epistles of the Brethren 220; also cited in Puerta Vílchez, Historia del pensamiento of Purity on Music, 21–22, 140–47; Akkash, Cosmology and estético árabe, 196–97, 205. The role the Brethren of Purity Architecture, 90, 222n117. assign to proportion in producing beauty is discussed in 38. Avicenna, Le Livre de Science II (Physique, Mathématiques), Abdelhamid I. Sabra’s introduction to Ibn al-Haytham, The trans. Muhammad Achena and Henri Massé (Paris, 1958), Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books I–III, On Direct Vision, trans. esp. 62–72; Ibn Sina, Avicenna Latinus, Liber de Anima, seu Abdelhamid I. Sabra, Studies of the Warburg Institute 40, 2 sextus de Naturalibus, IV, V, critical ed. and trans. S. Van vols. (London, 1989), 1:100–101. Riet, introd. G. Verbeke (Louvain and Leiden, 1968), esp. 33. Wright, Epistles of the Brethren of Purity on Music, 147; Shi- 14–15, 27–28, 46–53; Puerta Vílchez, Historia del pensam- loah, Epistle on Music, 54–56; Puerta Vílchez, Historia del iento estético árabe, 296–302. pensamiento estético árabe, 197, 205–6. 39. Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, Livre de l’amour du désir ardent, 34. Puerta Vílchez discusses the views of al-Tawhidi and his de l’intimité et du parfait contentement, pt. 4 of Iḥyā ʿulūm Baghdadi associates in Historia del pensamiento estético al-dīn: Le livre de la reviviscence des sciences religieuses, árabe, 207–39. See also Marc Bergé, Pour un humanisme trans. and introd. Marie-Louise Siauve (Paris, 1986), 23, vécu: Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī (Damascus, 1979). Citing pro- 35; Henry A. Homes, Muḥammad al-Ghazālī: The Alchemy hibitions only in hadith literature and texts on jurispru- of Happiness (New York, 1873), 18–22. See also Necipoğlu, dence, Belting assumes that mimesis has acquired a nega- Topkapı Scroll, 192–93, 199–201; Puerta Vílchez, Historia del tive association in Islam as “an imitation of the Creator.” pensamiento estético árabe, 720–37. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 63–64. 40. Quoted in Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 192; Puerta Vílchez, 35. Franz Rosenthal, “Abū Ḥaiyān al-Tawḥīdī’ on Penmanship,” Historia del pensamiento estético árabe, 731. Ars Islamica 13–14 (1948): 1–27. In a critique of my use of 41. Quoted in Richard Ettinghausen, “Al-Ghazālī on Beauty,” textual primary sources in the Topkapı Scroll and “L’idée in The Arab Heritage, ed. Nabih Amin Faris (Princeton, de décor dans les régimes de visualité islamiques,” Sheila N.J., 1947), 160–65; Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 192–93; Puerta S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom assert that “no causal rela- Vílchez, Historia del pensamiento estético árabe, 725. tionship” exists between philosophical texts on ­aesthetics 42. Ibn al-Haytham, Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, trans. Sabra. On and artistic practice: “There is, we believe, a logical prob- translations of the Latin text and commentary, see A. Mark lem in this approach: while it is certainly true that these Smith, “Alhacen’s Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical philosophers wrote learned treatises about ­aesthetics and Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of the The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 57

First Three Books of Alhacen’s ‘De Aspectibus,’ the Medi- 48.I bid., 1:208, 222. Puerta Vílchez interprets the term nuqūsh eval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham’s ‘Kitāb al-Manāẓir’: (sing. naqsh) as a polyvalent term referring to pictures and Volume One,” Transactions of the American Philosophical decorative designs that are less imitative or naturalist. He Society, n.s., 91, 4 (2001): entire volume; A. Mark Smith, notes that Ibn al-Haytham refers to mimetic paintings as “Alhacen’s Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical Edi- both nuqūsh and tazwīq, citing a reference to a glass object tion, with English Translation and Commentary, of the with “beautiful figures and images” (nuqūsh wa tamāthīl First Three Books of Alhacen’s ‘De Aspectibus,’ the Medi- mustaḥsana). Historia del pensamiento estético árabe, 715– eval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham’s ‘Kitāb al-Manāẓir’: 20. Volume Two,” Transactions of the American Philosophical 49. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 98, 129, 210. Belting assumes Society, n.s., 91, 5 (2001): 339–819; A. Mark Smith, “Alha- that when “Alhazen speaks of ‘figures’ he means not depic- cen on the Principles of Reflection: A Critical Edition, with tions of living bodies but geometric patterns on an object English Translation and Commentary, of Books 4 and 5 of or a wall” (p. 64, see also p. 109). By contrast, in Renaissance Alhacen’s ‘De Aspectibus,’ the Medieval Latin version of Europe “no one wanted to do without pictures created in Ibn-al-Haytham's ‘Kitāb al- Manāẓir,’” Transactions of the the camera obscura, pictures that Alhazen had never men- American Philosophical Society, n.s., 96, 2–3 (2006): entire tioned and never desired” (p. 128). volume. 50. Ibn al-Haytham, Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, trans. Sabra, 43. A. Mark Smith, “What Is the History of Medieval Optics vol. 1, Book III, pp. 295–97. See Puerta Vílchez, Historia del Really About?” Proceedings of the American Philosophical pensamiento estético árabe, 716–17. For Belting’s discussion Society 148, 3 (June 2004): 180–94. According to Smith, Ibn of this passage, which deliberately omits its reference to al-Haytham’s theory of vision is about sight and differs mimetic representations of “individual people” or “indi- from Johannes Kepler’s “luminocentric” optics, which is vidual men,” and his statement that for Alhazen “figures” about the material qualities of light and “retinal imaging” do not mean depictions of living bodies, see Florence and and excludes the psychology of perception. From this dis- Baghdad, 109–10. Elsewhere Belting states that in describ- junction “arose not only the modern science of physical ing “Arab art” Alhazen is always drawn to “ornamental optics but also the mind-body dualism of Descartes and designs, yet he speaks of them as if they did not exist on his philosophical successors” (pp. 193–94). However, Ibn al- a material object” (p. 119). Belting is rather selective in the Haytham’s emphasis on experimentation paved the way to examples of Islamic art and architecture he uses to illus- modern optics as a physical science of luminous phenom- trate the differing “mindsets” of East and West. In chapter ena in the seventeenth century (Kepler, René Descartes, Christiaan Huygens) according to Roshdi Rashed, “De la 2 he refers to the aniconic mosaics of the Umayyad Great géometrie du regard aux mathématiques des phénomènes Mosque in Damascus and the Dome of the Rock without lumineux,” in Filosofia e scienza classica, arabo-latina mentioning the figurative paintings and sculptures that medieval e l’età moderna, ed. Graziella Federici Vescovini populate Umayyad palaces and bathhouses. He men- (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1999), 43–59. tions that in Ottoman Istanbul the Hagia Sophia Mosque’s 44. For Leonardo’s critique, taken up later by Vasari, see “Christian images were uncovered for the first time by Sul- Hubert Damisch, The Origin of Perspective, trans. John tan Abdülmecid I (ruled 1839–1861)” only to be covered Goodman (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1995), 35–37, again, without explaining that they were left open to the 43–45. For Condivi, see Ascanio Condivi, The Life of Michel­ view of Muslim congregations for centuries, until being angelo, trans. Alice Sedgwick Wohl, ed. Hellmut Wohl whitewashed in the mid-eighteenth century. See Florence (University Park, Pa., 1999), quoted in Caroline Elam, “‘Ché and Baghdad, 55, where Belting also cites my article on the ultima mano!’: Tiberio Calcagni’s Marginal Annotations to Hagia Sophia Mosque, which discusses the visibility of its Condivi’s Life of Michelangelo,” Renaissance Quarterly 51, Byzantine mosaics for about three centuries. 2 (Summer 1998): 492. 51. I am grateful to Avinoam Shalem for bringing to my atten- 45. David Summers, The Judgment of Sense: Renaissance Nat- tion his discussion of al-Mutanabbi’s poem. See Avinoam uralism and the Rise of Aesthetics (Cambridge, 1987), 19, Shalem, “Textile Contextualized,” in The Chasuble of 73–75, 167–70. Unlike Ghiberti, Leonardo does not mention Thomas Becket in the Cathedral in Fermo: A Biography, ed. Alhazen, whose theories he may have indirectly absorbed Avinoam Shalem (Genoa, forthcoming). via the “perspectivist” optics of Alhazen’s followers, Witelo 52. Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī, Al-Mawāʿiẓ wa’l-iʿtibār fī ḏikr and John Pecham. al-khiṭāṭ wa’l-athār de Maqrīzī, Taqiyy al-Dīn Aḥmad b. 46. Ibn al-Haytham, Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, trans. Sabra, vol. ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Qādir 766–845 (1365–1442), ed. Ayman Fuʾād 1, see esp. Book II, pp. 113–207: on “pure sensation” of light Sayyid, vol. 4, pt. 1 (London, 2003), 289–90. See also Thomas and color, 130, 142–48, 200; on “proportionality,” 204–6; Arnold, Painting in Islam: A Study of the Place of Pictorial on the “perception of beauty,” 200–6. See also Necipoğlu, Art in Muslim Culture, introd. B. W. Robinson (1928; New Topkapı Scroll, 189–90, 201–4; Puerta Vílchez, Historia del York, 1965), 21–22; Richard Ettinghausen, Arab Painting pensamiento estético árabe, 686–720. (Geneva, 1962), 54–55; Nasser Rabbat, “ʿAjīb and Gharīb: 47. Ibn al-Haytham, Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, trans. Sabra, 1: Artistic Perception in Medieval Arabic Sources,” Medieval 208–9, 221–24. History Journal 9, 1 (2006): 101. On Fatimid art and archi- 58 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

tecture, see Jonathan M. Bloom, Arts of the City Victorious: A dle (Paris, 1982), 117–26; Maria Szuppe, “Palais et jardins: Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Le complexe royal des premieres safavides à Qazvin, milieu Egypt (New Haven and London, 2007). For early medieval XVIe-debut XVIIe siècles,” in special issue, “Sites et monu- Arabic manuscripts illustrated with figural paintings, see ments disparus d’après les témoignages de voyageurs,” ed. Anna Contadini, ed., Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illus- Rika Gyselen, Res Orientales 8 (1996): 143–47. trated Arabic Manuscripts (Leiden and Boston, 2007). On a 57. For the reception of Ibn al-Haytham’s treatise in the Islamic comparison of paintings on muqarnas ceilings in Sicily (ca. lands and Western Europe, and for al-Farisi’s commen- 1150) with Fatimid and other parallels in diverse media, see tary, see Sabra, introd. to Ibn al-Haytham, Optics of Ibn Mirjam Gelfer-Jørgensen, Medieval Islamic Symbolism and al-Haytham, trans. Sabra, 2:xi, lxii–lxxix; Abdelhamid I. the Paintings in the Cefalù Cathedral (Leiden, 1986); Ernst Sabra, “The Commentary That Saved the Text, The Haz- J. Grube and Jeremy Johns, The Painted Ceilings of the Cap- ardous Journey of Ibn al-Haytham’s Arabic Optics,” Early pella Palatina, supp. 1, Islamic Art (Genoa and New York, Science and Medicine 12 (2007): 117–133. Al-Farisi’s reference 2005). to “figurative arts” is cited in Puerta Vílchez, Historia del 53. Jacob Isager, Pliny on Art and Society: The Elder Pliny’s pensamiento estético árabe, 719n93. Chapters on the History of Art (London and New York, 1991), 58. Taqi al-Din’s Arabic treatise on optics, Kitāb nūr ḥadaqat esp. 91–95, 136–40. Competitions of painters organized in al-ibṣār wa nūr ḥadīqat al-anẓār (Bodleian Ms. Marsh, Corinth and Delhi are mentioned on p. 126. 119), is translated into Turkish in Hüseyin Gazi Topdemir, 54. Al-Maqrīzī, Al-Mawāʿiẓ, ed. Sayyid, 290. Rabbat, points out Takîyüddîn’in Optik Kitabı: Işığın niteliği ve görmenin in “ʿAjīb and Gharīb” (p. 101n5) that “Arnold erroneously oluşumu (Kitâbu nûr-i hadaqati’l ebsâr ve nûr-i hadîkati’l- attributes the book to al-Maqrīzī, when in fact al-Maqrīzī enzâr) (Ankara, 1999). does not make such a claim.” This lost work was appar- 59. For the term “painters’ perspective,” see Damisch, Origin of ently a prosopography of eleventh-century painters. Other Perspective, 270. figural painters are discussed in Rabbat’s essay. 60. On the Galata observatory, see Aydın Sayılı, The Obser- 55. Cited from Zayn al-Dīn Maḥmūd b. ʿAbd al-Jalīl Vāṣıfī, vatory in Islam and Its Place in the General History of the Badāʾiʿ al-vaqāʾiʿ (Memorable Events), dated 1517–1538/39, Observatory (Ankara, 1960). On Taqi al-Din’s work in Cairo in Subtelny, “Art and Politics,” 144. This passage is discussed and the Jewish astronomer from Thessaloniki who gave with other examples of individualized naturalistic portrai- astronomy lessons to the children of the Ottoman scholar ture in medieval and early modern Islamic painting in Hoca Saʿdeddin in Istanbul, see Sevim Tekeli, “­Nasirüddin, Gülru Necipoğlu, “Word and Image: The Serial Portraits of Takiyüddin ve Tycho Brahe’nin Rasat Aletlerinin Muka­ the Ottoman Sultans in Comparative Perspective,” in The yesesi,” Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya ­Fakültesi Sultan’s Portrait: Picturing the House of Osman, ed. Selmin Dergisi 16, 3–4 (1958): 309; Aydın Sayılı, “Alâüddin Man­ Kangal, exh. cat., Topkapı Palace Museum (Istanbul, 2000), sur’un İstanbul Rasathanesi Hakkındaki Şiirleri,” Belleten 22–59. See references to Timurid and Safavid majlises in 20, 79 (1956): 411–14, esp. 420, 438. Roxburgh, Prefacing the Image, 62–72, 150–59, 167–70. On 61. The note was discovered by George Saliba, who discusses the genre of portraiture, see also Priscilla P. Soucek, “The it in “Blurred Edges: At the Intersection of Science, Culture, Theory and Practice of Portraiture in the Persian Tradi- and Art,” in Variantology 4, ed. Zielinski and Fürlus, 353–54. tion,” Muqarnas 17 (2000): 97–108; David J. Roxburgh, “Con- Saliba only briefly mentions the Arab-Ottoman astronomer cepts of the Portrait in the Islamic Lands, ca. 1300–1600,” Taqi al-Din in his book, Islamic Science and the Making of in Dialogues in Art History, from Mesopotamian to Modern: the European Renaissance (Cambridge, Mass., 2007), 247– Readings for a New Century, ed. Elizabeth Cropper, Studies 48, which concludes with the fifteenth century, presumably in the History of Art 74 (Washington, D.C., and New Haven, because he considered the “golden age” of Islamic science 2009), 118–37. to have ended by that time. Saliba believes that the “age of 56. Belting assumes that Persianate painting was largely limited decline” started around the sixteenth century, defined as to book illustration. Florence and Baghdad, 78–82. For fif- an age “in which a civilization begins to be a consumer of teenth- and early sixteenth-century Timurid, Turkmen, and scientific ideas rather than a producer of them” (p. 248). Ottoman palace murals with figurative paintings, including 62. Charles Burnett, “The Second Revelation of Arabic Phi- historical scenes and portraits, see Gülru Necipoğlu, Archi- losophy and Science: 1492–1562,” in Islam and the Italian tecture, Ceremonial and Power: The Topkapı Palace in the Renaissance, ed. Charles Burnett and Anna Contadini, War- Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Cambridge, Mass., and burg Institute Colloquia 5 (London, 1999), 185–98. London, 1991), 217, 224. On figural murals in the sixteenth- 63. For the astronomical instruments at the Galata observatory century Safavid palace of Qazvin, commissioned by Shah that were similar to those constructed by Tycho Brahe, see Tahmasp, prior to the proliferation of figural imagery on Tekeli, “Nasirüddin, Takiyüddin ve Tycho Brahe’nin Rasat the walls of the palaces and the public square of Isfahan, Aletlerinin Mukayesesi,” 301–93; Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad see Ehsan Echraghi, “Description contemporaine des pein- ibn Maʿrūf, XVI. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Astronomu Takiyüddin’in tures murales disparues des palais de Šâh Ṭahmâsp à Qaz- Gözlem Araçları: Âlât-ı rasadiyye li zîc-i Şehinşâhiyye; vin,” in Art et société dans le monde iranien, ed. Chahryar “Saltanat yıldız çizelgelerinin hazırlanmasında kullanılan The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 59

gözlem araçları,” ed. Mustafa Kaçar, M. Şinasi Acar, and and Vision in the Alhambra’s Lindaraja Mirador,” Gesta 36 Atilla Bir (Istanbul, 2011). In a treatise on clock-making, Taqi (1997): 180–89. al-Din mentions having examined European clocks at the 70. Bush, “‘When My Beholder Ponders,’” 55–56, 62. treasury collection of the vizier Semiz Ali Pasha. Taqī al-Dīn 71. See the essays in Cynthia Robinson and Simone Pine, eds., Muḥammad ibn Maʿrūf, 16’ıncı Yüzyılda Osmanlılarda Saat “Courting the Alhambra: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to ve Takiyüddin'in “Mekanik Saat Konstrüksüyonuna dair en the Hall of Justice Ceilings,” special issue, Medieval Encoun- Parlak Yıldızlar” Adlı Eseri, ed. Sevim Tekeli (Ankara, 1966), ters 14, 2–3 (2008). 140–41. The vizier (Semiz) Ali Pasha is misidentified as the 72. Ibn Khaldun writes: “The [Muslim] Spaniards are found grand admiral (Kılıç) Ali Pasha by Tekeli (p. 140n3). to assimilate themselves to the Galician nations in their 64. Tekeli, “Nasirüddin, Takiyüddin ve Tycho Brahe’nin dress, their emblems, and most of their customs and con- Rasat Aletlerinin Mukayesesi,” 366–67; Sayılı, “Alâüddin ditions. This goes so far that they even draw pictures on Mansur’un İstanbul Rasathanesi Hakkındaki Şiirleri,” 464. the walls and [have them] in buildings and houses. The 65. The Arabic text of Ibn al-Haytham survives in five copies, intelligent observer will draw from this the conclusion that all of which are in libraries in Istanbul. See Sabra, introd. it is a sign of domination [by others].” Ibn Khaldun, The to Ibn al-Haytham, Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, trans. Sabra, Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols. (Princeton, 2:lxxx–xxxiii. Manuscript copies of Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics N.J., 1980), 1:300. and Kamal al-Din al-Farisi’s Persian translation-cum-com- 73. For the sultan’s demand of Arras tapestries through his mentary on it are mentioned in the 1502–3 inventory of envoy, Jacques de Helly, see Jean Froissart, Collection des the Topkapı Palace’s royal library collection, kept inside chroniques nationales françaises: Chroniques de Froissart, the imperial treasury: Oriental Collection of the Library ed. J. A. Buchon, vol. 13 (Paris, 1825), 401, 408, 412, 417, esp. of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ms. Török F. 59, 420, 422. The tapestries that were associated with Bayezid Defter-i Kütüb, Kitāb al-Kutub (Register of Books), 359. For I’s claim to be the new Alexander are discussed in Gülru the manuscript collection of Molla Lutfi kept by the imam Necipoğlu, “Visual Cosmopolitanism and Creative Trans- and muezzin of Sinan’s masjid and the unrealized canal lation: Artistic Conversations with Renaissance Italy in project, see Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, 149–50. Mehmed II’s Constantinople,” Muqarnas 29 (2012): 3–4. 66. See n. 43 above; also Smith, “What Is the History of Medi- 74. Aḥmad Ibn ʿArabshāh, Tamerlane; or, Timur, the Great eval Optics Really About?” Amir, trans. J. H. Sanders (London, 1936), 216–17. 67. Summers, Judgment of Sense, esp. 33, 306–21. See also Belt- 75. On Europeanizing Persianate images from the fourteenth ing’s discussion of the Renaissance reception of Ibn al- and early fifteenth century, preserved in the Saray Albums Haytham’s treatise on optics in Florence and Baghdad and of Istanbul and Berlin, see Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Composi- “Afterthoughts on Alhazen’s Visual Theory.” Other mod- tion and Compilation of Two Saray Albums Reconsidered els for Belting’s comparative analysis of the gaze include in Light of ‘Frankish’ Images,’” forthcoming in the facsimile Norman Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze edition of the Topkapı Palace albums H. 2153 and H. 2160, (New Haven, 1983); Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, esp. 160–66, ed. Filiz Çağman and Selmin Kangal (Istanbul, 2015); Gülru 210–12. The latter two studies contrast the Renaissance per- Necipoğlu, “Persianate Images Between Europe and China: spectival gaze, which separates subject from object, with The ‘Frankish Manner’ in the Diez and Topkapı Albums, nonocularcentric vision. ca. 1350–1450,” forthcoming in the proceedings of “The 68. Examples of texts referring to the “scrutinizing gaze” are Diez Albums at the Berlin State Library: Current State of cited in Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 204n86; Necipoğlu, Age Research and New Perspectives” conference coorganized of Sinan, 146, 255. This term also appears in the preface by Christoph Rauch and Julia Gonella at the Berlin State of an early seventeenth-century album of paintings and Library, June 2013. For the admiration of European rep- calligraphies prepared for the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I, resentational arts by a seventeenth-century traveler, see discussed in Emine Fetvacı, “The Gaze in the Album of Cemal Kafadar, “Evliya Çelebi in Dalmatia: An Ottoman Ahmed I,” in this volume. The preface is published and Traveler’s Encounters with the Arts of the Franks,” in Dal- interpreted in Serpil Bağcı, “Presenting Vaṣṣāl Kalender’s matia and the Mediterranean: Portable Archaeology and the Works: The Prefaces of Three Ottoman Albums,” Muqarnas Poetics of Influence, ed. Alina Payne (Leiden, 2014), 59–78; 30 (2013): 255–313. On this album and its contents, also see Cemal Kafadar, “Bajazet chez Bajazet? Evliya Çelebi’s Emine Fetvacı, “The Album of Ahmed I,” Ars Orientalis 42 Response to European Art in Vienna, 1665,” in Deutsche (2012): 127–38. Orient Institut in Istanbul: Pera Blätter, forthcoming. 69. For the inscriptions, see Emilio García Gómez, ed. and 76. Thaʿālibī [Abu Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn trans., Poemas árabes en los muros y fuentes de la Alhambra Ismaʿīl], The Book of Curious and Entertaining Information: (Madrid, 1996); Olga Bush, “‘When My Beholder Ponders’: The Laṭāʾif al-maʿārif of Thaʿālibī, trans. C. E. Bosworth Poetic Epigraphy in the Alhambra,” in special issue, “Pearls (Edinburgh, 1968), 118–19. from Water, Rubies from Stone: Studies in Islamic Art in 77. For hadith that reject the decoration of walls in mosques, Honor of Priscilla Soucek, Part I,” Artibus Asiae 66, 2 (2006): see Irene A. Bierman, Writing Signs: The Fatimid Public Text 55–67; D. Fairchild Ruggles, “The Eye of Sovereignty: Poetry (Berkeley, Calif., 1998), 52n60. On a legal opinion (fatwa) 60 GüLRU NECİPOğLU

concerning the inappropriateness of Koranic inscriptions 92. The three manuscript paintings illustrated here, which in mosques, see Gülru Necipoğlu, “Qur’anic Inscriptions appear in the Iskandarnāma (Book of Alexander the Great) on Sinan’s Imperial Mosques: A Comparison with Their section of Nizami’s Khamsa (Quintet), are published and Safavid and Mughal Counterparts,” in Word of God, Art of discussed in Serpil Bağcı, “Gerçeğin saklandığı yer: Ayna,” Man: The Qur’an and Its Creative Expressions, ed. Fahmida in Sultanların Aynaları, exh. cat., Topkapı Palace Museum Suleman, Institute of Ismaili Studies Conference Proceed- (Istanbul, 1998), 16–21. ings (Oxford, 2007), 69–104, esp. 97, 104n94. 93. Unlike al-Ghazali’s parable, the contest in Nizami’s version 78. Dāyezāde Muṣtafā Efendi, “Selimiye Risālesi,” in Mimar occurs during Alexander’s visit to the emperor of China, Sinan ile İlgili Tarihi Yazmalar-Belgeler, ed. Zeki Sönmez when an argument arises concerning the achievements (Istanbul, 1988), 105. of Greek and Chinese painters. For different versions of 79. Ibid., 101–22. See also Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, 256; Selen the competition between Greek and Chinese painters in B. Morkoç, A Study of Ottoman Narratives on Architecture: Nizami, al-Ghazali (Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn), and Mawlana Jalal Text, Context and Hermeneutics (Bethesda, Md., and Dub- al-Din Rumi (d. 1273), see Soucek, “Nizami on Painters and lin, 2010), 73–97, 275–341. Painting,” 13–14. In the version of Rumi, who wrote in Ana- 80. Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, 219, 255, 304. tolia (Rum), it is the Rumi (Greek) painter who wins the 81. Translated from the unpublished waqfiya in Necipoğlu, Age contest rather than his Chinese rival. The complex issues of Sinan, 375. of interpretation raised by these texts and other versions by 82. Eyyubī, Menākıb-ı Sultan Süleyman, ed. Mehmet Akkuş Anvari (d. 1187), Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (d. 1325), and ʿAbdi (Ankara 1991), 150; Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, 215. Beg Shirazi (d. 1580–81) (dated 950 [1544]) are discussed 83. Evliya Çelebi’s mid-seventeenth-century travelogue, in Angelo Michele Piemontese, “La leggenda persiana del quoted in Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, 215. contrasto fra pittori greci e cinesi,” in L’arco di Fango che 84. Seyyid Lokman, Hünernāme, quoted in ibid. rubò la luce alle stele: Studi in onore di Eugenio Galdieri per 85. On belvederes (mirador) in the Islamic palaces of the Ibe- il suo settantesimo compleanno, ed. Michele Bernardini et rian Peninsula, see D. Fairchild Ruggles, Gardens, Land- al. (Lugano, 1995), 293–302; see also Porter, Peinture et art scape and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain (University du livre, 137, 139. In the Safavid poet ʿAbdi Beg’s version, the contest is between Chinese and Frankish figural painters, Park, Pa., 2000); for belvederes and windows in Ottoman in which the former prevail. palaces and villas, see Necipoğlu, Topkapı Palace in the 94. In Ibn Khaldun’s explication of al-Ghazali’s parable, the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries; Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Greek painter is replaced by a group of Indian painters and Suburban Landscape of Sixteenth-Century Istanbul as a the Chinese painters win the contest. Ibn Khaldūn, La Voie Mirror of Classical Ottoman Garden Culture,” in Theory and et la Loi: Ou La Maître et le Juriste, Shifâʾ al-sâʾil li-tadhhîb Design of Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires, al-masâʾil, trans. with notes and introd. by Rene Pérez ed. Attilio Petruccioli (Leiden, 1997), 32–71. The concept (Paris, 1991), 129–32. Given Nizami’s theory of painting, his of the gaze was explored in Gülru Necipoğlu, “Framing of text probably illustrates the superiority of mystical vision the Gaze in Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Palaces,” Ars over acquired knowledge, like the accounts of al-Ghazali, Orientalis 23 (1993): 303–42. Rumi, and others. Soucek detects “a curiously scientific 86. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 252, 256, 260. Also noting flavor” in Nizami’s account, which may have been adapted this problem, Buettner adds that windows in the West are from “an illustrative anecdote used in an optical treatise.” not always connected to views. Buettner, “Hans Belting, Soucek, “Nizami on Painters and Painting,” 12, 14. Florenz und Bagdad.” 95. Quoted in Damisch, Origin of Perspective, 344–45, from 87. Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 162–63, 167–68, 221, 234, 262. Antonio Manetti’s account of Brunelleschi’s invention of 88. For medieval Islamic sources on the mirror metaphor, perspective projection in Florence, demonstrated by the see Manfred Ullmann, Das Motiv des Spiegels in der ara- use of a mirror. bischen Literature des Mittelalters (Göttingen, 1992); Titus 96. ʿAbdi Beg Shirazi’s account is mentioned in Piemontese, Burckhardt, “Die Symbolik des Spiegels in der islamischen “La leggenda persiana del contrasto fra pittori greci e Mystik,” in Symbolon: Jahrbuch für Symbolforschung 1 (Basel cinesi,” 297. See ʿAbdi Beg Shirāzī, Āyīn-i Iskandarī, ed. and Stuttgart, 1960): 12–16. I thank Avinoam Shalem for A. H. Rahimov (Moscow, 1977), 107–12. these references. 97. Mustafa ʿĀlī’s account differs from some Safavid texts that 89. See Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 111, where with refer- criticize Mani’s heresy, such as Dust Muhammad’s album ence to Alhazen’s theory of visual perception he writes: preface. See n. 101 below. According to Mustafa ʿĀlī, Mani “Since images were understood in Arab culture to be purely is executed in the end not because his images are heretical mental, they could not be copied or depicted as analogues but because the sages who envied his rising status incrimi- of nature in physical artifacts.” nated him. For the transcription and translation of this 90. Clunas, Art in China, 55; Isager, Pliny on Art, 105, 125, 128. text, see Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī, Mustafa ʿĀli’s Epic Deeds of Artists, 91. Priscilla Soucek, “Nizami on Painters and Painting,” in ed. and trans. Akın-Kıvanç, 275–81, 409–17. Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. Richard 98. Khvandamir refers to the Timurid painter-decorator Maw- Ettinghausen (New York, 1972), 9–21. lana Hajji Muhammad Naqqash, who was an expert in the The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics of Islamic Visual Cultures 61

art of depiction and illumination, in similar terms: “He con- 112.F or the paragone in Dust Muhammad’s preface, see Rox- stantly painted strange things and wonderful forms on the burgh, Album Prefaces, 295–304. pages of time with the brush of the imagination.” Trans. in 113. See Fetvacı’s compelling analysis of that album, “Gaze in Thackston, Century of Princes, 205, 224 the Album of Ahmed I,” in this volume. 99. Thackston, Album Prefaces, 41–42. Timurid and Safavid 114. Gülru Necipoğlu, “Sources, Themes, and Cultural Impli- album prefaces are extensively analyzed in Roxburgh, Per- cations of Sinan’s Autobiographies,” in Sinan’s Autobiog- sian Album; Roxburgh, Prefacing the Image. raphies: Five Sixteenth-Century Texts, ed. and trans. How- 100. This statement appears in a passage referring to the Timu- ard Crane and Esra Akın (Leiden. 2006), vii–xvi; also see rid painter Amir Khalil, who gave up the art of depiction. Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, 127–47. Trans. in Thackston, Album Prefaces, 14–15. 115. Cafer Efendi, Risāle-i Miʿmāriyye: An Early-Seventeenth- 101. The Artangi Tablet painted by Mani, who “began to pretend Century Ottoman Treatise on Architecture, trans. and ed. of prophesy” and duped “short-sighted ones whose turbid Howard Crane (Leiden and New York, 1987); Cafer Efendi, hearts could not reflect the light of Islam,” is mentioned in Risâle-i Mi’mâriyye: Ca’fer Efendi, 1023/1614: Topkapı Sarayı ibid., 12. Müzesi Kütüphanesi Ms. Yeni Yazma 339, ed. İ. Aydın Yüksel 102. Trans. in ibid., 26. It has been noted that the Amir Ghayb (Istanbul, 2005). Beg Album’s preface closely follows Qutb al-Din Qissakh- 116. Necipoğlu, Age of Sinan, 146; Necipoğlu, “Sources, Themes, van’s preface to a lost album dated 1556–57. See Porter, and Cultural Implications of Sinan’s Autobiographies,” vii– “From the ‘Theory of the Two Qalams,’” 118n46. xvi. 103. Trans. in Thackston, Album Prefaces, 27. 117. İntizāmī, Sūrnāme-i Humāyūn, Topkapı Palace Museum 104. For the Preserved Tablet and the conceptualization of Library, H. 1344, 189–90; İntizāmī, Osmanlı Saray Düğünleri albums as microcosms, see Roxburgh, Persian Album, 190– ve Şenlikleri: İntizâmi Sûrnâmesi, ed. Mehmet Arslan (Istan- 93, 303. The reference to pure images that arouse spiritual bul, 2009), 2:286–87. For a similar poem cited in reference pleasures is from the preface of an album, dated 1576–77 to the chief architect Sinan’s parade with three-dimen- and dedicated to the Safavid shah, Ismaʿil II. Trans. in sional models of the sanctuaries in Mecca and Medina, see Thackston, Album Prefaces, 34. an unillustrated version of İntizāmī’s text in ibid., 2:621–22. 105. Quoted in Bağcı, “Presenting Vaṣṣāl Kalender’s Works,” 118. See n. 106 above. A similar eulogy is that of Shah Qulı appendix II. Bağcı’s article also analyzes another preface (d. 1557), a Safavid painter-designer who rose to become written by Kalender for a Falnāme, which similarly likens the head of the Ottoman court workshop under Sultan that manuscript comprising texts and images to a micro- Süleyman. For the euology, see Âşık Çelebi, Meşâʿirüş- cosm. The Sultan Ahmed Album is discussed by Fetvacı, Şuʿarâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, 3 vols. (Istanbul, 2010), 1:428–30. “Gaze in the Album of Ahmed I,” in this volume, in relation 119. Quoted in Summers, Judgment of Sense, 73. to the scrutinizing gaze. 120. Quoted and discussed in Belting, Florence and Baghdad, 106. Trans. by Dickson, “Canons of Painting by Ṣādiqī Bek,” 213–14. 1:260–61. 121. Laṭīfī, Latîfî Tezkiresi, ed. Mustafa İsen (Ankara, 1990), 283– 107. Ibid., 1:260. 90; Laṭīfī, Latîfî, Tezkiretü’ş-şu’arâ ve tabsıratü’n-nuzamâ, 108. Ibid., 1:261. ed. Rıdvan Canım (Ankara, 2000), 484–88. 109. B. N. Zakhoder, introd. to Qāḍī Aḥmad Qummī, Calli­ 122. Laṭīfī, Latîfî, ed. Canım, 588: ṣafḥa-i żamīrümde tersīm ü graphers and Painters, trans. Minorsky, 16. On the two taṣvīr olmışdı. versions of Qāḍī Aḥmad’s text, see Yves Porter, “Notes sur 123. Laṭīfī, Latîfî, ed. Canım, 488–89; Laṭīfī, Latîfî. ed. İsen, 289: Golestān-e honar de Qāzi Ahmad Qomi,” Studia Iranica 17, Ṣu gibi ṣāf ol küdūretden dilā dīdāra baḳ; Ṣayḳal it āyīne-i 2 (1988): 207–23. ḳalbi cemāl-i yāra baḳ. 110. Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī, Mustafa ʿĀli’s Epic Deeds of Artists, ed. and 124. For an interpretation of Ibn al-ʿArabi’s works and other trans. Akın-Kıvanç, 362–63. The divergences of Mustafa mystical texts in relation to architecture, see Akkash, Cos- ʿĀli’s treatise from Safavid discourses are briefly discussed mology and Architecture. Ibn al-ʿArabi’s aesthetics and his in Necipoğlu, “L’idée de décor dans les régimes de visu- concept of Existential Unity (waḥdat al-wujūd) are also dis- alité islamiques,” 13. The relative aniconism of Ottoman cussed in Puerta Vílchez, Historia del pensamiento estético visual culture in the public sphere was contrasted with the árabe, 744–805. greater visibility of figurative representations in the Safavid 125. Laṭīfī, Latîfî, ed. Canım, 136; Laṭīfī, Latîfî, ed. İsen, 65: Kendü domains by late sixteenth-century European observers. See ḥüsnüñ ḫūblar şeklinde peydā eyledüñ; Çeşm-i ʿāşıḳdan Necipoğlu, “A Kanun for the State, a Canon for the Arts,” dönüp anı temāşā eyledüñ. 195–216, esp. 302–3. 126. Laṭīfī, Latîfî, ed. Canım, 408; Laṭīfī, Latîfî, ed. İsen, 190: Ey 111. See Necipoğlu, “L’idée de décor dans les régimes de visu- Ġubārī yüri var kend’özin idrāḳ eyle; Pendümi hūş ile gūş it alité islamiques,” 13, 15. ki beşāretdür hep. Ġāfil olma gözün aç ʿālem-i kübrāsuñ sen; Sidre vü levḥ u ḳalem ʿarş-ı muʿallāsuñ sen. THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 63

D. Fairchild Ruggles

Visible and Invisible Bodies: The Architectural Patronage of Shajar Al-Durr

The mid-thirteenth century was a turning point in the ­architecture became the means by which the relation- history of Egypt. The hereditary Ayyubid dynasty ended ship between the former (deceased) Ayyubid sultan and and was replaced by a different kind of rule by former the new (female) Mamluk sultan was given material slaves, called the Mamluk sultans.1 It was not an abso- form. lute break because the first few in the new succession of slave-sultans had served under the Ayyubids. Thus their sultanate was not a rejection so much as a con- Shajar Al-Durr’s Rise tinuation of many of the same projects and political goals, foremost of which was to stave off assaults from The thirteenth-century was a turbulent period in Egypt the Ayyubids of Syria and the Crusaders from France. and the eastern Mediterranean. In the second half of the One notable change was the new emphasis on tomb- twelfth century, Salah al-Din (known in Europe as Sala- building in central Cairo, where each new, grand, prom- din, r. 1169–93) had been successful at keeping the Cru- inently domed Mamluk mausoleum unmistakably saders in check, but at his death in 1193, his territory of proclaimed the importance of its occupant. Attached to Syria, Egypt, the Yemen, and Palestine was divided waqf foundations such as schools and hospitals, these among his heirs. The succeeding generations main- were highly visible monuments that made an enduring tained relative peace among themselves and with the claim to the most important public space in the city. Crusaders until 1238, when the ruler of Ayyubid Damas- Interestingly, however, the practice of adding the found- cus died and internecine fighting erupted among the er’s tomb to his charitable complex was begun by some- remaining princes. Although, in hindsight, we tend to one who was herself hardly visible at all. The tomb call the Ayyubids a dynasty, in fact they were more of a (fig. 1) that the female sultan Shajar al-Durr (d. 1257) consortium of distrustful allies, fighting each other built in 1250 for her husband, Sultan Salih Najm al-Din much of the time and acting cooperatively only when it Ayyub (r. 1240–49), is unusual among early royal tombs was profitable to do so or when threatened by external because it was not built by the deceased for himself dur- forces. In Egypt, Sultan Salih Najm al-Din eventually ing his own life or by a son who was the logical benefi- emerged victorious. His claim was formalized when he ciary of such investment as a link in the same dynastic was officially named sultan by the caliphate in Bagh- chain. Instead, it was built by a singular woman who had dad.2 Although he had briefly held Damascus in 1239, he no living sons of her own and whose qualification for did not manage to take it permanently until 1245, after rule—which was highly contested and ultimately over- which he held both Egypt and the region of Damascus turned—was derived from her political relationship until his death in 1249. through marriage to the deceased sultan. This article Sultan Salih ruled Egypt for nine years, continually explores the relationship among lineage, politics, and defending his territory and warding off threats from his memory in tomb-building in mid-thirteenth-century Ayyubid kin and, in his last year, Louis IX of France. At Cairo and asks how, in lieu of surviving progeny, the sultan’s death, his heir proved so detestable that he

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P05 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 63-78 64 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES

been published by Amalia Levanoni (1990, 2001) and Sabine Soetens (1999).5 Her architectural works have been studied and described by K. A. C. Creswell and Do- ris Behrens-Abouseif.6 These studies of the politics of mid-thirteenth-century Cairo and the history of Islamic architecture in that city are key starting points for an investigation into the specific problem that invisibility and sequestration posed for a female ruler such as Sha- jar al-Durr. This question is critical to understanding how she ruled that summer of 1250 and co-ruled in the years thereafter, her architectural patronage of two building complexes, and the circumstances that led to her ultimate fall. The fact that she was a woman, living sequestered in the citadel’s harem, permeated those fac- tors and gives us an opportunity to see how architec- tural patronage can be a strategy for overcoming gendered invisibility. Shajar al-Durr was a child of the Qipchaqs of the steppes of southern Russia, from where she entered into slavery. She became the favored concubine of Sultan Salih while he was still governor and before he took con- trol of first Damascus and then Egypt.7 Through that relationship, she gave birth to the sultan’s son Khalil in 637 (1239–40), became his wife, and served as his occa- sional regent while he was away on military campaigns. Fig. 1. Madrasa-mausoleum of Sultan Salih Najm al-Din The name Shajar al-Durr means “tree of pearls”—the Ayyub, Cairo. (Photo: Caroline Williams) kind of fanciful name given to slaves—but the historical sources also sometimes name her ʿIsmat al-Din, which was assassinated after a few months. In the following is probably the name she took when she converted to period of great uncertainty—and in a political move Islam. Her son died after a few months, but nonetheless that was nearly unheard of in the Islamic world—it was she earned the right to be called wālidat al-malik al- Sultan Salih’s wife, Shajar-al-Durr, who stepped in to Manṣūr Khalīl (Mother of Prince al-Mansur Khalil), govern the kingdom that her husband had so success- which became an important title in her later career, at fully defended. The remarkable thing is that she gov- a point when the sultan had no other living sons.8 erned not simply as regent but as sultan.3 Her life and Sultan Salih ruled during a turbulent period when the actions are described in primary texts such as the eye- Ayyubid political consortium threatened to fall apart, witnesses Ibn Wasil (d. 1298) (whose work was the basis the Crusaders had to be repelled, and Cairo itself kept for the history of Abu’l Fida⁠ʾ [d. 1331]) and Sibt Ibn al- under control. One of his strategies for maintaining Jawzi (d. 1256), and later historians such as Ahmad Ibn power was to assign regional authority to men who were Ali al-Maqrizi (d. 1442) and Ibn Taghri Birdi (d. 1470), not his equal and who reported only to him (thus weak- who relied on Ibn Wasil and Abu’l Fida⁠ʾ but also drew ening the Ayyubid consortium); the other strategy was from other sources.4 She has been examined as a his- to keep a large mamlūk slave army whose Turkic soldiers torical character and literary legend by Götz Schregle from faraway Russia and the Caucasus were loyal to him (1961) and Hans Gottschalk (1967), and the critical rather than the Arab majority over which he ruled. events of the shift from Ayyubid to Mamluk rule have When the sultan was away on military campaigns, he THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 65 entrusted the government to Shajar al-Durr, who had authority as the mother of his deceased son. She “ran the affairs of the kingdom during his absence on military expeditions. Her orders were obeyed, her decrees were carried out and she signed with the seal of Umm Khalil.”9 Additionally, her status as a manumitted slave gained her the loyalty of Salih’s advisers and the coop- eration of military leaders, many of whom, like her, were Qipchaq mamlūks.10 Thus, when the sultan himself died on 14 Sha⁠ʾban 647 Fig. 2. Gold dinar issued by Sultan Shajar al-Durr, 1250. (November 22, 1249), Shajar al-Durr was well versed in (Courtesy of the British Museum) statesmanship and fully prepared to serve as regent un- til the heir, Turanshah (the sultan’s son by a different wife), could be recalled from his provincial post. That she ruled from within the harem in the Cairo Citadel took several months, during which time Shajar al-Durr and did not take the sultan’s normal place in street pro- governed as previously: in the name of the sultan (whose cessions, funerals, and ceremonies of obeisance. Leva- death was kept secret) and as the regent for his heir. noni points out that Shajar al-Durr could not hold When Turanshah finally arrived home, he drank too public audiences, and even the oath of office had to be much and behaved so badly that the politically powerful administered privately, as a woman could not appear in mamlūks—either with the assent or at the urging of Sha- public.14 Perhaps most critically, she could not lead the jar al-Durr—assassinated him on 27 or 29 Muharram army, an important deficiency at a time when Egypt was 648 (May 1 or 3, 1250).11 In the dramatic series of events constantly under attack or instigating attacks against its that followed, which brought the Ayyubid dynasty to its neighbors.15 These are examples of important ways that close and ushered in the rule of the Mamluk sultans, she could not occupy the public sphere, could not make Shajar al-Durr was an important agent. herself visible. On 30 Muharram 648 (May 4, 1250), in crisis, having Al-Maqrizi reported that with Shajar al-Durr’s eleva- lost Sultan Salih and killed his heir, and with the Cru- tion to sultan, the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad sent a sader armies of Louis IX poised to attack, the mamlūks stinging missive in which he wrote, “If there is no man placed Shajar al-Durr herself on the throne.12 But now, among you [who can serve], tell me and I’ll send you instead of acting as regent, she ruled as sultan in her one.” However, al-Maqrizi was writing in the early fif- own right: it was her name that was read in the Friday teenth century, by which point Shajar al-Durr had al- sermon, the khutba. She had the executive power of de- ready become a legendary character. The historians who cree, issued coins in her own name (fig. 2), and signed were witness to the events—most importantly Ibn Wa- official documents with her own seal, not as regent for sil—do not mention such a letter, and Gottschalk dis- Sultan Salih or his son Turanshah but as malikat al- misses it as part of the mythology that became attached muslimīn (Princess of Muslims) and as Mother of to Shajar al-Durr.16 The oft-quoted letter may have been Khalil.13 This is the first key point to the question of vis- an invention on the part of al-Maqrizi (or one of his un- ibility because these are aural and visual instances of named sources) to underscore the fact that having a occupying the public sphere, of making herself “visible” woman as head of state was problematic and left Egypt through the voicing of public speech—notably the vulnerable to attack. Indeed, Shajar al-Durr’s counselors khutba—and the circulation of her name in written in- soon learned that the Ayyubid vizier whom Salih had scriptions. Nonetheless, as a ruler, Shajar al-Durr could placed in Damascus, having rapidly conquered many not perform all the public duties that were required pre- territories in Syria, had set his sights on Egypt.17 cisely because of the limitations imposed on her as a Whether forced by the caliphate in Baghdad, or woman. As public exposure would have been immodest, through fear of increased political and military vulner- 66 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES ability under a female sultan, the mamlūks persuaded many other patrons of her time and previously, she used Shajar al-Durr, after she had ruled autonomously for architecture to make a mark in the public sphere. three months, to enter into an arrangement with an Throughout the Islamic world, while women did not upper-middle-ranked army mamlūk named al-Muʿizz build at the same rate as men, female members of ʿIzz al-Din Aybak (d. 1257), who was given the title of wealthy families were often entrusted with representing atābak al-ʿasākir (army commander).18 Probably be- the family’s fulfillment of obligatory zakāt (alms-giving) cause face-to-face contact between the two was other- and voluntary charity to the outside world by building wise impossible, she eventually married him (the waqf (endowed) institutions such as religious retreats, precise date is unknown).19 The marriage reveals an- madrasas, local mosques, tombs, and soup kitchens. In other dimension of the visibility problem: the ways that Ayyubid Aleppo, Shajar al-Durr’s contemporary, the kinship and marriage determined which women could regent-queen Dayfa Khatun (d. 1243), was the patron of be seen by which men. This co-rule arrangement lasted two important Sufi khanqahs.23 R. Stephen Humphreys’s for a short while, and then at the end of the summer of study of Ayyubid Damascus showed a high level of pa- 1250, Shajar al-Durr was demoted from sultan and Aybak tronage activity among women: they paid for 24 percent elevated in her place, only to be replaced after five days of the madrasas and 21 percent of the Sufi hospices, with by a minor Ayyubid puppet-prince, who was in turn re- 21 women and 126 men constituting the total number of placed by Aybak by 652 (1254).20 patrons of religious and charitable architecture in that From the time of her demotion onward, matters re- city.24 In Mamluk Cairo, the percentage of female pa- mained in delicate balance between Shajar al-Durr and tronage at 5 percent was much lower than Ayyubid Da- Aybak. She seems to have continued to do what she had mascus.25 But regardless of the rate of overall patronage, done as regent and then as sultan, ruling de facto if not in the case of mausoleums, it is highly likely that the in name, one indication of which was the fact that she person for whom the tomb was intended was engaged continued to sign official decrees as wālidat Khalīl al- in its construction, and thus the many tombs of women Ṣāliḥiyya (Mother of Khalil and [former] Slave of Salih) in Egypt reveal traces of their architectural involvement. and was still sometimes referred to as Sultan ʿIsmat al- Case in point: Howayda Al-Harithy says that Fatima Din.21 Aybak, meanwhile, led the army and was formal- Khatun, wife of Sultan al-Mansur Qala⁠ʾun (r. 1279–90), ly recognized as the head of state. Their uneasy union was actively involved in her own tomb construction, also served to bind factional interests among the power- built in 682 (1283), a year before her demise.26 ful mamlūks, many of whom remained loyal to Salih and Shajar al-Durr, as the highest-ranking and most-pow- thus to Shajar al-Durr as a nominal Ayyubid replace- erful woman in Cairo, was obviously more than a mere ment, and others of whom were fully prepared to dis- figurehead for family piety. She was a signer of decrees pense with the Ayyubids and accept a merit-based rule and a decision-maker, and her architectural commis- by a mamlūk. All of them regarded Aybak as weak and sions for her husband and herself clearly reflected per- therefore easy to manipulate, although he proved to be sonal interest and agency. Like any other ruler, she was a much better, more durable leader than they had ex- well aware of architecture’s representational function, pected.22 Thus Shajar al-Durr and Aybak divided up the but as a female ruler with no heir to succeed her, she role of sultan between the visible public role of the man pushed the metonymic function of architecture in in- and the invisible and nonpublic role of the woman be- novative ways that were subsequently adopted by her hind-the-scenes. Mamluk successors, making her patronage important not only for the specific works that she built but also for its impact on later foundations. Shajar Al-Durr’s Architectural Patronage When Sultan Salih was alive, he had had to win and control Cairo. One of the earliest Ayyubid strategies for If Shajar al-Durr had had to cede public authority to Ay- both serving and maintaining a grip on the people had bak, she found other ways to assert her own agency. Like been to build public institutions, such as madrasas, and THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 67

Fig. 3. Plan of the madrasa-mausoleum of Sultan Salih. (From K. A. C. Creswell, The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952–59], vol. 2, fig. 46) hence by 1243–44 (641) he had completed the construc- in that it was the first institution with four iwans to tion of his own madrasa in Cairo. Paid for with his own house the four branches of law taught there. Each of the funds but donated as a charitable waqf endowment, it twin buildings had two iwans that faced each other bore his name as the madrasa of Sultan Salih Najm al- across a central courtyard. Although the madrasas were Din Ayyub. The complex stood on the Bayn al-Qasrayn gutted by later building activity, a large part of the (a street known today as al-Muʿizz li-Din Allah), the northern madrasa survives, revealing it to have been a main street through the center of Ayyubid Cairo that grand complex, united by a continuous masonry street had been a processional way for the Fatimids in their façade with a handsome brick minaret standing midway weekly parades to each of the congregational mosques along a regular parade of tall, flat niches with windows as well as the avenue along which they built their pal- at street level (fig. 4). aces. The sultan had removed part of the old Fatimid Although the madrasa structures themselves were palace to make space for his new complex.27 His selec- oriented to the qibla so that the eastern iwan in each tion of this location may have been a deliberate erasure could serve as a prayer hall, the complex’s façade on the of his Shiʿi precursors, or it may have been chosen as western side accommodated the preexisting street. prime urban real estate, or both. The ornamentation and skewing of the façade, both of A narrow alley divided the complex into two identical which had begun in the Fatimid period and become structures, one of which still survives, albeit in a lamen- common in the Ayyubid period, show the way that tably fragmentary state (fig. 3). The madrasa was ­unusual building ­ex­teriors had begun to be developed as urban 68 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES

Fig. 4. Façade reconstruction of the madrasa-mausoleum of Sultan Salih. (From K. A. C. Creswell, The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952–59], vol. 2, fig. 45)

­em­bel­lishments. Instead of a streetscape consisting of a carefully studied and restored in a joint project by the labyrinthine series of twisted spaces left over after the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo and the Egyp- construction of major architectural complexes with tian Antiquities Organization.28 high, plain walls—in other words, treated as surplus ex- The mausoleum is centrally planned with a dome that terior space—some major streets began to emerge as rises from an octagonal drum to a total height of about important spaces in which a succession of adorned fa- 21 meters (the ground level of the exterior street today çades attracted the admiration of passersby. An early is higher than it was in the thirteenth century).29 The harbinger of this development was seen in the project- pointed dome rises vertically and begins its curve from ing portal and salient minaret bases added to the an articulated zone of transition with stepped corners Mosque of al-Hakim in 393 (1002–3) in early Fatimid and, on each façade, three stacked windows. These for- Cairo. The decorative, skewed façade as a well-devel- merly had stucco tracery containing colored glass that oped urban concept is especially notable at the Fatimid filled the interior with a rainbow of light. Attached to the Aqmar Mosque (519 [1125]) (fig. 5). Both mosques stood madrasa’s northwest corner and oriented to Mecca, the on the same major thoroughfare as the Sultan Salih ma- tomb has two street façades, one of which is ornament- drasa. The emphasis on the façade of the sultan’s ma- ed and skewed to adjust to the qibla and thus parallel to drasa, therefore, was not an entirely new architectural the rest of the madrasa’s façade. However, the tomb does idea, but it reveals the attention paid to urban public not simply extend the extant madrasa façade: it juts 5 space in that period in Cairo, especially the public space meters beyond it, making an aggressive claim on public of the street. space and asserting its presence even more forcibly than The Sultan Salih madrasa is important in the history the rest of the building. This projection into the space of of Islamic architecture for its inclusion of four iwans to the street, which we have seen was gaining importance house the four schools of law, as well as for its ornament- as an urban element, together with the rise of the dome ed façade and tall minaret. But equally important was above the walls of the madrasa, gave the tomb extraor- the tomb that was added to the complex shortly after dinary visual prominence. Sultan Salih’s death. Unlike the dilapidated condition of The interior consists of a square chamber measuring the madrasa, the tomb has survived in better condition 10.65 meters square. Due to the rotation often necessary (fig. 4 shows the domed tomb). In the early 1990s it was to orient Cairene buildings toward Mecca, the interior THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 69

Fig. 5. Mosque of al-Aqmar, Cairo. (Photo: D. Fairchild Ruggles) space of the tomb does not match the outer dimensions corners spanned by squinches articulated as three- marked by its skewed façade, and thus some portions of tiered muqarnas.33 In recent restorations, the floor and the walls reach a thickness of 5.30 meters.30 Notwith- the walls were found to have been revetted in marble. standing, the outer walls are pierced by windows that Amid such luxury, the centerpiece was surely the very allowed passersby to see the interior and, equally as im- large mihrab on the qibla wall, made of marble laid in portant, to hear the voices of men who were paid to re- ablaq technique of alternating light and dark panels— cite the Koran there.31 The deceased’s wooden cenotaph the first known example of such in Egypt. Nairy Ham­ stands at the center of the chamber, with the actual pikian’s team from the German Institute found that burial vault directly below and under the floor in the carved pieces of marble from the dismantled Fatimid ground. The cenotaph bears an inscription giving the palace had also been used.34 Moreover, on the basis of death date of the sultan in 15 Shaʿban 647 (November 23, vestiges of mosaics that were observed by Mahmud Ah- 1249). However, Ibn Wasil and others stated that when mad in his 1939 guide, Michael Meinecke proposed that the sultan died, his tomb had not yet been built and thus the mihrab’s hood was once sumptuously decorated his body was temporarily interred in the Rawda Palace; with gold mosaic (no longer visible), a type of ornament eleven months later it was removed and reburied at the imported from Syria.35 Behrens-Abouseif, who accepts tomb that Shajar al-Durr built as an addition to his ma- these assertions, points out that although mosaic was drasa. Thus the date on the cenotaph does not corre- present in the Mosque of ʿAmr in Fustat until the tenth spond to the date of the mausoleum.32 century, and although the mihrab of Sayyida Nafisa re- In its day, the tomb was grand, sumptuous, and in- ceived a mosaic mihrab in the mid-twelfth-century that novative. It was the first building in Egypt with interior lasted until the fifteenth century, the use specifically of 70 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES golden mosaic in Salih’s tomb—if indeed it had mosa- urban space than previous tombs and, moreover, was ic—was the first such instance in Egypt.36 However, it guaranteed to remain a vibrant center of activity. From should be noted that Creswell, who was generally a me- that point onward in Cairo, patrons combined architec- ticulous observer of architectural fabric, mentioned no tural functions in this way all the time. The madrasa- such traces.37 maristan (hospital)-mausoleum of Sultan Qala⁠ʾun (built In addition to its ornamental innovations, the build- 1284–85) and the madrasa-mosque-mausoleum of Sul- ing stands out in the architectural history of Egypt be- tan Hasan (built 1356–59) are but two relatively well- cause it launched the practice of attaching the founder’s preserved examples of complexes that were intended to tomb to his endowed foundation and, in so doing, estab- serve both as charitable foundations and as commemo- lished a new relationship between the deceased patron rative monuments to their founders. Each contains the and his major public work that was his most visible real presence of the deceased person interred below its legacy. The complex did not simply bear his name. It dome, and as a result each high dome is also a semiotic now also held his body and turned the madrasa as a reference to that singular, important person. This was a whole into a grand commemorative institution that profoundly important innovation that changed the way served as a frame for celebrating his importance. In em- that architecture preserved memory and communicat- powering the building to become the eternal substitute ed individual identity in the public sphere. Earlier tombs for the sultan himself, the addition of the tomb changed had achieved the feat of commemoration and semiotic the paradigm of what architecture could do: the archi- representation, but from Salih’s tomb onward, it was the tectural complex gained a new “identity” through the urban placement of the tomb, its extraordinary visibil- presence of the patron’s actual body. One of the body’s ity, and its aggrandizement as a defining element in a semiotic signs was the wooden cenotaph, glimpsed larger commemorative complex—guaranteed by its through the windows that gave onto the street, but in a function to be full of people—that became the new larger sense the domed mausoleum as a whole became paradigm. an even more powerful sign, projecting outward into that street where it demanded attention in the part of the city that mattered most. Previous royal tombs in Gender and the Commemorative Tomb Cairo had been built outside the city walls in sprawling cemetery zones such as Qarafa, which had many Fatim- It is important to remember that it was not Sultan Salih id mausoleums and had become sites for populist forms who added the tomb, but rather Shajar al-Durr. This fact of commemoration and saint worship, and thus the begs the question of her motivation. What did a monu- placement of Salih’s tomb in the heart of Cairo may have ment to a deceased sultan-husband do for the living been intended to shift attention away from those other sultan-wife? cemeteries.38 The central location of Sultan Salih’s tomb A tomb serves the occupant in that it commemorates was a new strategy. him or her forever, and it serves the descendants by The madrasa foundation had enabled the patron to celebrat­ing the dynastic line that gives them political embellish the streetscape, stake a claim to the city, and legitimacy.­ The concept of lineage is central to comme­ display his generosity and piety in his lifetime. The ma- moration and mausoleums, but it is a lineage that can drasa bore Salih’s name and was identified with him, but project in one direction only: backwards in time to the it was ultimately an educational institution for teaching ancestors of the deceased. Thus, the inscription over the and study. The tomb, in contrast, existed for the sole entry to the tomb of Salih identified the occupant as: purpose of commemoration and—like all mausole- O ur Master the Sultan al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ, the Wise Just Lord, ums—stood as a visible sign designed to preserve the the Champion of the Faith, the Defender of the Territories, memory of its occupant for eternity. By uniting tomb the Defender of the Shores, Najm al-Dunyā wa al-Dīn, the with madrasa, a powerful new ensemble was created Sultan of Islam and the Muslims, Master of the Kings of the that was much larger and occupied more highly charged Defenders of the Faith, Heir of the Kingdom from His Noble THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 71

Forefathers, Abū al-Fatḥ Ayyūb [one of Ṣāliḥ’s epithets], extending an audible invitation to the street. The tomb son of Sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil Nāṣir al-Dīn Abū al-Maʿālī did not simply enlarge and enhance the madrasa on the Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr b. Ayyūb.39 same spatial and visual terms as previously; its visual The text celebrated Salih’s lineage, as was fitting since prominence (and audibility) meant that the entire com- his claim to the sultanate was made through “His Noble plex communicated more forcefully than earlier com- Forefathers” of the Ayyubid line. His claim was founded plexes, keeping Sultan Salih literally present in the heart on being the son of his father, Kamil, himself the son of of Cairo and insisting on his continuing claim to that a sultan. Neither Salih’s descendants nor the wife who space. It was a communication made visually in urban succeeded him are mentioned, even though it was that space but also through time, as a lasting commemora- wife who built and paid for the tomb. It was not her own tive monument. An earlier conjunction of madrasa and patronage that Shajar al-Durr was emphasizing in the mausoleum had occurred with the complex of Nur al- mausoleum inscription, but rather the legitimacy (as Din (d. 1174) in Damascus in 1167, which Shajar al-Durr determined through family inheritance) of the man may have seen when she visited that city with Sultan from whom she gained her tenuous authority to rule. Salih, but in Egypt we can credit both of these new ideas The silence regarding Salih’s progeny is explained by the to Shajar al-Durr and her immediate circle of advisers. fact that by that time Turanshah was dead and there The Mamluk skyline of ornamental domes and minarets were no other surviving sons. that is so admired today and that emblematizes historic Tombs celebrate genealogy, and free women typi- Cairo began its development in 1250 with her addition cally built them for themselves or for their fathers or to Sultan Salih’s complex. It is because of this suppos- sons—members of their own bloodline—but rarely edly invisible woman’s architectural innovations that their husbands. In such commissions, free women cel- the men like Sultan Qala⁠ʾun and Sultan Hasan are still ebrated their own family line as an inalienable part of visibly present in the city of Cairo. their political capital. The spousal relationship was far Shajar al-Durr’s astute use of the public monument less important since as a contract, it could be easily dis- to assert presence was not limited to her husband’s com- solved. But Shajar al-Durr had risen from slavery, and plex. Although she came to a tragic end, assassinated in although she became free, she had no family ties of her 1257 in the bathhouse in revenge for having ordered the own because in slavery that lineage is severed. Unlike murder of Aybak a few days earlier, she had already built women with family, her claim to legitimacy and status her own endowed complex.41 This foundation, which was made not through her father (somewhere back in stood outside the Ayyubid city walls in the cemetery of the Central Asian steppes) but through her relationship Sayyida Nafisa, consisted of a mosque, madrasa, baths, to Salih, first as consort, then mother of his son, wife palace, garden, and a mausoleum, which received her (although the precise chronology of motherhood and body in 1257.42 Although only the tomb survives, its at- marriage is not known), and finally widow. Her titula- tachment to the patron’s endowed foundation and its ture reflected this: we have already seen that in coins remarkable mosaic mihrab echo the innovations at the and documents she was called Mother of Khalil and al- tomb of Salih and confirm that, as a patron, Shajar al- Salihiyya (belonging to Salih).40 Durr was highly original. Because Shajar al-Durr’s claim to authority derived It is commonly known that inscriptions provide an entirely from Salih, whether he was alive or dead, it was important means of communication in Islamic art and in her own political interest to embellish his major ar- that images of people and animals are avoided altogeth- chitectural work and celebrate his importance as the er in Muslim religious settings such as mosques and Ayyubid sultan of Egypt in a way that was as insistently tombs. Nonetheless, Shajar al-Durr managed to insert a visible and distinctive as possible. Thus the tomb pro- clear reference to herself in the most highly charged jected into the street and its large dome rose above the place in any building where prayer occurs, the mihrab, madrasa and surrounding buildings. Through its row of where an image of an upright branch with pearlescent open windows, a perpetual Koran reader could be heard, fruit recalls her name: shajar (tree) and durr (pearls) 72 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES

Fig. 6. Mihrab in the tomb of Sultan Shajar al-Durr, Cairo. (Photo: D. Fairchild Ruggles)

(fig. 6). Rendered in brilliant mosaic in gold, black, Despite the evidence in favor of Shajar al-Durr’s pa- green, and red, with mother-of-pearl disks, the image of tronage, several scholars have proposed that the mosaic the tree of life recalls the themes of much earlier mo- mihrab hoods in the tombs that she built in Cairo were saic pictorial programs in Syria, such as the scrolling the work of Sultan Qala⁠ʾun, inserted in the course of res- vines emerging from pots in the interior of the Dome of torations in the 1280s. This theory was expressed at least the Rock and the trees in the courtyard arcade at the as early as the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam Umayyad Mosque of Damascus (figs. 7 and 8). Shajar (1913–36) and was repeated by Michael Meinecke, and al-Durr could easily have seen the Umayyad originals, more recently by Finbarr Barry Flood.44 Given Qala⁠ʾun’s for she was a well-traveled woman. Born in Central Asia, prodigious building activity and his rule over both Egypt she was taken as a slave to Diyarbakir (southeast Ana- and Syria, he is indeed a plausible conveyor of not only tolia) when Salih was governor there in the 1230s and mosaic style but also of actual artisans from Syria to almost certainly accompanied him to Damascus when Egypt, a theory accepted by Nasser Rabbat, who sug- he took that city at the end of 1238 (he took it again in gests that mosaicists from Damascus installed scenes for 1245), traveled with him during his military campaigns Qala⁠ʾun in the citadel.45 After all, Qala⁠ʾun did complete in Sinjar (near Mosul) and Palestine, staying at his side the tomb of Baybars I (left unfinished at the latter’s during his imprisonment in Karak (in central Jordan), death in 1277) in Damascus in 1281 with a mosaic mihrab and finally accompanied him to Cairo in 1240.43 The hood, and he built his own madrasa complex in Cairo in sources indicate that she stayed with the sultan through- 1285 with a mosaic hood in the mausoleum’s mihrab. out these journeys. It is therefore very possible that she Flood has argued that Damascene forms became espe- personally saw the Umayyad mosaics in the Great cially important following the restorations to the Dome Mosque of Damascus or other Umayyad and Byzantine of the Rock starting in 1261 and the Umayyad Mosque of mosaic programs. Damascus in 1269, and he attributes all the Cairo mosa- THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 73

Fig. 7. Mosaics in the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. (Photo: Robert Ousterhout)

Fig. 8. Mosaics in the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Damascus. (Photo: D. Fairchild Ruggles) 74 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES

Fig. 9. Detail of the mosaics in the mihrab in the tomb of Sultan Shajar al-Durr. (Photo: D. Fairchild Ruggles) ics to Qala⁠ʾun and his successors. The argument relies new glass pieces that ʿUmari mentioned were left over on the assumption that the restorations in Damascus from the 1269 restorations at the Mosque of Damascus; and Jerusalem generated the expertise necessary to another, also relying on ʿUmari, proposes that they make the entirely new creations in Cairo. Under could have been salvage pieces that had fallen from the Qala⁠ʾun’s rule, Cairo and Damascus were united under mosaics at the Mosque of Damascus, were saved, and one ruler, and it is logical that there were close connec- then boxed up and carried to Cairo for reuse.46 While tions between them. But Sultan Salih had likewise ruled tesserae do indeed seem to have circulated and been both Damascus and Cairo, and, by extension, so had his reused in the way that ʿUmari described, it is doubtful regent and companion, Shajar al-Durr. Other than style that Damascene tesserae were used in Shajar al-Durr’s (from very few exemplars), there is scant evidence to tomb. First, the color palette of the mosaic mihrab of support the theory that the mosaic restorations predat- Shajar al-Durr is very limited. On a golden background, ed the new work. Indeed, even on the basis of style, it is it uses lots of black tesserae to form thick borders around hard to accept that the rather crude mosaics at Shajar flat, unmodeled shapes (fig. 9). The vine stems and leaf al-Durr’s tomb were made by an artisan whose craft de- shapes are made with grayish tesserae with only a few veloped by studying and restoring the much more so- sequences of green and red, with the “fruit” made of phisticated mosaics at the Great Mosque of Damascus small disks of luminous white shell. The limited palette or the Dome of the Rock. and plain shapes have little in common with the rich Moreover, the theory falls apart with the explanation spectrum of colors and expertly modeled shapes in the of how this might have occurred. One explanation relies Umayyad mosaics. If the Shajar al-Durr mihrab was on the possibility that the mosaics were made with the made of spolia from Damascus, or from new glass ­pieces THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 75 that were used in the restoration at Damascus, what Shajar al-Durr lived her life within the norms that happened to all the other colored tesserae? Finally, and were imposed on respectable women: serving as the most important, it is hard to imagine Qala⁠ʾun collecting faithful companion to her husband during his years of tesserae and sending them for use at Shajar al-Durr’s military campaigning and even imprisonment, and then tomb in Cairo. If the introduction of Damascus-style sequestered within the women’s quarters of the Ayyu- mosaics was so important to him, why choose her mau- bid Citadel in her years in Cairo. She did not leave per- soleum—which lacked political importance after her sonal papers or many written clues to her identity as a death—as one of the places to display that important person—all the contemporaneous texts that survive connection to Syria?47 were written for her or about her, and they are gener- The theory of Qala⁠ʾun as the instigator of a “mosaic ally brief, focusing on affairs of state. She remains an revival” in Cairo is ultimately not persuasive, but the elusive character whose dramatic biography so astound- point regarding the semiotic meaning of mosaics as a ed later historians that they heavily embellished and sign of a strong Mamluk connection to Umayyad Da- romanticized it, starting as early as al-Maqrizi but con- mascus still holds. Like Qala⁠ʾun, Shajar al-Durr might tinued by modern historians.50 In this, she is like any well have embraced mosaic as one of the clearest, most other historical person who emerges from obscurity visible signs of a cultural link between Cairo and the only through the texts, pictures, and architecture that Umayyad cities of Damascus and Jerusalem. And, as remain after that person’s demise. But unlike a man, Rabbat notes with respect to the pictorial scenes in the Shajar al-Durr was doubly invisible because she was not Mamluk citadel, mosaic was the only medium for pic- seen even in her own time, and that problem, as Leva- ture-making at that time.48 noni tells us, became an impediment to her ability to govern. I contend that the paradigm shift in architecture that Becoming Visible Shajar al-Durr effected through her patronage of these two remarkable tombs—the expansion of architecture’s Ultimately, it is important to pay attention to the image role in representing human identity—occurred pre- as visual communication. In Shajar al-Durr’s tomb the cisely because of the challenge that her gender imposed. image of a tree bearing pearlescent fruit was a clear ref- Invisible to the world as a female body, she used the erence to her name. The fact that it suddenly occurs in architectural body as representation instead. Finally, Egypt in this context, so clearly linked to her name, by because she was never one to respect normative bound- a patron who thoroughly grasped the importance of vis- aries, she pushed this beyond architecture and into the ibility, underscores the intentionality of the semiotic realm of pictorial representation, creating a mosaic that association between the image and its referents. In proclaimed her name in the presence of her entombed that quarter of much-frequented tombs, one can imag- body. ine a visitor to the mausoleum entering and facing the ­mihrab. Astonished by the glittering golden mosaic—an Department of Landscape Architecture, unfamiliar site in Cairo in the mid-thirteenth century— University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign the visitor looks at the image, perhaps recognizes the “tree of life” motif, and in describing it, speaks the name of the sultan herself.49 In every such utterance, the “tree Notes of pearls” is always Shajar al-Durr and she is recalled, whether through conscious intention or not. The ­ Author’s note: My thanks to the Kunsthistorisches Institut in mihrab niche illustrates beautifully the way that “be- Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut for organizing the conference in which these ideas were expressed. The essay is part of a larger coming visible” is entirely dependent on how we under- book project on Shajar al-Durr, supported by a 2013–14 fellowship stand social, spatial, and pictorial visibility. from the American Council of Learned Societies. For encourag- 76 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES ing me to pursue this topic, I wish to express my gratitude to of Turkic ethnicity from Armenia. Al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, 1:124. Antoinette Burton and Leslie Reagan at the University of Illinois. See also D. Fairchild Ruggles, “The Geographic and Social 1. Throughout, I use Mamluk to refer to the dynasty and Mobility of Slaves: The Rise of Shajar al-Durr, a Slave-Con- mamlūk to refer to the slave. cubine in 13th-Century Egypt,” The Medieval Globe 2 (2015): 2. An account of the political maneuvering in this period is forthcoming. given by R. Stephen Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mon- 8. Of Khalil, Abu’l Fida⁠ʾ says only that he “died young.” Arabic gols: The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193–1260 (Albany: SUNY text reproduced in Stanley Lane-Poole, Catalogue of Orien- Press, 1977). On the caliph’s acknowledgment, see p. 366, tal Coins in the British Museum (London: British Museum, citing Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī, Mirʾāt al-zamān, fac. ed. J. R. Jewett 1879), xix. Lane-Poole also transcribes the titles on Sha- (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1907), 499–500. jar al-Durr’s gold coin, dated 648 a.h., and reproduces 3. On the political rise of Shajar al-Durr, see Amalia Levanoni, her titles as given by Abu’l Fida⁠ʾ, on pp. xvii–xx, 136. See “Šağar ad-Durr: A Case of Female Sultanate in Medieval also Schregle, Sultanin, 43; Paul Balog, The Coinage of the Islam,” in Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Mam- Mamlūk Sultans of Egypt and Syria (New York: American luk Eras III: Proceedings of the 6th, 7th and 8th International Numismatic Society, 1964), 71–72. Colloquium Organized at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 9. Ibrāhīm al-Miṣrī Ibn Waṣīf Shāh, Kitāb jawāhir al-buḥūr in May 1997, 1998, and 1999, ed. Urbain Vermeulen and J. van wa-waqāʾiʿ al-umūr wa-ajāʾib al-duhūr fī akhbār al-diyār Steenbergen (Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2001), 209–18. al-Miṣriyya, British Museum, Ms. Or. No. 25731, fol. 64b, 4. Primary texts are Ibn Wāṣil, Mufarrij al-kurūb fī akhbār Banī slightly adapted from the translation of Levanoni, “Šağar Ayyūb (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿAsriyya, 2004); Abū al-Fidāʾ, ad-Durr,” 212; Schregle, Sultanin, 43. Al-Mukhtaṣar fī akhbār al-bashar, 4 vols. (Cairo: al-Matbaʿa 10. On the Qipchaqs, see Peter B. Golden, “The Shaping of the al-Husayniyya, 1907); Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī, Mirʾāt al-zamān Cuman-Qipčaqs and Their World,” in Peter B. Golden: Stud- (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1907); Aḥmad Ibn ies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes, ed. ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī, Kitāb al-sulūk li maʿrifat duwal al-mulūk, 12 Catalin Hriban (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Romane and vols. (Cairo: Lajnat al-Talif wa’l-Tarjama wa’l-Nashr, 1934– Braila: Muzeul Brailei, 2011), 303–32. 58); Ibn Taghrībirdī, Al-Nujūm al-zāhira fī mulūk Miṣr wa’l- 11. Abū’l Fidāʾ, Mukhtaṣar 3:181, reports the date as the 29th. Qāhira, 12 vols. (Cairo, 1930–56). At this early stage of the Ibn Taghrībirdī, Nujūm (6:371, cited in Soetens, “Šağarat longer research project, I am relying on published primary ad-Durr,” 107) reports it as occurring on the 27th. See also sources such as Ibn Wasil and al-Maqrizi. For unpublished Schregle, who accepts the 29th as the correct date. Sultanin, texts that exist only in manuscript, I have generally relied on the meticulously researched works of Götz Schregle and 56–58. Amalia Levanoni. 12. Ibn Wāṣil, Mufarraj al-kurūb fī akhbār banī Ayyūb, Biblio- 5. Götz Schregle, Die Sultanin von Ägypten, Šağarat ad-Durr thèque Nationale, Paris, Ms. arabe 1703, fol. 89v–90r, trans. (Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1961); Hans Gottschalk, “Die Peter Jackson, The Seventh Crusade, 1244–1254: Sources and ägyptische Sultanin Sagarat ad-Durr in Geschichte und Documents (Aldershot, U.K., and Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, Dichtung,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgen- 2007), 152–53; Abū’l Fidāʾ, Mukhtaṣar, 3:182; al-Makīn ibn landes 61 (1967): 41–61; Amalia Levanoni, “The Mamluks’ al-ʿAmīd, Chronique des Ayyoubides (602–658/1205–6— Ascent to Power in Egypt,” Studia Islamica 72 (1990): 121–44; 1259–60), trans. Anne-Marie Eddé and Françoise Micheau Levanoni, “Šağar ad-Durr”; Sabine Soetens, “Šağarat ad- (Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1994), Durr: A Comparative Study of Three Historical Sources,” 89 (Ms. 161). Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 30 (1999): 97–112. 13. Abū’l Fidāʾ, Mukhtaṣar, 3:182; Ibn Taghrībirdī, Nujūm, 6. K. A. C. Creswell, The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols. 6:373–74, cited in Soetens, “Šağarat ad-Durr,” 107–8; Ibn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952–59), 2:100–3, 2:135–39; Doris Waṣīf, Kitāb jawāhir al-buḥūr wa-waqāʿī al-umūr, British Behrens-Abouseif, “The Lost Minaret of Shajarat ad-Durr at Library, Ms. OC Add. 25731, fol. 64a; Levanoni, “Šağar ad- Her Complex in the Cemetery of Sayyida Nafisa,” Mitteilun- Durr,” 212. gen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung 14. Levanoni, “Šağar ad-Durr,” 214, citing Ibn Waṣīf, Kitāb Kairo 39 (1983): 1–16; Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Cairo of jawāhir, fol. 62b, and al- ʿAynī, ʿIqd al-jumān fī ta⁠ʾrīkh ahl the Mamluks: A History of the Architecture and Its Culture al-zamān, fols. 114a, 115a. Levanoni points out that al-ʿAynī (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2007), 113–16. is reproduced by Ḥasan Ibn Ibrāhīm al-Yāfiʾī as his own Caroline Wolf, “‘The Pen Has Extolled Her Virtues’: Gender Kitāb jamiʿ al-tawārikh, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and Power within the Visual Legacy of Shajar al-Durr in Paris, Ms. arabe no. 1543, which is the version she cites for Cairo,” in Calligraphy and Architecture in the Muslim World, al- ʿAynī. On this situation, see William M. De Slane, Cata- ed. Mohammad Gharipour and Irwin Schick (Edinburgh: logue des Manuscrits Arabes de la Bibliothèque Nationale University Press, 2013), 199–216, is an excellent study of (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1883), 1:291. With regard to inscriptions pertaining to Shajar al-Durr, but unfortunately female seclusion, however, Gottschalk argues that Ayyubid it appeared just as this volume was going into production. women were far less restricted than was typical among 7. On Shajar al-Durr’s Qipchaq origins, see Levanoni, “Mam- other Muslims. Gottschalk, “Die ägyptische Sultanin Saga- luks’ Ascent to Power,” 121–44; al-Maqrizi describes her as rat ad-Durr,” 42. With regard to the location of the oath THE ARCHITECTURAL PATRONAGE OF SHAJAR AL-DURR 77

ceremony, Schregle shows that most authors place it in 31. Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo Fariskur, where Turanshah had set up his camp. Schregle, (Leiden: Brill, 1989), 91. Sultanin, 60. 32. Ibn Wāṣil, Mufarraj, cited in Schregle, Sultanin, 51; Sibṭ Ibn 15. Levanoni, “Šağar ad-Durr,” 214. al-Jawzī, Mirʾāt al-zamān, trans. Jackson, Seventh Crusade, 16. The letter is given in al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, 1:368. Its authentic- 157; Aḥmad Ibn ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī, Kitab al-Mawaʿiẓ wa’l-iʿtibar ity is questioned by Gottschalk, “Die ägyptische Sultanin fi-dhikr al-khiṭaṭ wa’l-athar, 2 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Ṭibaʿa Sağarat ad-Durr,” 47. But Schregle gives the letter more al-Misriyya, 1270 [1853]), 2:374–75; al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, 1:371. credence and says that while al-Maqrizi may have invented 33. Creswell, Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2:102; Behrens- it, he may also have found a new source. Schregle, Sultanin, Abouseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo, 91. 23. 34. Hampikian, “Restoration of the Mausoleum,” 50–51. 17. Schregle, Sultanin, 65. 35. Michael Meinecke, “Das Mausoleum des Qala⁠ʾun in Kairo: 18. Abū’l Fidāʾ, Mukhtaṣar, 3:183; al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, 1:367. Rob- Untersuchungen zur Genese der mamlukischen Archi- ert Irwin gives a thorough account of Aybak’s role in these tekturdekoration,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäolo- machinations and the political tensions among the vari- gischen Instituts: Abteilung Kairo 27 (1971): 56–57; Mahmud ous mamlūk contingents in The Middle East in the Middle Ahmad, Guide des principaux monuments arabes du Caire Ages: The Early Mamluk Sultanate, 1250–1382 (Carbondale: (Cairo: Imprimerie Nationale, 1939), 104; Behrens-Abouseif, Southern Illinois University Press, 1986), 26–29. Cairo of the Mamluks, 114. 19. Abū’l Fidāʾ, Mukhtaṣar, 3:191, gives the date of ca. 653 (1255), 36. Behrens-Abouseif, “Lost Minaret,” 12–14. But others have while al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, 1:366–67, states 648 (1250). Both proposed Sultan Qala⁠ʾun as patron of the mihrab hoods. Abū’l Fidāʾ, Mukhtaṣar, 3:183, and al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, 1:366– E. Diez, Encyclopaedia of Islam (1913–36), s.v. “Mihrab”; 67, report that the emirs decided upon the marriage for Michael Meinecke, “Das Mausoleum,” 47–80, as discussed reasons of political convenience. elsewhere in this article. 20. Aybak ruled as sultan for only five days, after which he 37. Creswell, Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2:100–103. became regent for a very young successor from the Ayyubid 38. Al-Harithy, “Female Patronage,” 157. line (Salih’s nephew) named Malik Ashraf Muzaffar al-Din 39. Arabic text in Max van Berchem, “Eine arabische Inschrift Musa. Schregle, Sultanin, 142. But this Ayyubid contender aus dem Ostjordanlande mit historischen Erläuterungen,” had no actual power and quickly disappeared from view, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 15 (1892): 101. replaced by Aybak. As a sign of the turmoil, a different On the titulature, see Wafiyyah ʿIzzī, “An Ayyūbid Basin of group of mamlūks tried to proclaim their own candidate al-Ṣāliḥ al-Dīn,” in Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture in the person of another Ayyubid prince, al-Mugith ʿUmar, in Honour of Professor K. A. C. Creswell (Cairo: American but Aybak remained in control. Mustafa M. Ziyada, “The University in Cairo Press, 1965), 255. Mamluk Sultans to 1293,” in A History of the Crusades, ed. 40. Lane-Poole, Catalogue of Oriental Coins, xvii–xx, 136. Kenneth M. Setton, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: University of 41. The longer story of Shajar al-Durr’s rise to power, as well Pennsylvania Press, 1962), 2:735–58. as her political decline and ignominious death, is the sub- 21. This is relayed by al-Nuwayrī (Nihāyat al-arab), reproduced ject of the book that I am currently writing: Tree of Pearls: and translated in Schregle, Sultanin, 162–65. The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of a 13th-Century 22. Levanoni, “Mamluks’ Ascent to Power,” 121–44. Egyptian Slave-Queen. 23. Yasser Tabbaa, “Ḍayfa Khātūn, Regent Queen and Architec- 42. Behrens-Abouseif, “Lost Minaret,” 7, citing Ibn Duqmāq, tural Patron,” in Women, Patronage and Self-Representation Kitāb al-intiṣār li-wāsiṭat ʿiqd al-amṣār (Cairo: Imprimerie in Islamic Societies, ed. D. Fairchild Ruggles (Albany: SUNY Nationale, 1893), 4:125; al-Maqrīzī, Khiṭaṭ, 2:20, 134, 243. Press, 2000), 17–34. 43. Sir Hamilton Gibb, “The Aiyubids,” in History of the Cru- 24. R. Stephen Humphreys, “Women as Patrons of Religious sades, ed. Setton, 2:693–714. Architecture in Ayyubid Damascus,” Muqarnas 11 (1994): 44. Diez, “Mihrab”; Meinecke, “Das Mausoleum”; Finbarr 35–54. Flood, “Umayyad Survivals and Mamluk Revivals: Qala- 25. Howayda Al-Harithy, “Female Patronage of Mamluk Archi- wunid Architecture and the Great Mosque of Damascus,” tecture in Cairo,” Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Muqarnas 14 (1997): 57–79. In shifting the date of the intro- Review 1, 2 (1994): 152–74. duction of glass mosaic to 1250, as I am proposing, it helps 26. Ibid., 168. to remember that Damascus was not a new discovery for 27. A detailed description is provided in Creswell, Muslim the Mamluks. Sultan Salih had fought for possession of Architecture of Egypt, 2:94–100. Damascus, finally succeeding in 1245. Although it was in 28. Nairy Hampikian, “The Restoration of the Mausoleum of Cairo that the Mamluks gained the throne, large numbers al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub,” in The Restoration and Con- of mamlūks also served in Syria. servation of Islamic Monuments in Egypt, ed. Jere Bacharach 45. Nasser Rabbat, The Citadel of Cairo (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995), 46–58. 166. 29. Creswell, Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2:100–3. 46. Flood, “Umayyad Survivals and Mamluk Revivals,” 67, 70, 30. Hampikian, “Restoration of the Mausoleum.” citing Ibn Faḍl-Allah al-ʿUmari, Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik 78 D. FAIRCHILD RUGGLES

al-amṣār, vol. 1, ed. Aḥmad Zakī Pasha (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub of such romanticization, Max van Berchem called Aybak al-Miṣriyya, 1924), 193. “first the lover and then the husband of the sultana,” infus- 47. Behrens-Abouseif, “Lost Minaret,” 14. ing a sexual relationship into an alliance that the primary 48. Rabbat, Citadel of Cairo, 169. sources reported as one of pure political, convenience. Max 49. My thanks to Avinoam Shalem for suggesting this auditory van Berchem, Matériaux pour un Corpus inscriptionum Ara- form of representation. bicarum, Mémoires publiés par les membres de la Mission 50. For early myth-making, see Schregle, Sultanin; Gottschalk, Archéologique Française au Caire 19 (Paris: Ernest Leroux, “Die ägyptische Sultanin Šağarat ad-Durr.” As an example 1903), 113.

Abstract

Whereas reliance on official texts such as chronicles of- ten leads modern historians to overlook women, the built works of female patrons can provide a valuable historical source because they stand publicly for female patrons who were themselves unseen. Indeed, it is dif- ficult to imagine Damascus and Cairo without the visu- ally prominent tombs and pious foundations of the otherwise invisible Fatimid and Ayyubid women. Among the latter was Shajar al-Durr, a Turkic concubine who rose from slavery to become the legitimate sultan of Egypt in 1250. Her short reign and subsequent mar- riage ended violently with her death in 1257, but in that space of time she made architectural innovations that ultimately inspired lasting changes in Cairo’s urban fab- ric. Shajar al-Durr’s impact as architectural patron was as pivotal as her political role: the tomb that she added to her husband’s madrasa led to his permanent and highly visible presence in central Cairo, an innovation that was followed in the endowed complexes of the Mamluks. In her own more modest tomb, she chose not monumentality but iconography, representing herself pictorially in dazzling mosaic, a daring gesture in a world where female propriety meant invisibility.

Key words

Shajar al-Durr, Salih Najm al-Din, Turanshah, Al-Muʿizz ʿIzz al-Din Aybak, Saladin, Fatimid architecture, Ayyu- bids, Mamluk architecture, mosaics, Madrasa of Sultan Salih, Tomb of Sultan Salih, Tomb of Shajar al-Durr, Sul- tan Qalaʾun AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 79

Samer Akkach

The Eye of Reflection: Al-Nabulusi’s Spatial Interpretation of Ibn ʿArabi’s Tomb

ف ذ أ ن ٌّغ تأ ن ن bases his argument on a particular understanding of the � �ه�� ا ا �ل�ش��� � ا �ل�ع�������، ��س �� ���، �� �م��ل�ه ��ع�� ن الا ��ت���ا ، � � �ك��� ت� �م� نع� أوي� أ ج ي ب ر ري ب ب ي� ب ر إ � nature of visual perception. “Visual perception [al- �و لي� ال� ب����ص�ار. idrāk],” he posits, “is a meaning [maʿnā] that God creates in the eye according to what the viewer intends to see of I n this wondrous order, there is an unusual mystery; contemplate it with the eye of reflection the visible things.”5 What the viewer “intends to see” is, if you are among the possessors of insights. of course, commensurate with his or her aptitude and disposition, and, being endowed with extraordinary —Al-Nabulusi, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 316 powers, the Prophet was thus able to see what others I n a brief commentary on a prophetic tradition con­ were incapable of seeing. In his commentary on the cerning prayer, the renowned Andalusian judge and same hadith, the celebrated hadith scholar Ibn Hajar hadith scholar Abu Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 1148) refers to al-ʿAsqalani (d. 1448) goes a step further to distinguish the Prophet Muhammad’s extraordinary visual ability, between ibṣār and ruʾya. In contrast to ibṣār (seeing), he offering insights into a premodern Islamic understanding argues, ruʾya (vision) does not—by necessity of reason— of the nature of visual perception.1 Facing a wall while presuppose an instrument of seeing, an eye, for it is leading a prayer, the Prophet was reported to have once commonly believed among Sunni scholars that vision is reproached his followers, who were not praying properly possible without proximity or visual contact.6 Thus he behind him, saying: “Do you think my qibla is only here reinforces Ibn al-ʿArabi’s view that intentionality in itself [before me]? By God, your bowing and prostrating are can become a visualization, or a point of view, literally, not concealed from me; I can see you even though you according to one’s visual capacity. are behind my back.”2 Many Muslim scholars and hadith commentators have discussed and debated the ways in which the Prophet was able to see what was behind his Intentionality and Visibility back. Some went as far as to suggest he had a third eye between his shoulders; others proposed that he saw an This understanding of visual perception poses some image of his followers reflected in the wall before him challenges to our modern, science-based conceptions. that acted as a mirror; yet others were more rational, First, the indissoluble bond between the viewer and the arguing for a kind of inspiration or revelation, or for a visible, as well as the effective agency of the viewer in peripheral vision that involved a slight turning of the shaping the visible, challenges the nature of objectivity face but no bending of the neck.3 Ibn al-ʿArabi dismisses that gives primacy to the stable properties of an these rather twisted explanations, arguing in favor of a independent, self-standing reality (i.e., the world out visual ability so extraordinary that the Prophet was able there). The margin for malleability, which allows for to see what was behind him without turning his head, changing the visible reality according to the viewer’s just as, on another occasion, he was able to see Paradise intentionality and disposition, has been completely in the breadth of the wall before him.4 Ibn al-ʿArabi eradicated in post-Cartesian scientific understanding.

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P06 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 79-95 80 SAMER AKKACH

Second, the effective agency of the viewer and the proves to him that specular presence, which is dictated malleability of visible reality provide a space for the by the intention of seeing, involves no otherness or extraordinary, the unpredictable, and the unknowable, representation: the meaning that God creates in the that is, a space for mystery (sirr). Al-ʿAsqalani considers eye—not the mind—is of the thing itself.10 those who adhere to al-ʿāda (unchangeable natural This understanding of the nature of visual percep- habits)—that is, the rationalists—to be ahl al-bida⁠ʾ tion, though not in agreement with the optics-based ap- (heretics).7 Thus in the premodern Islamic view, there proach of Muslim scientists or the Aristotelian approach had always been a space for the breaking of the of Muslim philosophers, had currency among hadith continuity of a habitual world and the normality of scholars, theologians, and mystics until the eighteenth things as set by the laws of nature. In this space, a century.11 Elsewhere I have discussed how it mediated suprahuman or divine power partakes in the ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi’s (d. 1731) reading of the his- manipulation of history, the creation of events, and the tory of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem as well as his making of things with a transcendental purpose of its appreciation of its spatiality, function, and meanings.12 own. This state of being formed an object for “the eye of Here I shall return to this renowned eighteenth-century reflection.” And third, considering “meaning” (maʿnā) as Damascene figure to examine the way in which this un- something that God creates in the eye, not the mind, derstanding of the nature of visual perception mediated poses yet another challenge to the dissociation between his reading of the spatiality, function, and meanings sensing and reasoning in our current views that of—in this case—the tomb of his spiritual teacher, the differentiate between the sensible and the intelligible, celebrated Andalusian Sufi master, Muhyi al-Din Ibn giving superiority to reasoning over sensing. Meanings ʿArabi (d. 1240).13 In a rare late seventeenth-century ar- are normally associated with thinking and reasoning, chitectural treatise titled Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī fī Ḍarīḥ Ibn and as such they are products of the mind, not the al-ʿArabī (The Concealed Mystery in the Tomb of Ibn senses. When meanings become associated with the ʿArabi),14 al-Nabulusi interpreted the spatiality of this eye, the eye assumes a cognitive ability, visual illusion rather humble Ottoman complex (figs. 1–4), employing takes on a new significance, and the immediacy in the visual hermeneutics that blur the borders between in- act of recognition tends to eliminate representation and tentionality and visibility, meaning and mystery.15 limit the role of interpretation.8 The implication of this switch can be seen in Ibn al-ʿArabi’s explanation of rear vision. In his commentary on the above hadith, he refers to the human lack of rear vision as “visual incapacity,” History and Mystery: The Sīn and The Shīn or “absence of power” (ghayb al-qudra), in compensation for which, he says, God created the mirror. Thus the Before discussing al-Nabulusi’s hermeneutics of the spa- existence of the mirror, in Ibn al-ʿArabi’s view, came to tial organization of Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb, a brief presenta- provide evidence of, and an extension to, the limited tion of its history is necessary, as the way in which it was visual capacity of humans. As an extension to human founded was rather mystifying. Nearly three hundred seeing power (qudra), however, the mediating years after the death of Ibn ʿArabi, his complex was instrumentality of the mirror becomes an issue, because constructed in 1517–18 by the Ottoman sultan Selim (d. the appearance of the reflection creates a duality of the 1520), and much mystery and intrigue have shrouded its object and its image. To overcome this duality, Ibn al- construction ever since.16 Al-Salimiyya, as it came to be ʿArabi argues that what appears in the mirror is not an known after its patron, was Sultan Selim’s first and only “image” (mithāl) of a thing but the thing itself, that is, its architectural work in Damascus, marking his triumphant “reality” (ḥaqīqatuhu).9 This is so, he explains, because ruling over this strategic Mamluk city. An enigmatic the mirror has no spatial depth and substance to support treatise attributed to Ibn ʿArabi titled Al-Shajara al- the embodiment of an “image” in it, even though it gives Nu‘māniyya (The Tree of Nuʿman) presented the follow- the illusion of depth and embodiment. This phenomenon ing prediction: AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 81

1 2 F igs. 1 and 2. Ibn ʿArabi’s complex in its urban context at the foot of Mount Qasiyun, ca. 1940, showing the double-pitched roof over the prayer hall. (Photos: courtesy of Imad al-Armashi)

3 4 Figs. 3 and 4. Ibn Arabi’s complex in its current form in the suburb of Shaykh Muhyi al-Din, 2010, showing the modifications, additions, and the demolition of the double-pitched roof. (Photos: fig. 3, Samer Akkach; fig. 4, courtesy of Ola al-Zouhayli)

When Sīn [ = S, for Selim] enters Shīn [ = Sh, for Sham] there The treatise and the prophecies it contains add a layer shall be revealed the grave of Muḥyi-l-Din. The reason for of mystery to the history of this unpretentious building. this allusion is what the Real has disclosed unto me, through The text was presented in the form of riddles and direct divine informing, that our death will be in the pro- tected city of Damascus, which is called Jullaq, and that our symbolic allusions concerning the destiny of, and major grave will disappear for a period of time until the emergence events associated with, the Ottoman dynasty.18 The text of a leader from great Constantinople. The letter Sīn, from has been dismissed by contemporary scholars as a the family of ʿUthman, shall be the cause for the disclosure fabrication. Yet, although neither al-Nabulusi nor of our grave, and the construction of our shrine. And the Muhammad Ibn Tulun al-Salihi (d. 1546), the historian rising of this leader will be by the order of God and the consent of His messenger.17 and religious scholar who witnessed the construction of 82 SAMER AKKACH

Ibn ʿArabi’s complex, mentioned this mysterious text, it Sultan Selim’s takeover of Damascus. Whatever the case had received considerable attention, with at least three may be, the authenticity of Al-Shajara al-Nuʿmāniyya is commentaries by or attributed to well-known figures. not of primary concern to us here, or whether the text The first is attributed to Ibn ʿArabi’s contemporary was written by Ibn ʿArabi, or indeed the accuracies of Ahmad al-Buni (d. 1225), the second to his close disciple the prophecies. What concerns us here is whether the Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi (d. 1273), and the third to the treatise had played any role in Sultan Selim’s decision to religious scholar Salah al-Din al-Safadi (d. 1363).19 In construct the complex and thereby to officially sanction addition, the celebrated historian Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) Ibn ʿArabi’s sainthood. in his Muqaddima (Prolegomenon) wrote about the Arabic sources tell us that after his quick and decisive history and wide popularity of this kind of text, called victory over the weak and disorganized Mamluk army malāḥim (sing. malḥama, epic) and referred to a specific at Marj Dabiq, Sultan Selim made peaceful entries into one he had seen concerned with the Turks written by a Syrian cities in 1516. He entered Damascus that year, and Sufi called Muhammad al-Bajarbaqi (d. 1324).20 This after a short stay to prepare his armies, he left for his apparently popular text seems to have been written in next campaign in Egypt, where he likewise encountered verse and was different from that of Al-Shajara al- little resistance. Immediately upon his return to Damas- Nuʿmāniyya. cus from Egypt, Sultan Selim commissioned the build- While Ibn Khaldun was unambiguously dismissive of ing of the complex over the grave of Ibn ʿArabi. The the credibility of these texts, his renowned student, Taqi complex was designed and constructed with surprising al-Din al-Maqrizi (d. 1442), was not. Almost a century haste. Sultan Selim arrived back in Damascus on before the Ottoman conquest of Damascus, al-Maqrizi Wednesday, 21 Ramadan 923 (October 7, 1517), during made reference to Al-Shajara al-Nu‘māniyya and its au- the Muslim month of fasting. He met with the governor thorship. In his famous book on the socio-urban history and local dignitaries, and then immediately commis- of Cairo, Al-Khiṭaṭ (Plans), he devoted a chapter to the sioned the construction of the complex. On Saturday, destiny of his home city: what was being said about how the site visit was conducted and an initial layout was long the city would endure, the major events which agreed; on Sunday, an adjacent residence was purchased would befall it, and the predicted time of its destruc- and a building supervisor was appointed; on Monday, tion.21 This chapter was drawn from the prophecies pre- sented in Ibn ʿArabi’s epic, Al-Shajara al-Nuʿmāniyya, the demolition of existing buildings commenced; and a and although al-Maqrizi did not mention the title of the few days later, on 2 Shawwal (October 18), construction work, we can assume it was the source, as Al-Shajara of the mosque commenced. After one month, on Tues- al-Nuʿmāniyya was the only known eschatological trea- day, 3 Dhu’l-Qaʿda (November 17), Sultan Selim ordered tise attributed to Ibn ʿArabi that was concerned with the construction of the domed chamber over Ibn ʿArabi’s Egypt, Ard al-Kinana. Al-Maqrizi also reported consult- grave. That night the foundations were dug in the cem- ing an anonymous commentary on Al-Shajara al- etery, to avoid any anger over the unavoidable distur- Nu‘māniyya, which proved to be of little help to him in bance of some of the graves. A month later, on 10 deciphering its conundrums. Continuing to be con- Dhu’l-Hijja (December 24), people celebrated the Adha cerned with its content, he consulted with a trustworthy feast and prayed in the mosque. To celebrate the event, colleague, who had seen a greater commentary in two Sultan Selim sent to this mosque 250 sheep and camels volumes and who provided al-Maqrizi with the details to be slaughtered and distributed to people, but only 30 he quoted in his book.22 sheep to all the other mosques in the suburb of al-Sali- We do not know, of course, what was in the texts al- hiyya, northwest of the old city. Forty days later, on 20 Maqrizi and his colleague had seen, but assuming they Muharram 924 (February 1, 1518), the pulpit was in- were the same as the extant copies of Al-Shajara al- stalled. Four days afterward, Sultan Selim attended the Nuʿmāniyya and its commentaries, then al-Maqrizi’s Friday prayer there and celebrated the completion of reference testifies to the existence of the text long before the complex. The project took less than four months AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 83 from start to finish. Three days after the celebration of ­acknowledge. This rather awkward appointment might its completion, Sultan Selim left the city.23 have eventually contributed to the religious controversy Sultan Selim’s keen interest in Ibn ʿArabi is intriguing, surrounding Ibn ʿArabi’s ideas being extended to the to say the least. Despite being fully preoccupied with his architecture of his tomb, prompting al-Nabulusi to write military campaigns, Sultan Selim devoted much atten- his treatise on the spatial hermeneutics of the building. tion to this project, spending lavishly and donating gen- erously in celebration of its completion. He also set up generous endowments that supported the employment Controversy and Architecture of thirty Koran reciters, four announcers of prayer, and a number of teachers, religious leaders, and administra- Ibn ʿArabi was a highly controversial figure, and his mys- tors. Despite Ibn ʿArabi’s wide reputation and local tical hermeneutics caused a deep rift among contempo- popularity, his grave site had remained deserted for al- raneous and later Muslim scholars.26 Through his most three hundred years. Thus Sultan Selim’s decisive influential teachings, he maintained a strong presence commemoration seems to have elevated Ibn ʿArabi in Damascus, yet so did his main foe, the renowned Han- overnight to the status of official saint. We do not know bali scholar Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328). For more than two for sure the motives behind Sultan Selim’s action, or and a half centuries after his death, Ibn ʿArabi’s grave whether the curious prophecy attributed to Ibn ʿArabi site lay deserted and forgotten in the cemetery of Ibn had anything to do with it. What we know, however, is Zaki, indicating that his opponents, the jurists (fuqahāʾ), that the mysterious treatise, which was in wide circula- had the upper hand in the city. According to ʿAli b. May- tion, declared the rise of the Ottomans to be “by the or- mun al-Fasi (d. 1511), who visited the grave site in 1499, der of God and with the consent of His messenger”24 and people in Damascus were afraid of mentioning Ibn portrayed this major event as an auspicious sign for the ʿArabi’s name and reluctant to direct visitors to the loca- prosperity of Islam in Arab lands. The perceived reli- tion of his tomb. He wrote: “When I arrived at Damascus gious character of the Turks among the Arabs was also I found none to direct me, for all were frightened of the propitious. Al-Maqrizi reports that the famous Fatimid tyranny of the wretched clergy…. I finally arrived at the caliph and founder of Cairo, al-Muʿizz li-Din Allah bath-house and requested of the keeper to open the (d. 975), was once asked about the Turks: who were door for me so that I could enter the shrine to see the they? He replied: “Muslim people who enjoin right and tomb. Using a subterfuge, he scaled the wall and opened forbid evil; they establish the law and duties, and fight, the door for me. I found the shrine to be devoid of any for the sake of God, his enemies.”25 trace of visitors. The grass had withered, thus proving Whether this real or fabricated treatise was used to that none had frequented the place.”27 Thus the official sanction—through the mediation of Ibn ʿArabi’s proph- celebration of Ibn ʿArabi’s sainthood by the new rising ecies—the Ottomans’ invasion of Damascus and their power, the Ottomans, marked a significant swing to the rule over the rest of the Arabic-speaking Muslim world side of his supporters. This intervention might have en- is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that the trans- hanced Ibn ʿArabi’s presence and popularized his image formation of Ibn ʿArabi’s forgotten and neglected grave locally and regionally. Certainly, with the Ottomans’ into a significant shrine, signaling the Ottoman endorse- sanction of Ibn ʿArabi’s sainthood, al-Salimiyya began to ment of his sainthood, played a noticeable role in the attract an increasing number of pilgrims and visitors. development of the city’s socioreligious life. Against the Nevertheless, the controversy surrounding his personal- wishes of almost all hadith scholars, who, according to ity and teachings only grew sharper and deeper in the Ibn Tulun, were opposed to Ibn ʿArabi’s teachings, Ibn ensuing centuries.28 ʿArabi became the new patron saint of the city. Not only At the time of al-Nabulusi, nearly two centuries after that, but the city’s most celebrated hadith scholar, Ibn the construction of al-Salimiyya, Ibn ʿArabi’s ideas and Tulun himself, ironically became the first imam in the teachings were under strong attack, as were also the mosque of a Sufi saint whose sainthood he did not whole path of Sufism, and especially the notion of 84 SAMER AKKACH sainthood (wilāya) and the rituals associated with it, building for charity-related activities (takiyya) located such as saint veneration through grave construction and opposite the main entry on the upper northern side of visitation.29 Under the influence of the puritanical ideas the building (figs. 5 and 6). The main building had two of the Kadizade movement, anti-Sufi sentiment grew.30 entries: one from the upper level (north) into the Al-Nabulusi wrote extensively in defense of Sufism in courtyard and the main prayer hall, which was covered general, and of Ibn ʿArabi’s teachings in particular, and by a double-pitched roof; and one from the lower level commented profusely on the rational and spiritual of the garden through the tomb chamber. The upper approaches in Islam, which were reflected in the entry was and still is the main entry. We do not know crystallizing polarity of the law and the truth (al-sharīʿa anything about the size or design of the garden; however, and al-ḥaqīqa). He therefore was not looking for an the building was set back from the river, and a occasion to extend his views onto Ibn ʿArabi’s complex, freestanding tower with a mechanical device raised but criticism and denigration of Ibn ʿArabi must have water from the river to the mosque, channeling it to the reached an intolerable level and been extended to his upper level through an aqueduct, the remnants of which sacred shrine, prompting al-Nabulusi to write his short are still visible (figs. 7 and 8).33 rebuttal in the early months of 1089 (1678), at the age of Among the many religious complexes in Damascus thirty-nine.31 With Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī the polemics that house tombs of religious and spiritual figures, al- over Ibn ʿArabi’s teachings took on a spatial dimension. Salimiyya’s multilevel spatial arrangement was unique. By revealing a mystery concealed in the spatiality of the Al-Nabulusi’s treatise suggests that the position of Ibn complex, al-Nabulusi endeavored to provide a new way ʿArabi’s grave in the spatial arrangement of the complex of visualizing its spatial organization and appreciating had become a point of attack, as his critics seemed to the inner significance of its architecture, thereby have used the lower position of the tomb chamber to offering rare insights into an Islamic architectural point out his inferior status in comparison with the theory. higher position of the mosque. And it is possible, given Al-Salimiyya was constructed on a steep slope at the the intensity of the debates his ideas had provoked, that foot of Mount Qasiyun in al-Salihiyya. Ibn Tulun the rational jurists might have prohibited people from described the original structure in detail.32 His descending to the lower chamber, which in their view descriptions are consistent with the current shape and layout of the building, taking into account the additions would represent descending to polytheism and unbelief and modifications that took place over the past five (figs. 9 and 10). centuries (see figs. 3 and 4). In fact, an opening poem in Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī The current form of the building shows one big flat- suggests that going downstairs to the tomb might be roofed, cubical block with two small attachments to the likened to descending to hell. Al-Nabulusi wrote: eastern side, one of which is the original domed tomb The tomb of Muhyiddin is among the most splendid, chamber, the other a new addition. In the original a fire for the ignorant, but light in itself. design, however, the complex was terraced and Whosoever approaches it in the mode of Moses, consisted of three levels: an upper level of the mosque shall converse with Truth with sorts of presence. that had a courtyard with arched porticoes on three Do not say fire, for fire is none other than you, sides and a prayer hall on the fourth (southern side), and go beyond interpreting the outward. with windows overlooking a garden located at the A mosque up high and a garden down below, southern end; a middle level of the domed tomb with a river that is among the most beautiful. He is in a presence in between the two, chamber and rooms for seclusion with windows below, yet above in the loftiest palaces. overlooking the garden; and a lower level of the garden The way to him is through poverty and humility, on the edge of Yazid River at the southern end of the and around these all shall revolve. building. The complex also had a minaret and other So reflect on what we have granted you, ancillary facilities, including a freestanding domed of sciences belonging to this and the other world.34 AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 85

7

5

8 Figs. 7 and 8. The water tower of Ibn ʿArabi’s complex, 2010, originally positioned on the Yazid River to raise water to the level of the mosque and to the courtyard. (Photos: fig. 7, cour- tesy of Ola al-Zouhayli; fig. 8, Samer Akkach)

The Sirr: The Presence of Absence

Referring to the spatial arrangement of al-Salimiyya, al- 6 Nabulusi wrote: “In this wondrous order, there is an un- usual mystery [sirr]; contemplate it with the eye of F igs. 5 and 6. Plans of Ibn ʿArabi’s complex in its current form reflection if you are among the possessors of insights.”35 together with its adjacent buildings. To the west (left) is the Thus al-Nabulusi hinges his spatial interpretation on the Ayyubid Bimaristan al-Qaymari, and to the north (above) is the takiyya (part of the complex of al-Salimiyya). The original notion of sirr (mystery, secret), indicating that he wrote plan of the prayer hall contained only one row of columns Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī to reveal an unrecognized objective and two bays covered by a double-pitched roof. (Plans: cour- concealed in the design of the building. Yet he does not tesy of Ola al-Zouhayli) explain what he means by sirr or how it should be 86 SAMER AKKACH

9 10 F igs. 9 and 10. The stairs leading down to Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb chamber from the level of the courtyard and mosque, located at the southeastern corner of the courtyard, through which one enters the mosque, which lies at the same level, 2012. The opening to the right under the arch leads to the stairs. (Photos: courtesy of Kinda Tabbaa)

­understood. The notion of sirr is complex and can be sirr and maʿnā. The Arabic term sirr (mystery, secret) understood in general and mystical ways, so in what differs from maʿnā (meaning), though both overlap in sense did al-Nabulusi use it? Considering that the selec- certain respects. Maʿnā, from ʿanā (to care, to be tion of titles was often dictated by rhyming as much as concerned with, to intend), is attached to human by meaning, one can argue that the term sirr was se- thinking, intention, and self-conscious deliberations, lected for its general usage. From this perspective, the whereas sirr, from sarara (to keep inside, to hide), is a sirr would simply point to an unrecognized idea and can form of concealment that is independent of human thus be explained as an alternative, or not-so-obvious, intentionality and self-conscious reasoning. Access to interpretation of the multilevel building, one that pays sirr can be achieved through mental occurrences or respect and reverence to the great master it houses. events called in Arabic khawāṭir (sing. khāṭir, quick From the mystical perspective, however, we must take passing thoughts), which refer to flashes of in-sight that into consideration the Sufi articulation of the notion of involuntarily roam one’s heart, appearing and disap­ sirr as well as Ibn ʿArabi’s reflections on it. pear­ing quickly without an identifiable cause and Al-Nabulusi was not an ordinary writer; he was a source.36 The khawāṭir are considered to be a source of celebrated Sufi master of the Qadiriyya and Naqsh­ inspiration and revelation. In the opening of his treatise, bandiyya orders, one who was well versed in Sufi al-Nabulusi explains the source of his ideas: “This is a teachings and hermeneutics and in full command of Ibn breeze from the gardens of the unseen [al-ghayb] and a ʿArabi’s writings, which he regularly taught throughout fragrance that removes from the noses of intending his life. Accordingly, it would be unreasonable to ignore visitors the cold of uncertainty [al-rayb], in which I have the mystical understanding of the concept of sirr and to explained aspects of what God-most-high has disclosed overlook its agency in al-Nabulusi’s theorization. In fact, unto me in a state of inspiration, where there is neither it is safe to assume that al-Nabulusi’s focus on the sirr sign nor speech.”37 reflects a deliberate choice driven by his mystical Thus understood, the sirr, as a form of concealment, preoccupations. is concomitant to every revealed reality as a hidden core To understand the mystical meaning of sirr in the that is there by virtue of the reality’s disclosure, just as context of al-Nabulusi’s usage with reference to the shadow is inherent in the nature of light. And just as architecture, a distinction must be established between the visibility of light is realized through contrast with AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 87 shadow, revealment is likewise affirmed through sirr is seen as at once a visualizing medium and an contrast with concealment. The sirr, in this sense, is expression of divine wisdom. seen as a medium of visualization, of which the verb With the sirr as his starting point, al-Nabulusi makes asarra means at once “to conceal” and “to reveal,” and a clear distinction between human intentionality and surūr means both “pleasure” and “happiness.”38 From a the determinations of being. The game of being, so to Sufi perspective, the sirr is conceived as a state of truth speak, is sustained by divine wisdom and has its own concealed in between existence and nonexistence, consciousness, which is independent of beings and the neither known nor unknown. In humans, the sirr is deliberations of human reasoning. “It was the divine defined as “a subtlety placed in the heart as the spirit wisdom and holy secrets,” al-Nabulusi writes, referring placed in the body. It is the locus of visualization to Ibn ʿArabi, “that he was buried in the foot of the [mushāhada], just as the spirit is the locus of love, and Salihiyya mountain [i.e., Qasiyun].”42 Although things as the heart is the locus of knowledge.”39 Sufis appear to be directed by human concerns and under differentiate the sirr’s function in three contexts, human control, in reality being has its own dictates knowledge (ʿilm), situation (ḥāl), and truth (ḥaqīqa), whereby humans are engaged to act. Humans are not considering the sirr as an “eye” that enables certain passive agents in this game, however, but rather active visualization according to the condition of each players whose actions coincide with the unfolding of the context.40 being’s dictates. In this understanding, reality always In Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations), has two sides to it: visible and invisible, recognizable Ibn ʿArabi distinguishes three types of human desire and mysterious. Thus in the spatial arrangements of al- (raghba): one is motivated by the soul (natural desire), Salimiyya, what was revealed and became recognizably the second by the heart (spiritual desire), and the third visible, through the patronage of Sultan Selim and his by the sirr (divine desire).41 These are related to the design and construction team, was only a certain side of tripartite constitution of humans: natural, spiritual, and what was hidden therein. This is where the significance divine. Constituting the divine component of humanity, of the Sufi concept of the sirr lies. As a state of truth, the the sirr is directly connected to the Real or Truth (haqq). sirr directs attention to what is being concealed in the This connection explains the meaning of the common process of revealing: it is the presence of absence. phrase often used by Sufis after one’s name: qaddasa Allāhu sirrah (may God sanctify his secret) or quddisa sirrah (may his secret be sanctified). In residing at the heart of revealed things, the sirr The Eye of Reflection becomes the other side of intentionality; it is the inner core acquired by beings in the process of manifestation. Al-Nabulusi wrote Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī to counter the Thus the sirr, in essence, undermines the very certainty criticism being leveled at the tomb of his revered mas- of human intentionality by denying individual owner­ ter. He wanted people to see what is not outwardly vis- ship of ideas in the creative process of making. Whenever ible and to share a mode of vision similar to that through something comes into existence, there is always a sirr which the Prophet Muhammad visualized the invisible. folded within that gives this something more than its This invisible reality reveals itself through visible traces: manifested form, apparent purpose, and the maker’s the unique spatiality of the building that acts as a me- reasoned intention. In this sense, the sirr can never be dium for “the eye of reflection” to discern what is being intended, but only discovered. It cannot be reduced to concealed. Here the concealed mystery is not the archi- a meaning or a set of meanings, nor can it be exhausted tect’s ideas or original design intentions or the patron’s by being discovered and disclosed. The sirr, by virtue of purpose behind the building, none of which is in fact its very concealment, is a constant source of ideas and important or even necessary for understanding the inspiration. Whenever a sirr is revealed, another is meaning of a work of architecture. The true meaning simultaneously concealed, and it is in this sense that the resides in the sirr, the mystery that lies beyond the 88 SAMER AKKACH

F ig. 11. Digital model of what Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb might have looked like in al-Nabulusi’s time. Details are based on early twentieth-century photographs; model prepared in 2013. (Model: courtesy of Hala Qasqas)

­architect’s and the patron’s desires, intentionality, and Qasiyun, because it is in the heart of the blessed moun- self-conscious reasoning.43 tain, and knowledge is in the hearts not the minds.”44 While presenting a theoretical reading of architec- The mountain and cave symbolism of the manifest real- ture, the spatial visualization was presented from a mys- ity and hidden secret is widely known in many tradi- tical perspective, using architecture as a vehicle to tions, yet here al-Nabulusi uses it to point to the religious illustrate the spiritual meanings of form. In this respect, difference between the theologians who depend in their Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī is a valuable early modern source knowledge on reason (naẓar) and mystics who depend offering a rare theoretical interpretation of Islamic ar- on divine disclosure (kashf).45 Both terms involve visual chitecture from a nonarchitectural perspective. In his metaphors. Naẓar (literally, vision) has been associated attempt to unravel the secrets of al-Salimiyya, al-Nabu- with reason and rationality (ahl al-naẓar are the phi- lusi focused his visual hermeneutics on three aspects: losophers), whereas kashf (unveiling) has been associ- first, the siting of the complex and its relationship to ated with intuition and the suprarational (ahl al-kashf geography and natural setting; second, the approach to are the mystics). In the siting analogy, al-Nabulusi as- the complex from outside; and third, the experiencing of sociates the mountain with reason and sight, and the the building from the inside (fig. 11). cave with the heart and insight. True knowledge, he as- serts, lies in the heart, not in the thoughts (al-maʿrifa Siting fī’l-qulūb lā fī’l-afkār). Al- Salimiyya was built on a steep mountainside where In mystical thought, the heart (qalb) is associated Ibn ʿArabi’s grave was originally located. In this siting with centrality and truth.46 In the mountain and cave arrangement, al-Nabulusi saw a significant relationship metaphor, this is what Ibn ʿArabi stands for as he rests between the mountain and the cave, the outer body and at the heart of Mount Qasiyun. A prophetic tradition the inner heart, and considered the grave, by its very often quoted by Sufis reports a divine saying: Neither location, to be the heart of Qasiyun. “It was divine wis- can my earth nor my heaven embrace me, but the heart dom and holy secrets that led to his burial at the foot of of my faithful servant can. Conceived as the seat of di- the Salihiyya mountain,” al-Nabulusi wrote. “He is bur- vinity, the “heart” is defined by the Sufis as an “abstract ied in a cemetery at a somewhat steep slope of Mount luminous substance that mediates between the spirit AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 89

F ig. 12. Digital model of Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb, viewed from the level of the garden. (Model: courtesy of Hala Qasqas, 2013)

and the soul,” and as “an eternal light and transcenden- below, the other via the upper mosque, is taken to rep- tal secret [sirr], revealed at the center of beings, where- resent the ways in which one can approach the religious by God gazes at humans.”47 Thus viewed, it is the center truth of Ibn ʿArabi’s ideas and teachings. Al-Nabulusi whereby humanity is realized. With reference to the Ko- describes a side walkway on the right-hand side of the ranic verse, “God is the light of the heavens and the building that leads pedestrians from the upper street earth. The parable of his light is as a niche and within it down to the lower garden, which provides a setting to a lamp: the lamp is in glass, the glass is as it were a bril- the complex on the edge of Yazid River. The complex liant star, lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the itself was elevated from the garden level, so whoever east nor of the west” (Koran 24:35), the niche is taken to approaches the building from the garden had to climb represent the body, the tree the soul, the lamp the spir- up a stair to the level of Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb. Viewing the it, and the glass and brilliant star the heart.48 Thus the tomb from the garden reveals it in a lofty place, al-Nab- heart is the invisible shield through which shines the ulusi writes, while viewing it from the mosque reveals it light of truth, and this is what Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb is seen in a low place. He says: to represent (fig. 12). I f you descend along the sidewalk outside the mosque that is adjacent to it on the right-hand side, you will arrive at a Access lush garden [rawḍa khaḍrāʾ] with fresh running water.49 When you enter this garden you will find the tomb of the As already described, al-Salimiyya had two entries, one shaykh … elevated to the highest point, in contrast to your at the upper level (north), the other at the lower (south). situation when you are in the protected mosque. In this Al-Nabulusi compares this dual accessibility to two ap- wondrous order there is an unusual mystery; contemplate proaches to religious knowledge: the outward and the it with the eye of reflection if you are among the possessors inward. The mosque, which occupies the higher level, is of insights. And that concealed mystery is nothing other taken to represent the outward divine law, which is ac- than the presence of absolute beauty, whereby the negli- gent [ghāfilūn] are perplexed while the knowers [ʿārifūn] cessible by the public, whereas the tomb that occupies are guided.50 the lower level is taken to represent the inward truth, which is accessible only by the elite. The fact that there H ere al-Nabulusi uses the spatiality of the complex to are two entrances to the tomb itself, one direct from again engage the dichotomy between naẓar and kashf 90 SAMER AKKACH

13

14 F igs. 13 and 14. Digital model of Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb, viewed from the level of the garden. (Model: courtesy of Hala Qasqas)

(reason and revelation), rationality and spirituality, the the upper enclosed mosque.51 In this spatial visualiza- law and the truth (al-sharīʿa wa-l-ḥaqīqa). He takes the tion, al-Nabulusi seems to be setting up landscape garden to represent revelation, spirituality, and truth, against architecture, garden against building, nature with its lower location being seen as a constant remind- against culture (as constructed beliefs and habits) (figs. er of one’s humility and selflessness, the main charac- 13 and 14). teristics of the people of the truth. The garden stands for In a polarized community sharply divided between truth by virtue of its natural and unmediated existence, supporters and detractors of Ibn ʿArabi, entry to the its primordiality and unconstructedness. By contrast, building seems to have become an issue. It was possible the mosque stands for the religious law by virtue of its to imagine entry into the complex to have become a designed, determined, and constructed reality. As truth declaration of identity and a statement of position. is superior to law, in al-Nabulusi’s view, the lower open Those who enter from above became identified with the space of the garden is likewise viewed to be superior to people of the law, that is, the jurists and their allies, AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 91 whereas those who enter from below became identified So they are dependent on the water of the garden. As for with the truth, that is, the Sufis and their followers. In the people of the garden, however, they do not need the representing initiation into religious learning, the order water of the mosque and the mihrab. In this sense, water of access in these two entries assumes new significance. becomes associated with belief in Ibn ʿArabi’s sainthood “He who enters the mosque of the law [masjid al-sharīʿa] and spirituality, and while all people, believers and crit- before entering the garden of truth [rawḍat al-ḥaqīqa],” ics, enter the mosque, only the believer enters the gar- al-Nabulusi asserts, “will lose considerably, as he will den. Yet all share in their dependency on the garden’s find the tomb of the great shaykh, may God be pleased water, and especially the detractor, who despite his re- with him, in a very low place, so he would oppose, reject, jection “will still be in need of the water of life, extracted criticize, and despise, yet this would only be his own by the wheel of thought from that garden, in order for status being reflected in the mirror of the shaykh.”52 him to achieve a complete presence and perfect state of Thus viewed, the ways in which people engage with tranquillity and submission.”55 “So breathe in, in that the spatiality of the mosque reflect their personal atti- garden, the breezes of acceptance,” al-Nabulusi calls, tudes and “visual (in)capacity,” to use Ibn al-ʿArabi’s “and do not fear the criticism of the self-deluded and the metaphor. As antimystical sentiment was well en- jealous, for light cannot be seen by the blind.”56 trenched in Damascus during al-Nabulusi’s time, he As to the proper order in the relationship between asked those who reject Ibn ʿArabi’s teachings to reflect the truth and the law, al-Nabulusi explains that “he who on their method of learning: “What virtue can you claim enters the garden of truth [first] will perfect his condi- for yourself if you are following others in praise and dis- tion by upholding the requirements of the law and pos- praise? The donkey carries loads but cannot distinguish sessing the happiness of the two abodes. He will find the them; it could be carrying rubbish or precious stones.”53 tomb of the shaykh in the highest place, expose himself In his spatial hermeneutics, al-Nabulusi sees a con- to the river of eternal life, and witness the fruits of eter- nection between the spatial order of the complex and nal happiness.”57 Thus it is only through accessing the people’s attitude, and he uses al-Salimiyya’s spatial ar- complex through the garden first that one will discern rangement to guide people toward good moral conduct. the standing of the shaykh as being the highest and his Viewing the tomb as a Kaʿba located in the vicinity of status as being the most proud. Mount Tur, where Moses conversed with his Lord, al- Nabulusi writes: Experience H umble yourself before this transcendent status and take Divine secrets and lordly wisdoms, al-Nabulusi dis- the right-hand sidewalk of the Syrian corner, and enter from cerned, necessitated that the grave should be located at the auspicious side of Mount Tur into the sacred spot near the heart of the complex, just as the grave site was posi- Moses’s tree. And take what has been revealed to you and tioned at the heart of the mountain. Experientially, after be thankful of the shaykh’s truthful presence. And drink entering the mosque from the higher entrance, one de- from that river’s sweet water and do not preoccupy yourself with knowing anything other than the Lord.54 scends to the tomb’s chamber by seventeen steps. This spatial arrangement was unusual, as graves in other I n al-Nabulusi’s visual interpretation, the garden, the buildings were normally located at the same level of the water, and the waterwheel (i.e., the water tower) be- main entry. Al-Nabulusi sees psychological dimensions come important elements, assuming special signifi- corresponding to the ways in which the complex is spa- cance. Water is seen as the principle of life, the source tially experienced. At the upper level of the mosque, one of knowledge, and the medium of purification. Its inte- has a sense of authority and arrogance, so one feels em- gral relationship to the garden makes it an indispens- powered to criticize the great master. By descending to able element for the experience of the mosque. The the tomb via seventeen steps, however, one humbles people of the mosque have no source of water other oneself and begins to realize the greatness of the master. than the river below, and they are therefore obliged to “Whoever enters the mosque aiming for the mihrab,”58 drink the water of the garden raised by the waterwheel. al-Nabulusi warns, “will not recognize this mystery, 92 SAMER AKKACH which is concealed from him by his own intention. So al-Nabulusi presents a theorization of architecture that he will be imprisoned behind the door.”59 is based on visual hermeneutics laced with mystical Here al-Nabulusi uses intentionality (qaṣd) as both ideas. From an architectural perspective, al-Nabulusi’s mental and visual orientation. For those who restrict conceptualization can be seen as an attempt to read their mind and eyes to the upper level, the level of the nonintended design ideas into al-Salimiyya. He sees the mihrab, the level of reason, will not be in a position to building as a signifying instrument, pointing to a hidden see the concealed mystery in the spatiality of the com- truth lying beyond its formal confines. For him, the sig- plex. Their position amounts to imprisonment behind nificance of the form lies in revealing the fundamental the door of intentionality, in both the literal and the difference between two competing approaches to reli- metaphorical sense, as those who confine themselves to gious certainty, and through this difference he is able to the prayer hall are both visually and mentally isolated show—in visual and spatial terms—the truth of what by the doors of the hall. Seeing the shaykh’s tomb be- Ibn ʿArabi has stood for over the centuries. In this re- neath their feet, in a lowly status, can only be a reflection spect al-Nabulusi’s text is unique, as known architec- of their own low status “revealed through the dazzling tural treatises of that period were mainly narrative light” of Ibn ʿArabi’s presence. That is why such a person based and descriptive. Contrasting his spatial interpre- “would not understand anything of the truthful speech tations with the spatial descriptions of Ibn Tulun, for in the presence of truthfulness, mistakenly believing example, we can see the merit of al-Nabulusi’s theoriza- that the darkness of thoughts and souls is in fact the tion. lights of the bride’s presence. He is thus expelled from In Al-Qalāʾid al-Jawhariyya (The Pearly Necklaces), the house because he does not belong there, and every- thing returns to its origin.”60 Ibn Tulun gave an eyewitness account of the actual Al-Nabulusi relates intentionality to what he visual- making of Ibn ʿArabi’s complex. He provided a detailed izes as the “door of worship and prayer,” which is the description of the building—its context, form, spaces, real access to the complex. “Whosoever enters from the size, material, color, and texture—in addition to a de- door of worship and prayer by his own self, because of tailed chronicle of its construction. Elsewhere in the his negligence in witnessing his Lord in the traces of his same book, he also gave an account of the controversy reason and senses, he would be a polytheist without him over Ibn ʿArabi’s teachings among both the elite and the noticing,” al-Nabulusi writes, wondering “how would he public. Yet he did not discern any overlap between the expect to reach the highest palaces while his knowledge two domains of architectural forms and religious de- of the folks of God is inadequate?” By comparison, “he bates. In his historical documentations, architecture who enters the door of worship and prayer from the appeared, on one side, purely material and technical, right-hand sidewalk, he would humble himself before while religion appeared, on the other side, purely con- his Lord by descending along that clear pathway” to the ceptual and polemical. Such a separation was typical in garden of truth. “So understand, O jurist, what the intel- premodern Islamic literature, which explains the lim- ligent is alluding to,” al-Nabulusi calls, “and search with- ited scope of architectural theory in premodern Arab- in yourself, by which you are acting, and you will find Islamic literature. Bridging this divide and visualizing the mosque and the mihrab being removed from before crossings and overlaps between the two domains of ar- your eyes, and you will see the tomb of the shaykh … in chitecture and religion offer new epistemological pos- the high and near status, not in the status of lowliness sibilities, and new horizons of theoretical understanding. and concealment.”61 It is in these epistemological possibilities and horizons of understanding that architecture assumes new socio- religious and intellectual functions, and through them Conclusion it becomes invested with new meanings. This was the crux of al-Nabulusi’s treatise, in which he replaced By searching for a concealed mystery (sirr) in the siting, Ibn Tulun’s “technical eye” with his own “eye of reflec- access, and spatial arrangement of Ibn ʿArabi’s tomb, tion.” Through visual hermeneutics of concealment and AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 93

فً أ ق ف ة: l-ʿAsqalānī, Fatḥ al-Bārī, 1:514 disclosure, al-Nabulusi endeavored to take the mind on 7.A­ خ� ا ��ا ل��ه� ا ��ل �د �ل � ���ه��� �م ا �ل�ع�ا د �. ل ل ب ع وو � مع a reflective journey beyond the confines of materiality 8. From a certain Sufi perspective, the senses do not err into the wondrous realms of mystery and spirituality: because their mode of knowing is direct, involving no Surely Muhyiddin is the magnanimous imam, mediation. and among the fingers he is the thumb.62 9. Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kitāb al-Qabas, 1:361. 10. Ibid.: ذ ت ف آة ث ً ن ف ئ ن ق A finger of Truth among many extended و�ل���ي�� ا �ل�� �� �را ه �� ا �ل���مر� � �م���الا ب�� �ه و������� ا �ل���مر�� ب��ع�ي����ه؛ وا �ل�د ��لي� ا �ل����ا �ط ع��ل سأ ي آ ي ل سث ي ل ع آى .to the creatures, yet in this a conclusion was reached ذ ن � ة ت ن ف� غ ظ �ق ش ة ض ة � تق � ف�ت ن ن � ة � �ل�ك �� ا ل���مر� � � ك�و� �ي� ��ل��� ����ر� ا �ل�ب��ي������� � م�����اب��ل ب��ه�ا و ج��ه�ك ����د � و�م�� ا ل���مر� � Puzzling is everything that belongs to him, sciences and فت ن ف ت ذ ً ذ فت ف أ ن ن ��� � ا �ل�د � ����ه�ا، ����ت��ع�د �ع�ن��ه�ا � ا ع�ا � اع�� ن ��� � ا ��ل��ع�د ����ه�ا، م�ح�ا ل �� � ك� � ,self رى و ي� وب � ر و ر ي� رى ب أ ي� و ي و ذ ن � � ث ف� غ ظ �ق ش ض ة ف� ن ذ ت ن .and a tomb by which the minds were perplexed � �ل�ك ا �ل�د �و وا �لب��ع�د ا ل �ك �ي�ر �ي� ��ل��� ���� را �ل�ب��ي�������، �د ل ع��لى �� ا �ل�� �ي� ��د رك �إ����م�ا �هو ة ئ ,As is the Real in whom some have strayed �ح���ق����ق�� ا �ل���م � . ي ري� .while others were guided and became steadfast And so are all of the messengers, they are light 11. For the optics-based approach, see Ibn al-Haytham, Kitāb for some, and darkness for others. al-Manāẓir, ed. Abdelhamid Sabra (Kuwait: National So reflect O brother of enlightenment and be fair, Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, 1983). For the rational approach of philosophy, see Ibn Sina, Al-Shifāʾ: and contemplate when delusion spreads. Al-Tabīʾiyyāt, ed. Ibrahim Madkour (Cairo: Organisation His tomb is the very dust of yours, Générale Egyptienne, 1970); Ibn Rushd, Talkhīṣ Kitāb and in you, howsoever you are, he has a station. al-Ḥiss wa’l-Maḥsūs, ed. Henricus Blumberg (Cambridge, He has your soul, to which you have become Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1972). a shroud, and the preservatives are those words. 12. Samer Akkach, “The Poetics of Concealment: Al-Nabulusi’s When insights are healthy, they become Encounter with the Dome of the Rock,” Muqarnas 22 like mirrors, in which one’s intention looms. (November 2005): 110–27. But when they darken, every form of life 13. ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (d. 1731) was a Damascene Sufi becomes death among mankind, and that will be the who took it upon himself to achieve spiritual enlightenment. end.63 He kept up an intimate spiritual relationship with Ibn ʿArabi (d. 1240), although they were separated by five hundred years. Many considered him as the reincarnation Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture of the great master. Al-Nabulusi conducted teaching (­CAMEA), University of Adelaide sessions on Ibn ʿArabi’s works throughout his life, was a Adelaide, South Australia regular visitor to his tomb, and in his later years moved to al-Salihiyya to live in proximity to his complex. The house he constructed for himself, still extant today and functioning as a religious center, was only a short walk from Notes al-Salimiyya. About the same time, al-Nabulusi was given a teaching post at al-Salimiyya, where he taught Koranic 1.I bn al-ʿArabī, Kitāb al-Qabas fī Sharḥ Muwaṭṭa⁠ʾ Mālik ibn interpretation and other spiritual sciences. There, in an Anas (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1992), 1:360–61. unprecedented practice, he conducted a series of public 2. Quoted in ibid., 1:360. readings of Ibn ʿArabi’s major work, Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya 3. These ideas were referred to by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī in (The Meccan Revelations), causing much controversy and Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 13 vols. (Beirut: Dār religious unrest in Damascus. See Samer Akkach, ʿAbd al-Ma‘rifa, n.d.), 1:514–15. al-Ghani al-Nabulusi: Islam and the Enlightenment (Oxford: 4. Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kitāb al-Qabas, 1:360. Oneworld, 2007), 123–28. I am using two manuscript copies of this text from the .14 أ ئ :.Ibid .5 ن ً �خ ق � ف� ن �ق � ن ن � ئ ت Princeton University Library (Ms. 4617 and Ms. 295). The الإ� د را ك �م�ع�ى ي ���ل��ه ا ل��ل�ه �ي� ا �ل�ع�ي�� ع��لى �د ر �م�اير�ي�د �� �ي�ب���ص را�لرا �ي� �م�� ا ل���مر��ي�ا �. The Arabic word idrāk, from daraka, “to reach,” also means first is older and was copied shortly after the death of the “conceiving” and “cognition”; hence it applies to both sen- author in 1151 (1738); however, the second is more legible. sory and mental activities. References to folio numbers are based on the second (Ms. .(295 أ ن أ ةأ ن ة :l-ʿAsqalānī, Fatḥ al-Bārīً , 1:514 ةA .6 ل� ا �ل�حق �ع�ن��د ��ه� ا �ل�����س�ن��� � ا �ل ؤ��� لا ��ش��ت� ط ��له�ا �ع���ق� ا �ع�ض�� مخ���ص � لا �م���ق�ا ���ل�� The treatise has been published in Arabic and translated .15 �ق � ل � ر�ي ي ر � ل �و �و ص و ب into English: Ahmad al-Mizyadi, Al-Nūr al-Abhar fī’l-Difāʿ ولا �ر ب�. Al-ʿAsqalani concurs with Ibn al-ʿArabi that this story ʿan al-Shaykh al-Akbar (Cairo: Dār al-Dhikr, 2007), 397–404; expresses a breaking of natural order, revealing the Paul Fenton, “The Hidden Secret Concerning the Tomb Prophet’s extraordinary visual ability. of Ibn ʿArabī: A Treatise by ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī,” 94 SAMER AKKACH

Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 22 (1997): 25–40. Wahhabis were among the most zealous advocates against On the treatise, see also Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Sufi Visionary these practices. of Ottoman Damascus: ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī, 1641–1731 30. On the Kadizade movement, see Madeline Zilfi, “The (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005), 126–28. Kadizadelis: Discordant Revivalism in Seventeenth- 16. Ibn ʿArabi (d. 1240) is widely recognized as one of the Century Istanbul,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 45, 4 greatest mystics and most influential figures in the history (1986): 251–69. of Islam. Born in Murcia, Spain, he spent most of his life 31. This was a prolific year for al-Nabulusi, during which he traveling and finally chose to settle in Damascus, where wrote a wide range of works. he died at the age of seventy-eight. Ibn ʿArabi was a prolific 32. Ibn Ṭūlūn, Al-Qalāʾid al-Jawhariyya, 1:114–18. and controversial figure, with between four hundred and 33. This mechanical device is currently in a state of disrepair. five hundred works attributed to him. His influential ideas It has been documented in Ahmad Yusuf al-Hasan, Taqī swept over the entire Islamic world, forcing almost every al-Dīn wa’l-Handasa al-Mīkānīkiyya al-ʿArabiyya (Aleppo: religious authority of note over many generations to take Maʿhad al-Turāth al-ʿIlmī al-ʿArabī, 1976), 51–70. a position on his works. 34. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 316. This opening 17. Ibn ʿArabī, Al-Shajara al-Nuʿmāniyya al-Kubrā fī’l-Dawla poem summarizes al-Nabulusi’s interpretive approach, al-ʿUthmāniyya wa mā Yataʿallaq bihā min al-Ḥawādith showing that the debate around the spatial arrangements al-Kawniyya, Al-Ẓāhiriyya Library, Damascus, Ms. 8376, of al- Salimiyya was in essence a debate about two religious fol. 4. approaches to divine certainty: the path of the truth and 18. The treatise and its relation to the tomb construction have the path of the law. been discussed in Ryad Atlagh, “Paradox of a Mausoleum,” 35. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 316. trans. Cecilia Twinch, Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi 36. The concept of khawāṭir formed an integral part of pre- Society 22 (1997): 1–24. modern Islamic mystical psychology. See Samer Akkach, 19. Copies of these manuscripts are kept in the National Letters of a Sufi Scholar: ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (1641– Library of Damascus: Aḥmad al-Būnī, Ẓāhiriyya Ms. 7352; 1731) (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 99–104. Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, Ẓāhiriyya Ms. 6870; Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn 37. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 316. al-Ṣafadī, Ẓāhiriyya Ms. 4398. 38. See Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab al-Muḥīṭ (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2003), s.vv. “asarra” and “surur.” َأ َأ أَ ’See Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddima, 4th ed. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā .20 َ َّ ش ت ظ ن ض َ ْتُ ت ت ت و� ��سر ا �ل����ء: �ك�����م�ه و� ��هره، و�ه و�م�� ال� ���د ا د… ��سرر��ه: �ك�����م���ه، و��سرر��ه: .al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 341 َأ َْْ ي �ع��ل�ن�ت���ه. -See Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī, Al-Mawāʿiẓ wa’l-Iʿtibār bi .21 Dhikr al-Khiṭaṭ wa’l-Āthār (Cairo: Maktabat al-Ādāb, n.d.), 39. Al-Jurjānī, cited in Anwar Abi Khuzam, Muʿjam 1:196–97. al-Muṣṭalaḥāt al-Ṣūfiyya (Beirut: Maktabat Lubnān, 1993), 22. Ibid., 1:196. 98. 23. These details are from Ibn Ṭūlūn, Al-Qalāʾid al-Jawhariyya 40. See Ibn ʿArabī, Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ fī Tārīkh al-Ṣāliḥiyya, 2nd ed. (Damascus: Majmaʿ al-Lugha al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, n.d.), 2:468–69. al-ʿArabiyya, n.d.), 1:114–18. 41. Ibid., 2:521–22. 24. See n. 17 above. 42. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 316. 25. Quoted in al-Maqrīzī, Al-Mawāʿiẓ, 1:196–97. 43. Akkach, “Poetics of Concealment,” 110–27. 26. Ibn Tulun gave a detailed picture of this polarization 44. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 316. during his time. He reported that Ibn ʿArabi was revered 45. On the symbolism of the mountain and the cave in the by most of the Persians, all of the Turks, and some groups in Hindu tradition, see Réne Guénon, “The Mountain and the Damascus; however, he was opposed by “the majority of the Cave,” Studies in Comparative Religion 5, 2 (Spring 1971): Arab jurists [fuqahāʾ] and all of the hadith scholars.” Two 74–76. centuries after the construction of the complex, Damascus 46. On the symbolism of the heart and the cave, see Réne remained deeply polarized. An antimystical sentiment Guénon, “The Heart and the Cave,” Studies in Comparative ran high, and the official establishment dominated by the Religion 5, 1 (Winter 1971): 24–26. jurists was against Sufi teachings and practices. Ibn Ṭūlūn, 47. Abi Khuzam, Muʾjam, 144. Al-Qalāʾid al-Jawhariyya, 2:538. 48. Ibid. 27. Quoted in Fenton, “Hidden Secret,” 27–28. 49. Here he is referring to the Koranic verse: آ ْ ْ َ َ َأ َ ن �ه َ َة ذ ت ق َ ن ذ ت ق ض ن ة See Alexander Knysh, Ibn ʿArabī in the Later Islamic .28 “و�و�� �ا �م�ا �إ لى رب�و� � ا � �رار و�م�ع�ي��.” )50:23( � ا � �رار: �ر�� �م����ب���س��ط��، َ ي ٍ ِ ٍ ِ ٍ Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval �م�ع�� ن : ا �ل���م�ا ءُ ا �ل�ظ��ا �ه ا �ل��ا � . و ِيٍ� ر ج ر ي� ,Islam (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press 1999). The verse describes a flat land with visible running water. 29. I have discussed this in a recent publication, Samer Akkach, 50. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 316. Intimate Invocations: Al-Ghazzī’s Biography of ʿAbd al-Ghanī 51. Ibn ʿArabi’s preference for the empty hijr over the building al-Nābulusī (1641–1731) (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 5–14. Influenced of the Kaʿba points to a similar analogy. See Samer by the ideas of the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya, the Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam: AL-NABULUSI’S SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF IBN ʿARABI’S TOMB 95

An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State N uha N. N. Khoury, “The Mihrab Image: Commemorative University of New York Press, 2005), 188–93. Themes in Medieval Islamic Architecture,” Muqarnas 9 52. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fols. 318–19. (1992): 11–28. 53. Ibid., fol. 317. 59. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 317. 54. Ibid. 60. Ibid. 55. Ibid., fol. 319. 61. Ibid. 56. Ibid., fol. 317. 62. In Arabic, ibhām means both “thumb” and “ambiguity,” 57. Ibid., fol. 319. which in this context refers to Ibn ʿArabi’s being a unique 58. On the function and meaning of miḥrab, see Nuha figure, just like the thumb, who had been ambiguous and N. N. Khoury, “The Mihrab: From Text to Form,” Interna­ enigmatic to many. tion­al Journal of Middle East Studies 30, 1 (1998): 1–27; 63. Al-Nābulusī, Al-Sirr al-Mukhtabī, fol. 319.

Abstract

Upon his takeover of Damascus in 1516, Sultan Salim hurriedly commissioned the building of a religious com- plex over the grave of the celebrated thirteenth-century Andalusian Sufi master Ibn ʿArabi, an act that was and still is shrouded with mystery and intrigue. The complex was constructed on a steep site at three levels, compris- ing a mosque, a tomb chamber, and an external garden. For 160 years following its construction, the building itself played no role in the intensifying debates over Ibn ʿArabi’s controversial, yet influential, teachings. In 1678, however, ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, a passionate fol- lower and defender of Ibn ʿArabi, incorporated for the first time the architecture of the tomb in his multifac- eted polemics. In a treatise titled Al-Sirr al-mukhtabī fī ḍarīḥ ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Nabulusi presented a sophisti- cated spatial interpretation of this rather humble build- ing—its setting, design, and spatial layout—based on complex visual hermeneutics, according to which visi- ble and invisible reality interplayed to construct a unique understanding of the tomb’s spatiality. This es- say examines the sophisticated visual strategy with which al-Nabulusi interpreted the building to reveal its concealed mystery.

Key words

Ibn ʿArabi, al-Nabulusi, tomb, sirr, sacred architecture, Damascus, al-Ṣaliḥiyya, Qasiyun, Salim, Ottoman, spa- tial reflection, Ibn Tulun ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 97

Olga Bush

Entangled Gazes: The Polysemy of the New Great Mosque of Granada

On July 10, 2003, the Comunidad Islámica en España ­representative of the mayor’s office made appeasing re- (CIE, or Islamic Community in Spain)—founded and marks inflected by a particular historical perspective still largely composed of Spanish-born converts, not when he emphasized the need for “defending the values ­immigrants—inaugurated a mosque complex under of coexistence [convivencia] and tolerance,” citing the the name of the Great Mosque of Granada (al-Masjid Albayzín, the neighborhood where the new mosque was al-jāmiʿ bi-Gharnāṭa⁠). The complex includes an interior built, as an example of “perfect harmony” and a place of courtyard with an ablution fountain, leading to the fa- “cultural and religious encounter.”5 çade of the sanctuary; a minaret on the north and a gar- So if, as elsewhere, the recent wave of Muslim immi- den on the south of the upper portion of the site; and a gration and its xenophobic backlash certainly mark con- house for the imam and the Centro de Estudios Islámi- temporary Spain, the accounts of the inauguration, cos (Center for Islamic Studies) on the descending north whether conciliatory or inflammatory, extend the con- slope (figs. 1–3). Dignitaries from Muslim countries and text some five hundred years to an earlier period of Mus- delegates from European Muslim communities attend- lim presence unique in Western Europe. Whereas in ed the ceremony, along with the local, national, and in- general, mosques built in the twentieth century in Eu- ternational press.1 The construction of mosques in rope have perpetuated a postcolonial ideology through contemporary Europe and the United States is almost the use of “alien” or “adopted” forms, as Nebahat always a subject of controversy, but in Granada, the Avcıoğlu has cogently argued,6 the situation in Granada capital of the last Muslim kingdom in what is now Spain, is distinguished by the availability of prominent local the event took on a special cast. El País, the leading na- Islamic architectural models and a complicated history tional daily, reported that the CIE had succeeded “in in which Muslims are neither alien nor adopted in any obtaining … something that they did not have since the simple sense. time of Boabdil’s surrender of the city to the Catholic In Granada, then, the new building was “immediately Monarchs in 1492.”2 In an interview with Al-Ahram charged with heavy symbolic meaning,” constituting Weekly, an English-language paper published in Cairo, what Pierre Nora has theorized as a “lieu de mémoire,” members of the CIE also spoke of the “return of Islam to or memory-site: a point at which collective memory is Spain,” stating that the mosque would become “the cen- evoked to construct and maintain “the monumental tre for the revival of Islam in Europe.”3 Meanwhile, the edifice that was the nation.”7 Was the mosque to be a editorial page of ABC, a conservative national daily, reminder of an eight-century-long disruption in the con- echoing at once the notion of Islam’s surrender then and tinuous history of Christian Spain, or to represent the of its return now, asserted that fundamentalist doctrines alternative continuity of a hybrid identity? The oppos- would be taught at the mosque, concluding that “given ing views on the historiography of medieval Muslim our foolish complacency,” it would be no surprise “if one Spain expressed on the occasion of the inauguration re- day, not too far away, we’ll have to start a new Recon- call the terms of a debate initiated in the 1950s by Span- quest.”4 At the inauguration ceremony, however, a ish historians that has continued to influence the views

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P07 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 97-133 98 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 1. Great Mosque of Granada, courtyard and façade of the sanctuary. (Photo: Olga Bush)

Fig. 2. Great Mosque of Granada, garden of the mosque, looking northeast. (Photo: Olga Bush) ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 99

F ig. 3. Great Mosque of Granada, Center for Islamic Studies, façade. (Photo: Olga Bush) of intellectuals, politicians, and the public at large. On and object.11 Thus one needs to consider it not only as one side, Américo Castro embraced the hybridity of an object of the gaze—whether from the privileged Spanish ancestry and culture, highlighting the contribu- ­frontal position of the Christian majority or the margin- tion of the Muslim past to Spanish modernity, while alized, anamorphic perspective of Spain’s neo-Mus- Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz rejected the notion of the lims—but also as an alternative subject position of a “continuity” of the historical narrative of Spanish civili- distinct scopic regime. For the new mosque, as an agent zation, arguing that Muslim domination caused an ir- in the construction of viewership and an embodiment reparable “interruption” that lasted eight hundred of multiple, diverse relationships, is as much a place to years.8 These perspectives continue to be marshaled gaze from as to gaze at. The real battle was for the privi- today by all sides—the “Maurophiles,” the “Mauro- leged view from atop the Albayzín hill situated directly phobes,” and the Muslim community—transforming across from the Alhambra, the Nasrid palatial complex the discourse on Spain’s relation to its Muslim present on the opposing Sabika hill and Spain’s most-frequented into a debate about its Muslim past.9 Gil Anidjar argues tourist attraction (fig. 4). that as long as al-Andalus “has been hardened into a Abdulhasib Castiñeira, director of the new mosque, historiographical object,” the tendency to idealize the framed the debate in explicitly visual terms when he past—either as the glory of Muslim al-Andalus or the declared: “There is a garage-mosque and a basement- glory of Christian Reconquest—comes at the expense mosque. The Great Mosque of Granada is on top of the of the present.10 At the inauguration the gazes on the mountain, plainly visible, facing history, and in the past were entangled, and the present-day building faded place most visited in Granada.”12 His statement recalls from view. that the CIE, initially small in numbers and limited in To see the mosque anew requires a theory of the gaze funds, had previously worshipped in existing residential that goes beyond the customary opposition of subject or commercial spaces in the Albayzín. At the same time, 100 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 4. Alhambra, view from the minaret of the Great Mosque of Granada. (Photo: Olga Bush)

Fig. 5. Alhambra, view from the Mirador of the Church of San Nicolás. (Photo: Olga Bush) ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 101 he intimates a formerly clandestine character to the Foundation), a branch of city hall, features a view of the neo-Muslim presence. Now the community was to be Alhambra.13 Much less expected: it is the garden of the highly visible, with an institutional home that would be mosque that has been selected as the belvedere in the an architectural landmark. From there, “facing history,” photograph. Yet the accompanying text omits all men- meant, literally, facing the Alhambra. tion of the mosque, referring only to the general area of Yet a curious misrecognition in Castiñeira’s remark the Church of San Nicolás and so giving the misleading serves to locate more precisely the point of tension con- impression that the photograph represents the view cerning the site. The summit of the Albayzín is not the from the Mirador of San Nicolás. Thus mobilized, ac- “place most visited in Granada.” Castiñeira conflated commodated, or contested, the visuality of the new what one gazes at with where one gazes from, precisely mosque merges aesthetics with politics. because he was entangled in a neighboring gaze. The most-visited point from which to gain a sweeping pan- oramic view of the Alhambra is the Mirador of San Nico- THE SITE lás, a belvedere named for the adjacent Church of San Nicolás, which stands no more than some 18 meters (20 The mosque’s site at the summit of the Albayzín hill, yards) from the new Great Mosque of Granada (figs. 5 measuring more than 2,000 square meters,14 occupies a and 6). special place within the city’s topography and history. The battle was joined. As is to be expected, the home Archaeologists and historians consider the site to be the page of the website of the Fundación Albaicín (Albayzín point of origin of the city of Granada, dating back to the

F ig. 6. Albayzín, Granada, view from the Alhambra with the Church of San Nicolás and its Mirador, and the Great Mosque of Granada east (right) of the church. (Photo: Olga Bush) 102 OLGA BUSH

Oppidum Iliberri, an Ibero settlement of the second half or large private house with a garden).18 The barren land of the seventh century before the common era.15 Al- adjacent to the mosque’s site on the east in Vico’s image though continuously inhabited during the Roman pe- later served for the construction of the Convent of the riod, the next significant occupation of the site took Tomasas in 1676, one of many new convents founded in place during the eleventh century, when the city the seventeenth century that further changed the urban (madīna) of Gharnata was ruled by the Zirid dynasty fabric. The Convent of the Tomasas, which still func- (1013–90). A Zirid fortress, known as the old fortress (al- tions as such, was built on terrain that slopes steeply qaṣaba al-qadīma), incorporated the Roman settlement downward from the mosque’s site. and extended farther along the hill’s ridges (figs. 7 and Archaeological excavations have shown that part of 8). the site served as a cemetery shared by the Church of Under the rule of the Nasrid dynasty (1238–1492), the San Nicolás and the Church of San Salvador from the Albayzín hill comprised many neighborhoods, each early sixteenth century until the early nineteenth cen- with its mosques, communal ovens, wells, baths, mar- tury.19 A photograph of the Albayzín taken from the kets, and shops. The Albayzín was densely populated— Alhambra by Jean Laurent circa 1879–80 shows the site with thirty mosques, 14,000 houses, and a population of occupied by the thick vegetation of a garden and the 40,00016—until Granada’s fall in 1492 to the Christian high walls that delineate the property on the south and Monarchs (the Reyes Católicos, Ferdinand and Isabella) east sides.20 A house adjacent to the garden on the west and the subsequent exodus of the Muslim population. side can also be discerned in this image. From the end Further transformations took place after the Moris- of the nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth cos—the Muslims who remained in the city after the century, the site was a private property that changed Christian Reconquest and who, contravening the arti- hands several times; by then it comprised two houses cles of capitulation, were forcibly converted to Christi- and a large garden.21 A document from 1890 states that anity after a rebellion in 1500—were expelled from the the property belonged to Enrique Linares García, a deal- city and the Iberian Peninsula after another uprising in er in antiquities and an avid photographer of the Alham- 1568–71. New Christian residents repopulated the Al- bra. In 1911 he solicited a municipal permit for the bayzín, consolidating small Morisco properties into construction of a house that he wished to call Carmen large estates. Mosques were demolished or transformed de los Moriscos.22 The name he intended for his house into churches. is characteristic of that period, when some of the estates In the Plataforma de Ambrosio Vico (1611), one of the in the Albayzín were reconstructed as orientalist fanta- earliest graphic renditions of the Albayzín hill, several sies, adding another historical layer to the neighbor- houses, possibly of Nasrid or Morisco origin, are depict- hood’s character. Linares García planned to hire Ángel ed on or near the site (fig. 9). This image also shows the Casas Vílchez, an architect renowned for his public site’s proximity to the Church of San Salvador to the buildings in the center of Granada as well as for oriental- northeast and the Church of San Nicolás to the west, ist reconstructions in the Albayzín, such as Carmen de which was among the twenty-three mudéjar churches la Media Luna, which still stands. There is no evidence, begun in 1501 under Cardinal Pedro González de Men- however, that a house was erected on the site at that doza to accommodate the converted Moriscos. Like time. Nonetheless, during the 1950s the property had many others, it was built on the foundations of a demol- a house on it, documented as Carmen de los Moriscos ished mosque.17 The Church of San Salvador now stands when it passed to a new owner.23 More recently, an- on the site of the Great Mosque of the Albayzín, of which other prominent citizen, Manuel Sola Rodríguez-Bolí­ the Almohad patio is the only vestige. In his engraving, var, mayor of Granada from 1953 to 1968, owned this Ambrosio Vico also identified a Hospital of the Moriscos residence. close to the site of the new mosque. After the Expulsion, In 1981, when the CIE purchased the site from Rodrí- the hospital was given to the Order of Augustinos Des- guez-Bolívar’s son,24 much of the Albayzín was in a state calzos, which built a convent there (it is now a carmen, of abandonment. The CIE was not the only group to take ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 103

F ig. 7. Part of the defensive walls of the Zirid fortress known as the old fortress (al-qaṣaba al-qadīma) in the vicinity of the Great Mosque of Granada, near Plaza Larga, Albayzín, Granada. (Photo: Olga Bush)

F ig. 8. Defensive walls of the Zirid fortress on the western slope of the Albayzín, Granada. (Photo: Olga Bush) 104 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 9. Detail of Plataforma de Ambrosio Vico (1611), plan of Granada drawn by Ambrosio Vico and engraved by Francisco Heylan. The Church of San Nicolás is indicated with capital letter “T”; two adjoined houses that occupy the site of the future mosque stand east of the church’s apse. (After Juan Manuel Barrios Rozúa, Guía de la Granada desaparecida [Granada: Editorial Comares, 1999], fig. 16). advantage of the resulting low real estate prices. Many local residents, as it did in the medieval period (figs. 10 foreigners and some Spaniards from outside of Granada and 11). More than eighty houses constructed or rebuilt began to rehabilitate houses, attracted by the favorable by the Moriscos in the sixteenth century have been pre- market, the vista onto the Alhambra, and the opportu- served in the neighborhood,26 which in 2009 had 8,277 nity to create residences in a large urban quarter that residents.27 Medieval monuments, early modern had preserved its medieval layout.25 In 1994, UNESCO churches, and picturesque views of the city and of the declared the Albayzín a World Heritage Site. During the luxuriant, verdant gardens of cármenes terraced along second half of the 1990s, the international recognition the hillside bring visitors to explore the Albayzín. The of the neighborhood’s cultural significance became an Mirador of San Nicolás is the main tourist destination. impetus for a new surge in the rehabilitation of residen- From this belvedere, spectacular panoramic vistas open cies, often as rental properties to accommodate the onto the Alhambra, the city below, and the mountains swelling waves of tourists. Despite all the changes, the of the Sierra Nevada. In third place after the Alhambra Albayzín continues to be perceived and experienced by and the Cathedral of Granada with regard to the number visitors and inhabitants, and promoted by regional and of visitors, the Albayzín is a key historical, cultural, and, municipal cultural entities, as a unique living environ- therefore, economic asset to the city.28 ment in which medieval and early modern structures To evaluate the neighborhood’s potential for the continue to be inhabited. Indeed, public wells, though tourist industry, the Ayuntamiento de Granada (Mu- no longer in use, still punctuate the narrow streets, and nicipal Offices of Granada) undertook an exhaustive Plaza Larga continues to serve as an open-air market for study of the Albayzín’s urban plan culminating in a 1990 ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 105

F ig. 10. Aljibe (cistern), Plaza of San Salvador, Albayzín, Granada. (Photo: Olga Bush)

Fig. 11. Plaza Larga, Albayzín, Granada. (Photo: Olga Bush) 106 OLGA BUSH report titled “Plan Especial de Protección y Reforma In- such harmony was a vexed question in the multilayered terior” (PEPRI, or Special Plan for Protection and Inter- Albayzín. What type, and which tradition? Harmonize nal Reform), which became the foundation for all with what, or whom? further studies.29 One concern of the PEPRI, namely his- toric preservation, is of particular interest here. Accord- ing to this study, there were 2,560 buildings in the THE FORMATION OF THE NEO-MUSLIM Albayzín, of which 322 were recognized for their archi- ­COMMUNITY tectural or artistic value, or for their ambient value as examples of vernacular architecture; 42 percent of these To situate the underlying question of national identity, edifices predate 1920.30 A more recent comprehensive which intersects with Islam with a special urgency in the study of 2005 states: “Now is the moment to develop ini- twenty-first century, one must look back to a pivotal tiatives of recuperation or maintenance on behalf of moment in Spanish history in the last quarter of the pre- collective memory and of strategies of cultural manage- ceding century, namely, the death of Francisco Franco ment of available cultural resources to generate initia- in 1976. Toward the end of Franco’s dictatorship, a pro- tives for promotion of new cultural products that lend cess of democratization began that eventually brought themselves to consumption by Granadan tourism.”31 freedom of religion and speech, thus opening Spain to Among many historical narratives and their visualiza- cultural, religious, and political diversity. In Granada in tions, the “Moorish” past continues to be of great value, 1975, a small group of mostly left-leaning, university- both to regional institutions for cultural preservation educated young Spanish men, in search of both a spiri- and to regional political parties, for promoting the tual path distinct from Catholicism and a societal uniqueness of Andalusia and thus strengthening the model distinct from the capitalist West, gathered around tourist economy and giving Andalusia some leverage in Shaykh ʿAbdalqadir as-Sufi al-Murabit (the designation the competition for federal subsidies.32 al-Murābiṭ is derived from the name of the Almoravid The desire of the residents at large to share in the dynasty, which ruled Granada from 1088 to 1166).36 Born uniqueness of the past—whether appreciating the cul- in Scotland in 1930 as Ian Dallas, Shaykh ʿAbdalqadir ture that includes the figure of a “historic Moor” or in- as-Sufi al-Murabit converted to Islam in 1967 in Fez, Mo- strumentalizing it for the “consumption of the rocco, and came to be a charismatic leader and the ‘Arabness,’” to cite the terms of anthropologist Mikaela founder of the first modern Muslim communities in sev- Rogozen-Soltar33—does not extend to the present and eral cities of Andalusia. Under his leadership, that group to the presence of today’s Muslims. On the contrary, in of young Spaniards accepted Islam, forging a Sufi-lean- the context of recent, large-scale immigration from ing community of the Maliki school. Among the tenets North Africa, Moroccan immigrants are perceived as espoused by Shaykh ʿAbdalqadir as-Sufi al-Murabit and “the embodiment of the ghost of the medieval Moor.”34 his followers, known as Morabitunes (literally, People of Nevertheless, the impetus for the preservation of cul- the ribāṭ, or the Fortress), was the return of Islam to tural heritage, including important vestiges of the Mus- Spain.37 lim artistic past, prevails. In this process of revitalization, In that initial period of the formation of neo-Muslim and in conjunction with the UNESCO declaration, two communities in Spain, especially prior to Franco’s death important municipal laws were promulgated that would and immediately afterward, conversion to Islam was an govern the design of the new mosque. First, to obtain a act of dissent and political resistance to fascism and the city permit for construction, all properties in the Al- “ideology of the National Catholicism.”38 The neo-­ bayzín have to be excavated and archaeological finds Muslims espoused a commitment to religious and social thoroughly documented. Second, new buildings in the pluralism as a cornerstone of democratization, which Albayzín have to “harmonize [with the] typical or tradi- they grounded in a firmly held view that Islam brings tional character [of the neighborhood].”35 The excava- political reform in the name of equality and justice. tions of the site of the future mosque made clear that They also held an idealized vision of medieval ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 107 al-A­ ndalus as “an exceptional social experiment” in con- members of the CIE who relocated to Granada from vivencia, that is, peaceful coexistence, which, many other cities in the region; a commune of hippies, from continue to believe, could be undertaken once again.39 the mountains of the Alpujarras, that was receptive to The former position has been expressed through cross- the tenets of Islam; and a group that belonged to Shaykh cultural conferences, including an annual international ʿAbdalqadir as-Sufi al-Murabit’s al-Murabitun move- conference on Islamic feminism.40 The latter, in which ment.47 They tended to dress in djellabas and turbans, al-Andalus is viewed as a “recovered memory,” has led making themselves into the exoticized objects of the many neo-Muslims to speak, even now, of “reversion” gaze of their Christian neighbors, even if their places of instead of “conversion.”41 worship were inconspicuous.48 Islam generally ap- At the same time, spurred on by the resurgence of peared in the streets as disparate individuals rather than regionalism throughout Spain, many members of the as a constituted group with an institutional face. The socialist and communist parties, as well as liberal intel- non-Muslim residents generally identified the neo-Mus- lectuals, viewed conversion to Islam as the means to lims as “Sufis” and expected that, like the hippie com- recuperate collective Andalusian identity in their strug- munes, the “Sufi” community would be transitory, gle for regional autonomy, which had been suppressed leaving no lasting impact on the city.49 under Franco. Combining their political agenda and By the early 1980s the followers of the shaykh in their historical vision, neo-Muslims took a leading role Granada had already divided into several groups, with in the founding of new regionalist political organiza- separate masjids in existing buildings—the figurative, if tions. This regionalist movement had representative not literal, garage mosques and basement mosques of groups throughout Andalusia, such as Frente para la the Albayzín.50 Nevertheless, the visibility of the neo- Liberación de Andalucía (Front for the Liberation of Muslims began to grow when they started to move into Andalusia) and Jama⁠ʾa Islámica de Al-Andalus (Muslim the neighborhood of lower Albayzín known as Calde­ Community of al-Andalus), founded in 1978 and in 1980, rería. At that time, this area adjoining the center of the respectively, sometimes involving only neo-Muslims city was dilapidated, depopulated, and frequented by but often with the participation of non-Muslims.42 By drug addicts. The neo-Muslims began the rehabilitation 1989 fourteen Islamic associations joined to form the of Calderería, renovating houses and setting up shops Federación Española de Entidades Religiosas Islámicas there.51 With the increasing immigration of Muslims to (FEERI, or Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Enti- Spain in general and to Andalusia in particular, coming ties), and in 1992 FEERI merged with the Unión de Co- from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and especially Morocco, munidades Islámicas de España (Union of Islamic the visibility of Muslims could no longer remain periph- Communities of Spain), founded in 1990,43 to form the eral, either to the Christian neighbors in Granada or to Comisión Islámica de España (Islamic Commission of the tourists frequenting the new stores and tea shops of Spain), an institutional entity that could represent the the Calderería. Spanish Muslim community to the State.44 In the same It was the vision of Shaykh ʿAbdalqadir as-Sufi al- year, the Comisión Islámica de España signed an agree- Murabit to construct a new Great Mosque for the city, ment, “Acuerdo de Cooperación” (Accord for Coopera- and he facilitated the initial funding. Although the tion) with the Socialist government of Felipe González Spanish government has always provided financial sup- in which the legal rights of the Spanish Muslim com- port to the Catholic Church (including religious educa- munity were articulated.45 tion, social and charitable work, and artistic heritage While within two decades of their formation, the neo- within its 280 museums, 130 cathedrals, and nearly a Muslim communities of Spain had achieved a consoli- 1,000 monasteries and nunneries), Muslim communities dated representation at the national level, the same have been largely excluded from the state’s budget.52 period witnessed many local splits along religious and The one exception has been making Islamic instruction political lines.46 From the very outset the neo-Muslims available at public schools, articulated in the “Acuerdo of Granada comprised several groups, among them the de Cooperación” of 1992 but put into effect only in 108 OLGA BUSH

2005.53 So it was that the Morabitunes, a group that con- ­vanguard in the restoration of Islam in Western Europe. tinued to follow the shaykh,54 sought financial support What is more certain, however, is that from the time of for the building project from foreign governments and this very preliminary (and unrealized) design and individuals from abroad. The historical importance of through the many subsequent transformations, visual- Granada as a symbol of the last bastion of medieval ity was the field for making claims—and contesting Muslim power in Europe and of its flourishing cultural them—to a local genealogy for the Muslim community. achievements, emblematized by the Alhambra, reso- At this stage, the reminiscence of the ribāṭ recalls the nated globally then and now.55 Hence, aided by the Almohad reign in twelfth-century al-Andalus and, more shaykh’s connections, the Morabitunes were successful specifically, its manifestation in the Albayzín, where the in securing funds: first from Libya for the purchase of the minaret of the Almohad Masjid al-Ta⁠ʾibin (Mosque of land, and later from Morocco, Malaysia, and the United the Converts) still stands, having been incorporated into Arab Emirates for the construction of the mosque. Con- the Church of San Juan de los Reyes as a bell tower.58 stituted under the name Sociedad para el Retorno del The pertinence of the name of the Masjid al-Ta⁠ʾibin to a Islam en España (Society for the Return of Islam in new community of converts draws attention to Nora’s Spain), the Morabitunes purchased the site at the sum- assertion that “lieux de mémoire” combine material and mit of the Albayzín in 1981. By 1985 the group had taken nonmaterial elements.59 Hence, it has also been noted the less militant name Comunidad Islámica en España that the ribāṭ-like structure links the new architectural (CIE), and it had raised sufficient funds for the erection project to the oldest extant minaret in the Albayzín: the of the mosque and also for the purchase of another remains of the Zirid Masjid al-Murabitin (Mosque of the property in the Albayzín for the construction of a center People of the ribāṭ), likewise incorporated as a bell tow- for teaching and cultural activities. er into the Church of San José.60 The former minarets— significant visual markers in the lower part of the Albayzín—operated visually as material elements, DESIGNING THE MOSQUE while the names of these medieval mosques resonated with the CIE as a community of converts, many belong- As the CIE gathered sufficient strength and financial ing to the al-Murabitun movement (figs. 12 and 13). support to initiate the process of building a new mosque Another undated drawing (Design 2) shows the south at the summit of the Albayzín, a struggle erupted be- side of the site occupied by a large mosque, while on the tween Granada’s neo-Muslims and their neighbors. Vi- northern, downward slope of the site stands a complex suality was the crux of the conflict. While the height and of linked buildings organized around an open courtyard. volumes of buildings were at stake, the garden and the It is possible that a school, a cultural center, and a house minaret, the principal sites for gazing from and gazing for the imam were planned for some of these structures. at, respectively, became the focal points of controversy. The buildings’ volumes, simple geometric forms, and Design and redesign of the buildings and of these two flat roofing indicate a preference for modern forms (fig. elements in particular aimed at addressing the conten- 14). Despite the Modernist predilection, the imposing tious issues. masses of all of the structures, but especially of the Several early designs for the new mosque envisioned mosque and minaret, are evocative of the first Almohad- a building of imposing height and proportions.56 In one inspired design. The portico on the south side of the of the early undated drawings (which I am designating sanctuary and the minaret of impressive height and pro- Design 1), the mosque is conceived as a fortified enclo- portions here figure prominently at the edge of the high sure, reminiscent of a medieval ribāṭ, with its massive platform on the south side, facing the Alhambra. A mon- volumes projecting high above the surrounding land- umental, two-tower gate separates the mosque from the scape.57 One is tempted to conjecture that visuality here rest of the complex and gives entry to the school–cul- bespeaks social psychology or ideology, that is, a com- tural center and auxiliary buildings linked to it. This gate munal feeling of being a minority under siege or a is mirrored on the long axis by a massive two-tower ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 109

F ig. 12. Minaret, Masjid al-Ta⁠ʾibin (Mosque of the Converts) (Church of San Juan de los Reyes). (Photo: Olga Bush)

Fig. 13. Minaret, Masjid al-Murabitin (Mosque of the People of the ribāṭ) (Church of San José). (Photo: Olga Bush) 110 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 14. Drawing of the Great Mosque of Granada, Design 2, n.d. (Drawing: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

­façade that gives access to the school–cultural center As in the case of Design 2, it is noteworthy that White- from the street below the site and, hence, independent man placed the minaret at the south end of the site of the entrance to the mosque. (here at the southeast corner instead of southwest), Yet another early proposal (Design 3) was conceived closest to the Alhambra and also directly above the in 1982–83 by Ian Whiteman, a British convert to Islam steepest part of the south slope. The height and propor- who spent time in Granada in the early 1980s.61 The tions of the minaret were thus emphasized, visually drawings show the site with its buildings, courtyards, dominating the approach of visitors climbing toward and a garden enclosed by a wall (figs. 15 and 16). The the Church of San Nicolás and its Mirador. The sanctu- mosque is projected as a hypostyle building of irregular ary’s façade, situated on the north side, opens onto a plan, with aisles parallel to the qibla wall and with a square courtyard with a peristyle. On its north side the maqṣūra (lattice screen enclosing the area of the mihrab courtyard provides access to another building. A mina- and minbar in early mosques) delineated by its cupola. ret, similar to that of the mosque, albeit reduced in pro- The mosque’s exterior south wall, which gives access to portions, stands in close proximity to the east of the the sanctuary and faces the Alhambra, is framed by an second building. This second, smaller minaret suggests arcaded portico that transforms the wall of the building that the building was probably conceived as a madrasa into an exterior screen-façade, recalling a similar solu- for the community. The absence of a cultural center tion in the previous design. Here the portico extends from this design might be explained by the fact that the beyond the façade and links the mosque with the tall, community purchased another parcel of land elsewhere massive volume of the minaret. Whiteman’s design in the Albayzín for this very purpose. Hence the lower draws on visual references to the sanctuaries of the part of the site, as shown in the design, is occupied by a early Umayyad mosques. Nonetheless, the site’s irregu- large garden that extends down the north slope. lar configuration and the placement of the minaret in a In 1984, three members of the CIE, all architects by prominent position at some distance from the mosque training, with Manuel Pastor as the head of the group, necessitated a structure to link them—the portico. The offered what appears to be a new architectural proposal resulting overall design was rendered typologically and (Design 4) (figs. 17 and 18).62 Here the mosque occupies spatially incongruent with Umayyad models. the high ground on the south side of the site. The T-plan ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 111

F ig. 15. Ian Whiteman, axonometric drawing of the Great Mosque of Granada, Design 3, 1982–83. (Drawing: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

Fig. 16. Ian Whiteman, plan of the Great Mosque of Granada, Design 3, 1982–83. (Plan: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada) 112 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 17. Drawing of the Great Mosque of Granada, Design 4, 1984. (Drawing: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

Fig. 18. Plan of the Great Mosque of Granada, Design 4, 1984. (Plan: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arqui­ tectura, Granada) ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 113 hypostyle is marked by the elevated roofing over the None of these designs were presented to the Área de central nave and the qibla aisle, as well as over the bay Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento de Granada (Department of the mihrab, and is emphasized further by the project- of Urbanism of the City of Granada) for study and the ing portal of a monumental gate. Aligned with the mih­ eventual approval of a building permit, nor were they rab on the longitudinal axis of the building, the gate exhibited to the public at large. All thus represent the serves as the main entrance to the mosque. A courtyard internal search of the community for the expression of with a peristyle adjoining the sanctuary’s north side af- its identity. Although unfamiliar with those designs of fords an entrance to the sanctuary and to the rest of the the mosque complex, by 1984 political opposition to the complex. Although in this proposal the massive minaret project had been organized. The Asociación de los Veci- of formidable height is reminiscent of Almohad models nos del Albayzín (Association of the Neighbors of the and so, in this respect, echoes the earlier designs, its Albayzín) asked the Área de Urbanismo to rezone the placement drastically changes the overall conception of site and thus preclude the construction of the mosque. the complex. The minaret is located on the north side of It was the results of the excavations conducted on the the courtyard and is aligned with a pavilion-gate on the site in 1985 that brought the implicit battle of the gazes northwest side that serves as a secondary entrance to clearly into view. the site, providing access to the garden and auxiliary buildings on the northern, lower slope. The portico on the exterior of the sanctuary on the south side, similar THE BATTLE OF THE GAZES to that in Designs 2 and 3, articulates the mosque’s fa- çade that faces the Alhambra at a nearly even topo- Two crucial archaeological findings came to light in graphical level on the opposing hill, highlighting the 1985, both on the south side of the site, the area that now visual relationship between these sites. The minaret, corresponds to the space of the mosque’s public garden. towering over the buildings, clearly marks the division First, remains of an Ibero wall and material evidence of between the upper south slope with the mosque and the habitation (pottery and glass shards) from the same and downward north slope of the site. On the north side, later, Roman periods were uncovered on the west side much like in Design 2, a monumental two-tower gate of this area. Second, to the east vestiges of two large gives access to buildings organized around an open houses were found, one facing the Alhambra, the other space. Aside from a projected house for the imam, the adjoining the first on its north side.63 On the basis of the precise function of the buildings remains unclear, since north-south orientation of the houses, both organized a school and a cultural center were to be constructed around a central courtyard, and their construction ma- elsewhere. terials and techniques, scholars dated these buildings to In contrast to Design 3, this proposal underscores ty- the fifteenth or sixteenth century,64 which is to say that pological affinities not simply with the early medieval they are of Nasrid or Morisco origin. The prominence of mosque architecture of the Umayyads but specifically the site and the size of the houses suggest inhabitants of of the Umayyads of al-Andalus. The recollection of some high social status. The two sets of archaeological find- features of the Great Mosque of Córdoba inscribes the ings, Ibero-Roman and Nasrid-Morisco, were measured CIE in the historical narrative of al-Andalus as the right- and recorded.65 The question of which past should meet ful heirs of the Cordoban caliphate. Visually the design the gaze of the present at this site was now posed mate- controverts the chronological, (art-) historical continu- rially by the archaeological evidence. um by situating the new mosque as a structure in a his- In the charged atmosphere of continuing struggle tory that predates the palaces and oratories of the over the site’s zoning,66 and having depleted its funds Alhambra. Ideologically, this architectural narrative al- due to the expense of an obligatory excavation cam- lows the CIE’s disassociation from the Nasrids, the last, paign, the CIE found itself obliged to sell a property else- defeated dynasty of al-Andalus. where in the Albayzín that had been purchased for the 114 OLGA BUSH construction of a school and a cultural center. A long estates, similar to the open space of the Mirador of San hiatus in the project then ensued. Nicolás. In 1991, the CIE contracted a renowned Granadan ar- The change in the location and dimensions of the chitect, Renato Ramírez Sánchez, whose local knowl- garden in Ramírez Sánchez’s 1991 design proved wel- edge and standing would prove crucial in negotiating come to the city, which had stipulated the creation of a the legal terrain. Having also raised funds depleted by space “equivalent in proportions to that of the Plaza of the 1985 excavations, the CIE was ready to move for- San Nicolás” (that is, of the mirador) and “with ample ward. Ramírez Sánchez rejected all earlier proposals, vistas” onto the Alhambra, hence a garden-mirador that explaining to the CIE that they were out of keeping with could be a benefit to the whole neighborhood and its the character of the Albayzín and would never be ap- tourists.68 A plan to include gardens with “free public proved by the city.67 He had the advantage of a clear access” was unanimously ratified by the governing point of reference with regard to the urban design in the board of the CIE on June 9, 1994.69 However, the minaret neighborhood articulated in the PEPRI-Albayzín, which became the focal point of great contention when the had been adopted in the city in 1990. Instead, he con- design was presented to the public in 1993 as part of ceived a mosque of less imposing proportions, on a rect- Ramírez Sánchez’s “Estudio de Detalle” (Detailed Study), angular plan, with roofing that articulated the qibla wall which set the specific features of the buildings within and the aisles perpendicular to it, and with a pitched the outlines of the urban plan of the Albayzín, as deter- roof over the projecting mihrab (figs. 19 and 20). mined by the PEPRI. In this design, despite its place- Architectural style was not the only concern for ment, the structure of the minaret soared over the compact volume of the mosque and the whole site of the Ramírez Sánchez. He envisioned a different relationship complex. More significantly, its immediate proximity to among the elements of the complex, with a view both the Church of San Nicolás was taken as a visual chal- to the historical Albayzín and to contemporary political lenge. Anticipating concern about the relative heights sensitivities. First, he moved the minaret of the mosque of the minaret and the bell tower of San Nicolás, Ramírez from its prominent position in the earlier designs at the Sánchez had included a drawing comparing the two and south end of the site, facing the Alhambra and looming demonstrating that the volumes of the mosque, includ- over the main access to the Mirador of San Nicolás, to ing the height of the minaret, were substantially smaller the back—that is, the northern end of the site—and than those of the church (fig. 21). That demonstration aligned it with the oratory’s longitudinal axis. In its new proved insufficient. location, the lower part of the minaret is concealed be- Further word needs to be said about the context of hind the volume of the mosque, diminishing the visual public debate. A series of major cultural events made impression of its height. Second, he moved an expanded 1992 “Spain’s Year”: the quincentennial commemoration garden to the south end of the site (the cultural center of the Reconquest of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs remained on the northern, downward slope). In con- and of Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas; the trast, Designs 2 and 3 had a carefully laid-out garden on World Expo in Seville; the Olympic Games in Barcelona; the lower, north side. In those earlier designs, the inte- and the signing of the Maastricht Treaty on the forma- rior gardens embedded within the mosque enclosure tion of the European Union with the designation of Ma- harmonized with one history of the Albayzín, that is, drid as Cultural Capital of Europe.70 These events were with the Nasrid and Morisco garden typology that con- largely intended to recognize Spain’s emergence as a tinued through the modern period and is still seen in democratic European nation and its foundational role some private homes in the Albayzín. The interior gar- in European modernity. These two points intersected dens, however, were discordant with another history, with the reexamination of Spain’s medieval history— that of nineteenth- and twentieth-century orientalism, and of course its relationship with its former colonies, in which the Alhambra was made the object of the ex- which is less pertinent to the present discussion. Spain oticizing gaze from a belvedere-like garden of private vigorously promoted the vision of convivencia, and ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 115

F ig. 19. Renato Ramírez Sánchez, plan of the complex of the Great Mosque of Granada, 1991. (Plan: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

Fig. 20. Renato Ramírez Sánchez, elevations of the Great Mosque of Granada: top, west elevation of the Center for Islamic Studies and of the mosque; bottom, south elevation of the mosque with a partial elevation of the southeast end of the Church of San Nicolás, 1991. (Elevations: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada) 116 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 21. Renato Ramírez Sánchez, drawing of the Church of San Nicolás and the Great Mosque of Granada, comparing their south elevations. (Drawing: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

­various initiatives focused on Muslim and Jewish heri- R­ efundido de la Ley del Suelo (Revised Law of Land Us- tage as a platform for tolerance in the present. For in- age) of June 26, 1992, which stipulates: “Constructions in stance, a major exhibition, Al-Andalus: The Art of places adjacent to or forming part of a group of buildings Islamic Spain, was presented by the Alhambra and the of artistic, historical, and archeological character, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Centro whether vernacular or traditional, will have to harmo- Cultural Islámico (Islamic Cultural Center) was inaugu- nize with the same.”73 rated by King Juan Carlos in Madrid; and the edict expel- It was in this climate that debate about the mosque, ling the Jews from Spain was formally rescinded by the focusing on the minaret, became the stuff of daily news king. Nevertheless, the Christian Reconquest completed in Granada.74 The local newspaper, Ideal, reported that in 1492 was also commemorated amid growing social nearly two hundred neighbors, led by the Asociación de opposition to the rapidly increasing immigration of Vecinos del Albayzín, gathered at the first public meet- North Africans. Thus while on the national level the Sep- ing to discuss Ramírez Sánchez’s “Estudio de Detalle.” hardic Diaspora was celebrated in Madrid’s synagogue Recalling the language of the Refundido de la Ley del and in Toledo,71 Granada continued to hold an annual Suelo, they objected on the grounds that “the tradition- citywide festival on January 2, El Día de la Toma (The al environment of the Albayzín neighborhood had to be Day of the Taking), marking the date when the Nasrid maintained and protected” and that the mosque “would capital was taken by the victorious Catholic Monarchs.72 radically change the sociocultural environment of the The heightened awareness of the history of Granada San Nicolás belvedere.”75 Their position was expressed, that informed the reaction of the public to the mosque in part, as an architectural critique. In the course of was articulated explicitly in terms of visuality in the the formal process of public commentary, one of the ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 117

­allegations stated that the type of the minaret “breaks upon the emblem of the conquered and converted peo- with the profile of the neighborhood.”76 But this objec- ple (see fig. 5). Moreover, those looking back from the tion was easily overturned. As the lawyer for the CIE Alhambra inevitably sought the bell tower to orient pointed out in later court proceedings, “The base, the their gaze at the once Muslim quarter of the Albayzín height and the volumetric form [of the minaret] are (see fig. 6). As a memory-site, the area around San Nico- similar to the tower of the Church of San José, except lás stood for the enduring supremacy of the Christian for, logically, the addition for the bells”77—that is, the Reconquest. former minaret of the Masjid al-Murabitin in the lower In more recent history—indeed, within living mem- Albayzín. ory—this area became emblematic of the reaffirmation The greater obstacle had deeper roots than the ques- of Catholicism. San Nicolás was one of many churches tion of architectural style. When the Asociación de Veci- in the Albayzín and elsewhere in the city that were bad- nos spoke of the need for “protection,” it implied that ly damaged in anticlerical violence during the Second the neighborhood was under attack, and at times it said Spanish Republic (1931–36). A fire set to the building in so overtly: “If we allow this, they [Muslims] will end up August 1932 consumed the ceiling of artesonado (as- taking the city.”78 Similar remarks have been voiced sembled of numerous wooden elements cut in geomet- publically time and again in Spain, equating Muslims ric shapes) and the interior decoration but left the with immigration, immigration with a rise in crime, and exterior walls and the bell tower standing.82 Two reli- Islam and its believers with terrorism, especially after gious institutions within the immediate vicinity of the Church of San Nicolás, the Convent of the Tomasas and the 2004 bombing in Madrid.79 In the immediate con- the Church of San Salvador, sustained severe damage in text of the discussion of Ramírez Sánchez’s design, the 1933 and 1936, respectively.83 In 1936, in an article titled potential attack was characterized by the Asociación de “The Albayzín Is Christianized,” Ideal reported on mu- Vecinos as “radical change” and its target was what they nicipal efforts to restore the religious patrimony— called the “tradition”80—the one-and-only tradition of churches, convents, and stone crosses placed near their Catholic Spain, not the reconstructed hybridity of me- façades, all dating to the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- dieval al-Andalus. For the Christian residents, that tradi- turies—in the “red neighborhood” of Granada of the tion had been shaped by parochial education and recent past.84 The efforts were stalled by the Civil War embodied in the collective memory of the neighbor- (1936–39) but resumed shortly thereafter, and by the hood as the public settings for processions and other end of the 1940 many churches had been restored.85 In religious festivities.81 It needs be emphasized that the addition to the Church of San Nicolás, the freestanding objection of the Asociación de Vecinos to the mosque stone cross in front of its façade and a medieval aljibe project was not expressed as opposition to the demo- (cistern) nearby were restored, creating an ensemble of cratic principle of the freedom of religion for Spain’s distinct structures of historical significance in which the Muslims. The issue was the perception and use of public Muslim past was included but as a decidedly minor ele- space, or what it called the “sociocultural environment” ment (fig. 22). The same location became the example, of the mirador. This last term is crucial, for the mosque par excellence, of a project to create public spaces with is not strictly speaking a public space, but in referring to panoramic views of the Alhambra and the city below.86 the belvedere, the Asociación de Vecinos was clearly In addition to the Mirador of San Nicolás, belvederes thinking of the summit of the Albayzín as a public view- were constructed at other key locations of the Albayzín, ing point. including the Mirador of San Cristóbal, with its church The tradition to be protected was the Christian gaze. and large, freestanding cross on the west side of the crest The height of the bell tower of San Nicolás had defined of the hill. The crosses mark these privileged viewpoints a Christian regime of visuality for half a millennium. As as the subject position of a Christian gaze, triumphant the highest point in the Albayzín, the bell tower embod- over Republican “reds” and medieval Muslims alike. ied the privileged gaze at the Alhambra from a Christian Some fifty years later, the controversy over the poli- vantage point looking down figuratively, if not literally, tics of the gaze—both at and from—was captured in 118 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 22. Area of the Mirador of San Nicolás: Church of San Nicolás, its Mirador, and the freestanding stone cross, Albayzín, Granada. (Photo: Olga Bush)

Ideal, which cited the negative impact on the view of the a full-scale model of the whole mosque complex (an ob- Churches of San Nicolás and of San Salvador and the jection upheld by the court): “The full-scale reproduc- neighbors’ right to panoramic views of the Alhambra.87 tion of the totality, not only of the Mosque, but also of Eventually the matter was resolved not only by address- the Cultural Center, as opponents demand, would not ing the height of the buildings but also by excavation only have been unjust, but also unnecessary, since the that lowered the terrain at the summit of the mosque’s graphic documentation is more than sufficient for qual- site by 1.5–2.0 meters (between 5 and 6 1/2 feet).88 The ified persons … to decide.” In the case of the minaret, excavation had the correlative effect of reducing the however, the full-scale model was in fact built at the level of the platform of the mosque complex, including CIE’s expense, so that the divided public at large and not the minaret, to that of the base of the Church of San only those “who have the competence to decide”89 Nicolás. could join the battle of the gaze (figs. 23 and 24). City In that light, the visual impact of the minaret was residents and officials took to inspecting the model from deemed so crucial that the city government made its many locations throughout Granada, and especially approval of the “Estudio de Detalle” contingent upon a from the Alhambra,90 with photographs appearing in most unusual measure. The CIE was required to erect a many publications. In the course of the ensuing debate, full-scale model of the minaret in situ. As the lawyer for Ramírez Sánchez submitted a “Proyecto Básico” (Basic the CIE would later argue before the Tribunal Superior Project), the stage in the process of review that follows de Justicia de Andalucía (Superior Court of Justice of upon the “Estudio de Detalle,” in January 1994. Upon Andalusia) in opposing a similar call for the building of review the following month, the Servicio Técnico ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 119

F ig. 23. Full-scale model of the minaret for the Great Mosque of Granada under construction. (Photo: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

Fig. 24. Completed full-scale model of the minaret for the Great Mosque of Granada, to the east (right) of the Church of San Nicolás. (Photo: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada) 120 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 25. Renato Ramírez Sánchez, plan of the complex of the Great Mosque of Granada, 1994. (Plan: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

M­ unicipal del Área de Urbanismo (Municipal Technical presented on May 27, 1994, and approved by the Servicio Service of the Department of Urbanism) demanded Técnico on July 12, 1994.92 On this basis, the Ayunta- changes in the heights and volumes of the buildings.91 miento finally granted the Licencia Urbanística, or Ramírez Sánchez complied, of course, revising the building permit, to the CIE on November 18, 1994.93 “Proyecto Básico” and considerably changing his design. The elevation of the minaret was altered and its height was reduced (fig. 25). Moreover, the sanctuary’s height, WHAT MEETS THE EYE its roofing, and its plan were redrawn (figs. 26 and 27). Although articulated as a one-nave interior space, the Even so, the battle of the gaze continued and construc- sanctuary has roofs of varying heights to accommodate tion did not yet begin. On one side, thousands of signa- the women’s gallery along the upper part of the west tures had been gathered on petitions throughout the wall. The architect also proposed a pergola that would city in support of the mosque in 1994.94 On the other extend from the mosque’s south wall through the entire side, certain local cultural institutions, such as Granada garden. This semipermanent structure not only physi- Histórica y Cultural (Historical and Cultural Granada), cally linked the mosque with the garden, visually enlarg- lent support to the opposition by reiterating a concern ing the building beyond the perimeter of its walls, but with regard to the urban environment and cultural am- also extended the sight lines along the axis of the sanctu- bience or, once again, the “tradition.”95 And in January ary across the garden to the Alhambra, emphasizing 1995 the Real Academia de Bellas Artes Nuestra Señora that the privileged subject position to gaze from is that de las Angustias (Our Lady of Sorrows Royal Academy of the Muslim community in its exclusive ritual space. of Fine Arts) brought legal action against the CIE—and It also shows that the lower, north slope, similarly to his the city government—in an attempt to annul the build- design of 1991, was to be occupied by the Center for Is- ing permit.96 Then, when a new archaeological cam- lamic Studies, a house for the imam, and a courtyard paign began in January 1995, the question of which past that separated these buildings. The revised “Proyecto the mosque must harmonize with resurfaced. Básico” was accepted, allowing Ramírez Sánchez to pro- It is worth recalling that the excavations of 1985 on ceed to the “Proyecto de Ejecución” (Execution Project), the south side of the site remained exposed for a decade. ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 121

F ig. 26. Renato Ramírez Sánchez, drawing of the Great Mosque of Granada, comparing west and south elevations, designs of 1991 and 1994. (Drawings: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada)

Fig. 27. Renato Ramírez Sánchez, plan of the Great Mosque of Granada, 1994. (Plan: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada) 122 OLGA BUSH

The new archaeological team, working on behalf of the past should be preserved, the Ibero on the north side, or city, found the results of the 1985 excavations inade- the Nasrid-Morisco on the south side, or both, or nei- quate: “The information extracted from archaeological ther? activity ought to be qualified as poor” because, the new The city government proposed a solution, suggesting report declared, “the chronological period best docu- that the CIE relocate the mosque complex to the out- mented is the Islamic.”97 In light of the Proyecto de Ar- skirts of Granada.99 The neo-Muslim community re- queología Urbana de Granada (Project of Urban jected that literal marginalization, claiming its “right to Archaeology of Granada), initiated in 1994 and estab- the city.”100 Hence, upon the archaeologists’ recommen- lishing clear criteria for the interpretation of archaeo- dation, the Área de Urbanismo and an office for histori- logical data and the articulation of hypotheses for cal preservation stipulated that the CIE was allowed to further investigations, a different approach was pro- proceed with the building project on the condition that posed for the new excavations. Since during the preced- a portion of the Ibero wall be conserved in situ and left ing decade few structural vestiges that could be dated to accessible for viewing. The remainder of the wall had to the Ibero period were uncovered elsewhere in the Al- be interred in a space free of construction. To comply, bayzín and the remains of the Ibero wall had been found the architect was required to relocate the footprint of on the site of the future mosque, the archaeologists pro- the mosque 4 meters (13 feet) to the south.101 The pres- posed extensive excavations on the site. Thus the new ervation of a small triangular area wherein some ves- campaign, financed jointly by the city and the CIE, tiges would remain accessible also diminished the moved farther north to the area where the Zirid wall of overall area for potential construction. the al-qaṣaba al-qadīma was (and remains) plainly vis- Curiously, in the final design, and hence, at present, ible east of the site. It was presumed that the wall once the portion of the Ibero wall is not visible from any pub- cut across this parcel of land, but the goal of the new lic space; the public can access it only through the Cen- campaign was not the unearthing of further Zirid re- tro de Estudios Islámicos. There are no signs on nearby mains. Rather, in the understanding that the early Mus- streets directing tourists to the view of the wall, nor is lim walls would have been built atop or near there much information in tourist literature about this Ibero-Roman constructions, this latter evidence was the material evidence of the origins of the city. It is an all but new goal. inevitable inference, therefore, that the decision to pre- Indeed, the new excavations uncovered the vestiges serve the wall served an ideological, rather then an ar- of Ibero walls and structures of unprecedented dimen- chaeological, need to frame the Muslim heritage and sions and in an unparalleled state of preservation.98 The present-day use of the site within an older, non-Islamic uncovered Ibero wall measured 5–7.5 meters (16 feet history. This particular construction of visuality—what and 5 inches to 24 feet and 7 inches) in width, 30 meters shall be seen and what invisible? what consigned to the (98 feet and 5 inches) in length and more than 4 meters historical archive and what forms an intentional mem- (13 feet) in height. Taking into consideration the topog- ory-site?—reinforced a certain narrative of national raphy of the site, the location of the wall at the crest of identity. the hill, the construction techniques and materials, and The opposite decision was made with regard to the the lack of domestic structures there, it was concluded Islamic constructions on the site. The vestiges of the that the wall belonged to the fortified enclosure of the Nasrid-Morisco houses that were unearthed in 1985 Ibero Oppidum Iliberri. In addition to material culture were reinterred under the present-day garden.102 The from Ibero and Roman periods, a small portion of the archaeological justification was clear. By 1995, rigorous channel of an aqueduct that belonged to the Roman efforts of architectural historians and architects under settlement and the remains of a Zirid wall were uncov- the leadership of Antonio Almagro Gorbea and Antonio ered. Because the mosque complex could not be made Orihuela Uzal of the Escuela de Estudios Árabes in to fit between the excavation areas on the north and Granada (School of Arabic Studies, a branch of the na- south sides of the site, a decision was called for: Which tional research institution, the Consejo Superior de ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 123

­Investigaciones Científicas, or Higher Council of Scien- In Ramírez Sánchez’s definitive design the pergola in tific Research) were under way to identify and rehabili- the garden was eliminated. With the exception of the tate houses constructed or rebuilt by the Moriscos in the minaret and signage in Spanish and Arabic identifying sixteenth century in the Albayzín. Over the course of the building as a mosque, the resulting complex is a de- two decades, more than eighty houses were identified, liberately unassuming architectural contribution much and nearly half of them were rehabilitated; all but three in harmony with the character of the Albayzín. It is a are privately owned.103 The preservation of the founda- building of modest proportions with a whitewashed ex- tion walls of the Nasrid-Morisco houses on the site terior, and, like many of the nearby cármenes, it is sur- would have added little to the Islamic cultural heritage rounded by a wall of medium height, although with of the city. Likewise, the Zirid remains uncovered in the openings that allow the garden to be seen from the ad- excavations of 1995 were insignificant alongside the joining streets (figs. 28 and 29). Unlike the private well-preserved expanse of the same Zirid wall on the cármenes, however, and in keeping with the agreement west side of the Albayzín and its gates and towers with- between the CIE and the city, the garden of the mosque in close proximity to the site of the mosque, all standing is open to the public, which is also invited to cultural in plain view. events staged there under the sponsorship of the neo- Even so, the acquiescence of the CIE in the definitive Muslim community. The Centro de Estudios Islámicos, reinterment of the Nasrid-Morisco archaeological evi- dedicated to teaching and cultural activities and open dence calls for further comment. “Facing history,” in the to “all interested parties,” as indicated on the mosque’s words of Castiñeira at the time of the inauguration of website,107 can be accessed independently of the the mosque,104 did not mean simply gazing at the hard- mosque’s enclosure from a façade on the Calle de los ened historiographical object of Anidjar’s admonition, Hornos, a street below the CIE property (see fig. 3). but rather taking up a subject position in the present in If the exterior aspect of the mosque was the result of relation to that history. a protracted battle of the gaze embedded in preexisting historical, political, and cultural narratives, activated, challenged, and adapted by the building’s design, the BUILDING THE PRESENT, FACING THE FUTURE appearance of the interior of the mosque was never an issue for public discussion. Whatever fears the public The excavations were completed in February 1995, but may have harbored with regard to the activities inside the outcome of the legal action initiated by the Real the mosque complex, the sanctuary, as ritual space, was Academia de Bellas Artes was still pending. Neverthe- shielded from the public gaze. Visitors can make their less, in 1996, a defiant CIE laid the ceremonial stone of way through a covered passage that leads from the pub- the qibla wall on the site. Foreign dignitaries from the lic garden into the courtyard of the mosque with its ab- Middle East—many of them sponsors of the project— lution fountain, and they can glimpse the sanctuary were in attendance, raising the profile of the story of the from the doorway except during daily prayers, but entry fifteen years of delay and catapulting the CIE and the into the sanctuary proper is normally prohibited to non- mosque project to the center of local, regional, national, Muslims.108 and international attention once again. The Tribunal The sanctuary presents a unified space: the mihrab is Superior de Justicia de Andalucía ruled in favor of the situated on the short axis opposite the entrance and the city government and the CIE on June 12, 2000, removing women’s gallery above the doorway; double glass doors the last legal obstacle, and construction of the mosque stand on the long axis on the south wall, opening onto commenced in 2001.105 When the new mosque complex the garden (fig. 30). The decoration of the sanctuary, was finally inaugurated in 2003,106 the sense of the com- designed by Karim Viudes, an artist and a member of the munity’s accomplishment resonated far and wide in CIE, functions as a Muslim memory-site, for here the Spain and among Muslim communities around the gaze of the community is not entangled with that of its world. often oppositional neighbors. The decoration of the 124 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 28. Renato Ramírez Sánchez, final design of the Great Mosque of Granada, west elevation. The drawing on the top shows additional alterations to the wall of the garden. (Drawings: courtesy of Renato Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arqui- tectura, Granada)

Fig. 29. Great Mosque of Granada, exterior, view from the west. (Photo: Olga Bush) ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 125

F ig. 30. Great Mosque of Granada, sanctuary, interior, looking south. (Photo: Olga Bush)

­mihrab refers to the Great Mosque of Córdoba (fig. 31), of the expelled Moriscos. While some Spanish converts and the marble veneer used on the qibla wall offers an think that their family traditions confirm their Morisco analogy to that of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, thus ancestry, others who immigrated to Granada from Mo- recalling crucial buildings in the early history of the rocco assert that their family originated in al-Andalus.109 Umayyads and so claiming a place in the legacy of the At the same time, when numerous Moroccan descen- dynasty at the height of its power. Yet the wood paneling dants of the exiled Moriscos are denied entry to Spain,110 of the qibla was made from cedar from the Atlas Moun- the neo-Muslims might be viewed ideologically and tains, and the ceramic tile mosaic in the ablution foun- symbolically as virtual “returnees.” As a married neo- tain in the courtyard was crafted by artisans from Fez Muslim couple in the Albayzín sums up the situation: (fig. 32). These Moroccan references may well recollect “We are old Moors and new Muslims.”111 Thus the inte- the Nasrid-Marinid (that is, Iberian–North African) con- rior of the mosque inscribes the neo-Muslim commu- nection of the past, but also—and this is crucial—bring nity not only into the trajectory from the early Umayyad the present into view. to the last, Nasrid dynasty, but also from the history of Beyond the arts, profound ties link today’s Spanish al-Andalus to its contemporary connections to Mo­ neo-Muslim and Moroccan communities: to date, the rocco. imams of the new mosque have been Moroccan; many The mosque has become the focal point in the visual of the neo-Muslims have Moroccan spouses; Morocco is field of the determination of the neo-Muslim commu- a destination for the community’s spiritual and educa- nity of Granada to live Spanish lives, as a continuation tional trips; the ruling house of Morocco had a chief role of, rather than relegated to, the history of al-Andalus. in financing the construction; and the largest Muslim Anidjar has argued that as long as al-Andalus is “the immigrant group in Spain is from Morocco. Even more name of a lost world, the absence of place and the loss significant is the neo-Muslims’ perceptions of them- of context,” in the perception of tourists, scholars, and selves as the spiritual and even biological descendants the people of Granada, we will be continually “exporting 126 OLGA BUSH

F ig. 31. Great Mosque of Granada, sanctuary, qibla wall. (Photo: Olga Bush)

Fig. 32. Great Mosque of Granada, courtyard, ablution fountain. (Photo: Olga Bush) ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 127

F ig. 33. Alhambra, view from the garden of the Great Mosque of Granada. (Photo: Olga Bush)

Fig. 34. Great Mosque of Granada, view from the Alhambra. (Photo: Olga Bush) 128 OLGA BUSH to the past that which is still living, even if under impos- 5. Álvaro Calleja, “Granada inaugura la mayor mezquita de sible conditions.”112 Al-Masjid al-jamiʿ bi-Gharnata has Europa cinco siglos después de la expulsión musulmana,” ABC, November 7, 2003, http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/ enabled the congregation, its neighbors, and its visitors historico-11-07-2003/abc/Sociedad/granada-inaugura-la- to envision new possibilities, now that the Alhambra, mayor-mezquita-de-europa-cinco-siglos-despues-de-la- reconstructed as the object of the gaze from the sanctu- expulsion-musulmana_194025.html (accessed July 12, 2012). ary and its adjoining public garden, is also a subject po- 6. Nebahat Avcıoğlu, “Identity-as-Form: The Mosque in the West,” Cultural Analysis 6 (2007): 97. Avcıoğlu’s incisive sition from which to gaze at a living Muslim community contribution also serves as a critical introduction to the made visible in its mosque (figs. 33 and 34). When mem- vast body of scholarship on mosques built in Europe and bers of that community say, in the present tense, “We the United States in the twentieth century and into the are al-Andalus,”113 they articulate that reciprocal gaze: present. For an overview of several new mosques built in Spain, see Jennifer Roberson, “Visions of al-Andalus facing the past, facing the future. in Twentieth-Century Spanish Mosque Architecture,” in Revisiting al-Andalus: Perspectives on the Material Culture Vassar College of Islamic Iberia and Beyond, ed. Glaire D. Anderson and Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Miriam Rosser-Owen (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 247–69. Rob- erson includes a brief discussion of the Great Mosque of Granada (262–69). Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-­ 7. Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Institut Mémoire,” Representations 26 (1989): 22, 11, respectively. Florence, Italy 8. The seminal views of the two principal antagonists may be found in Américo Castro, España en su historia: Cris- tianos, moros y judíos (Barcelona: Crítica, 1984), and Clau- dio Sánchez-Albornoz, El Islam de España y el Occidente NOTES (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1974). For a summary of the debate and its impact on twentieth-century politics, see Hishaam Author’s note: I am greatly indebted to the many individuals in D. Aidi, “The Interference of al-Andalus: Spain, Islam, and Granada who facilitated my research on this project, spent many the West,” Social Text 87 (Summer 2006): 67–88. See also hours in formal interviews and informal conversations, shared Simon Doubleday, “Introduction: ‘Criminal Non-Interven- their personal stories, and made archival documents available to tion’: Hispanism, Medievalism, and the Pursuit of Neutral- me for consultation: Abdes Salam Gutiérrez Fraguas and Ahmed ity,” in In the Light of Medieval Spain: Islam, the West, and Bermejo, Fundación Mezquita; Fidel Castellano Moliné, Renato the Relevance of the Past, ed. Simon R. Doubleday and David Ramírez Nogueira Estudio de Arquitectura, Granada; Yusuf Coleman (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 1–32. Idris Martínez Fernández, Concepción de la Torre de Benito 9. There is a growing body of scholarship, especially in the and Myriam Font Ugalde, Escuela de Estudios Árabes, Granada; past two decades, on the discourse of Islamophobia, Pablo Jesús Casado Millán, Diputación de Cultura; José Tito Rojo, national identity, and Muslim immigration to Spain, as Universidad de Granada; Javier Piñero, Archivo Histórico Munici­- well as on the role of al-Andalus in the collective imaginery pal; Batul Hernández López; the members of the Asociación within that discourse. For instance, see Hishaam Aidi, “The de Vecinos del Albayzín; and the staff of the Departamento de Interference of al-Andalus” and Hishaam Aidi, “Let Us Be Urbanismo, Ayuntamiento de Granada. Unless otherwise noted, Moors: Islam, Race, and ‘Connected Histories,’” Middle East the translations throughout are mine. Report 229 (2003), www.merip.org/mer/mer229_aidi.html 1. www.turismoyarte.com/regiones/andalucia/granada/ (accessed April 10, 2012). mezquita_mayor.html (accessed July 12, 2012). 10. Gil Anidjar, “Futures of al-Andalus,” Journal of Spanish Cul- 2. Alejandro V. García and Javier Arroyo, “Una mezquita tural Studies 7, 3 (2006): 225–29. para Granada,” El País, July 9, 2003, http://elpais.com/dia- 11. See the seminal work of Michel Foucault, The Archaeol- rio/2003/07/09/ultima/1057701601_850215.html (accessed ogy of Knowledge, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: July 18, 2012). Tavistock, 1972), as well as Alfred Gel, Art and Agency: An 3. Omayma Abdel-Latif, “Back in Spain—with a Difference,” Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 650 (August 7–13, 2003), http:// 1998), and Alfred Gel, Art’s Agency and Art History, ed. weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/650/fe1.htm (accessed April 10, Robin Osborne and Jeremy Tanner (Oxford: Blackwell, 2012) (emphasis added). 2007). Barbara Johnson, Persons and Things (Cambridge, 4. Jorge Trías Sagnier, “Una mezquita inquietante,” ABC, July 14, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008), has also proved 2003, http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-14-07-2003/ highly suggestive for this discussion. abc/Opinion/una-mezquita-inquietante_194722.html# 12. Hajj Abdulhasib Castiñeira, “La comunidad musulmana (accessed July 12, 2012). de Granada, un ejemplo de integración positiva,” Jornadas ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 129

sobre Convivencia Vecinal y Espacio Publico, Ayuntamiento c/Espaldas de S. Nicolás, s/n (sede de la futura mezquita) de Zaragoza, Concejalía de Acción Social y Mayor, La Casa (Barrio del Albaicín, Granada), abril 1996,” excavation de las Culturas, Zaragoza, April 15–16, 2008, http://www. report filed with the Área de Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento mezquitadegranada.com/index.php?id=lacomunidadmu de Granada. sulmanadegran (accessed May 1, 2012). 20. Rafael Garófano Sánchez, La Andalucía del Siglo XIX en las 13. Patronato Municipal Fundación Albaicín-Granada, www. Fotografías de J. Laurent y Cía (Almeria: Junta de Andalucía, albaicin-granada.com/seccion.php?listEntrada=18 (ac­- 1999), no. 86. cessed July 15, 2012). 21. The description of the property’s dimensions and the 14. Pablo Jesús Casado Millán, Cristóbal Pérez Bareas, Marga­ names of its owners can be found in the office of the Re­- rita Orfila Pons, Auxilio Moreno Onorato, Antonio J. Hoces gistro de la Propiedad Número Uno de Granada. The docu- Prieto, Fátima Pérez de Baldomero, Manuel Moreno Quero, ments indicate that at an unspecified date two separate and María Liébana Sánchez, “Nuevos aportes para el cono- properties under the registry numbers 15342 and 11416 were cimiento del asentamiento ibérico de Iliberri (Granada),” combined and registered as one under the new number in Actas del Congreso Internacional: Los íberos, príncipes de 22540. Occidente, sección I, Sagunto, ed. C. Aranegui Gascó (Bar- 22. “1890. C.00735.0008 (Servicios. Cementerio), Clas.: celona: Prodisa, 1998), 138. 3.08.07.05” and “1911. C.02238.0137 (Servicios. Fomento/ 15. For the reports of the archaeological excavations of the Obras y Urbanismo), Clas.:3.01.01.01),” Archivo Histórico site, see lsidro Toro Moyano, Ángeles Rodríguez Fernán- Municipal, Ayuntamiento de Granada. I am grateful to dez, and María Ángeles Villareal Jiménez, “Excavación de Javier Piñero, the archivist at the Archivo Histórico Munici- Urgencia en el Solar de la Calle Espaldas de San Nicolás s/n pal, for making the documents pertaining to the property del Barrio del Albayzín (Granada),” Anuario Arqueológico available to me for consultation. de Andalucía 3 (1985): 155–60; Casado Millán et al., “Nuevos 23. “1952. C.03156.0575 (Servicios. Fomento /Obras y Urban- aportes,” 137–44. ismo), Clas.: 3.01.04.10,” “1957. C.03198.0993 (Servicios. 16. Joaquín Bosque Maurel, Geografía urbana de Granada Fomento /Obras y Urbanismo), Clas.: 3.01.04.10,” and “1959. (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1988), 78, cited in Fran- C.03226.0510 (Servicios. Fomento /Obras y Urbanismo), cisco Javier Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?: Comu- Clas.: 3.01.04.10,” Archivo Histórico Municipal, Ayunta- nidades etnoreligiosas en al Albayzín granadino” (PhD miento de Granada. diss., Departamento de Antropología Social, Universidad 24. Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 403. de Granada, Granada, 2008), 128, http://biblioteca.ugr.es 25. On the gentrification of the Albayzín with its potential for (accessed August 5, 2012). “orientalism” and its impact on the tourist industry, see 17. Manuel Gómez Moreno has suggested that the Church of ibid., 286–316. San Nicolás replaced a mosque, known from a historical 26. Antonio Orihuela Uzal states that “approximately half text as azitiní mosque, and that on a street called Cuesta of these houses have been rehabilitated in the last three de las Cabras, which passes below the garden of the new decades.” Antonio Orihuela Uzal, “Casas moriscas de mosque and leads to the Church of San Nicolás, there Granada,” online bulletin of the Asociación de Vecinas y was another mosque, which he identified as the mosque Vecinos “Bajo Albayzín,” September 8, 2008, www.Albayzín. “gima Cachara.” Manuel Gómez Moreno, Guía de Granada info/Principal.htm (accessed May 5, 2012). Orihuela Uzal is (Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada, 1998), 2:263, preparing a monograph on this topic. 1:433, respectively. Gómez Moreno’s identification of the 27. “Distribución de la población de Granada por barrios y mosques is based on historical records of properties whose distritos, Padrón 2009,” Ayuntamiento de Granada (2009), taxes supported pious foundations, first of the Nasrids and http://www.granada.org/obj.nsf/in/GBBNKKJ/$file/ then, after the Reconquest, of the parish churches. For his- PORSEXO.pdf (accessed June 8, 2012). torical records in general and for the Church of San Nico- 28. Julio César Cabrera Medina, “El turismo en el Albaicín,” lás in particular, see María del Carmen Villanueva Rico, in El Albaicín en la encrucijada, ed. Juan Carlos de Pablos Hábices de las Mezquitas de la Ciudad de Granada y sus (Granada: Universidad del a Granada, 2005), 196–222, esp. Alquerías (Madrid: Instituto Hispano-Árabe de Cultura, 199. 1961), 1:121.. 29. For an analysis of the PEPRI, see Castelló Nicás, La reno- 18. Ibid., 1:68–70; Fernando Acale Sánchez, Plazas y paseos vación urbana, 182–89. de Granada: De la remodelación cristiana de los espacios 30. Juan Carlos de Pablos, “El uso residencial del Albaicín,” musulmanes a los proyectos de jardines en el ochocientos in El Albaicín en la encrucijada, ed. Juan Carlos de Pablos, (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2005), 91–94; Mont- 72–124, esp. 123. Among recent studies on various aspects of serrat Castelló Nicás, La renovación urbana en el Albaicín Albayzín’s urbanism, the topics addressed in El Albaicín en (Granada: Editorial Comares, 2003), 73. la encrucijada are of special interest for my article. It should 19. Remains of seventy skeletons have been documented. Auxi- be noted, however, that the impact of the neo-Muslim and lio Moreno Onorato and Pablo Jesús Casado Millán, “La Muslim communities is mentioned only in passing in the intervención arqueológica de urgencia realizada en el solar analysis of the neighborhood’s economy—the businesses 130 OLGA BUSH

in the Calderería that cater mainly to tourists. Although 37. Some critics and scholars accuse Shaykh ʿAbdalqadir as- the edited volume was published in 2005, it is a result of a Sufi al-Murabit of anti-Semitic views and of being a Holo- project by the sociologists of the University of Granada that caust denier. See, for instance, Tomás Navarro, La Mezquita was undertaken in 2000 while the mosque was still under de Babel: El nazismo sufista desde el Reino Unido a la Comu- construction. nidad Autónoma de Andalucía (Granada: Ediciones Virtual, 31. Cabrera Medina, “El turismo en el Albaicín,” 215 (emphasis 1998), 61–64; Coleman, “Persistence of the Past,” 166; Howe, added). Al-Andalus Rediscovered, 17–130. An examination of the 32. Among studies of the commercialization of medieval his- shaykh’s ideology lies beyond the scope of this article. tory in Spain, see Giles Tremlett, “Foreword: ‘Welcome to 38. Abend, “Spain’s New Muslims,” 134. Moorishland,’” in In the Light of Medieval Spain, ed. Dou- 39. Ibid. See also “La reconciliación de España con su histo- bleday and Coleman, xi–xix. Tremlett points out that the ria,” on the website of the Great Mosque of Granada, www. tourism industry “accounts for 11 percent of the country’s mezquitadegranada.com/islam-en-al-andalus/lareconcili- domestic product” (xii). acindeespaacon.html (accessed April 26, 2013). 33. Mikaela Rogozen-Soltar, “Al-Andalus in Andalusia; Nego- 40. Abend, “Spain’s New Muslims,” 138–39, 148. tiating Moorish History and Regional Identity in Southern 41. Ibid., 142. Spain,” Anthropological Quarterly 80, 3 (Summer 2007): 42. Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 75–98. 863–86. On the festivals of Moros y Cristianos (Moors and 43. Abend, “Spain’s New Muslims,” 143–45; Rosón Lorente, “¿El Christians) in Valencia, Andalusia, and Castilla-La Mancha, Retorno de Tariq?,” 365–66. see, for instance, Daniela Flesler and Adrián Pérez Melgosa, 44. For a more nuanced analysis of the institutional represen- “Battles of Identity, or Playing ‘Guest’ and ‘Host’: The Fes- tation of Spanish Muslims in their negotiations with the tivals of Moors and Christians in the Context of Moroccan Spanish government and the “Convenio de Cooperación,” Immigration in Spain,” Journal of Spanish Cultural Stud- an agreement signed in 1992, in which the rights of Mus- ies 4, 2 (2003): 151–68; Roland Baumann, The “Moors and lim communities are articulated, see Abend, “Spain’s New Christians” of Valor: Folklore and Conflict in the Alpujarra Muslims,” 144–46; Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” (Andalusia) (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI, 1995); Henk Driessen, 366–71. “Mock Battles between Moors and Christians: Playing the 45. For a summary of this accord, see Rosón Lorente, “¿El Confrontation of Crescent with Cross in Spain’s South,” Retorno de Tariq?,” 369n134. Ethnologia Europaea 15, 2 (1985): 105–15. 46. Among studies on al-Andalus as a political project for these 34. Daniela Flesler, “Contemporary Moroccan Immigration parties, see Alicia Del Olmo Garrudo, “Liberación Anda- and Its Ghosts,” in In the Light of Medieval Spain, ed. Dou- luza: Un proyecto musulmán para Andalucía,” AWRĀQ: bleday and Coleman, 116. In addition to this article, the Estudios Sobre el Mundo Árabe e Islámico Contemporaneo following is also especially insightful: Daniela Flesler, The 18 (1997): 157–70; Christiane Stallaert, “El movimiento neo- Return of the Moor: Spanish Responses to Contemporary musulmán y el intento de (re)construcción de una identi- Moroccan Immigration (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue Uni- dad andaluza/andalusí,” Religión y Cultura 1 (1999): 189–96; versity Press, 2008). Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 75–98. 35. “Asesoría Jurídica Servicio de OO.PP y Urbanismo, Ayunta- 47. Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 333–42, 351–64. miento de Granada, expediente 288/94, 1 de marzo de 1994,” 48. I am grateful to Yusuf Idris Martínez Fernández, Escuela 1, article 1a, Archives of the Ayuntamiento de Granada. de Estudios Árabes, Granada, for conversations over the 36. In the last three decades the studies on the emergence of many years of my research in Granada and for an informal Islam in Spain and on the perceived impact of both the neo- interview in June 2012 about the history of the community. Muslim and the immigrant Muslim communities have pro- 49. Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 384–87. liferated. For an overview, see Marvine Howe, Al-Andalus 50. Castiñeira, “La comunidad musulmana de Granada.” See Rediscovered: Iberia’s New Muslims (New York: Columbia also Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 351–64, 393– University Press, 2012). A succinct analytical summary of 98; Coleman, “Persistence of the Past,” 163–75. the history of the neo-Muslim communities in Andalusia, 51. Martínez Fernández, interview. See also Coleman, “Per- the development of their organizations, and institutional sistence of the Past,” 174; Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de interactions with the state is Lisa Abend, “Spain’s New Mus- Tariq?,” 338–44, 355–64. lims: A Historical Romance,” in In the Light of Medieval 52. Abdennur Prado, “Sobre la Situacion Jurídica del Islam en Spain, ed. Doubleday and Coleman, 133–56. On the for- España,” May 19, 2005, www.webislam.com/noticias/43786- mation of different neo-Muslim communities in Granada, sobre_la_situacion_juridica_del_islam_en_espana.html see David Coleman, “The Persistence of the Past,” in ibid., (accessed June 27, 2012). For the implications of Spain’s fed- 163–75. Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” provides eral law with regard to the Muslim minority (Acuerdo de a nuanced anthropological study of interactions between Cooperación entre el Estado Español y la Comisión islámica the neo-Muslims and their neighbors within the framework de España), promulgated as Law 26/92 on November 10, of historicizing collective memory in the context of the 1992, and other government initiatives, see Ricardo Zapata- Albayzín. Barrero, “The Muslim Community and Spanish Tradition: ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 131

Maurophobia as a Fact, and Impartiality as a Desideratum,” 61. I am grateful to Hanna Whiteman, who communicated to in Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European me that her father made one of the early designs for the Approach, ed. Tariq Modood, Anna Triandafyllidou, and mosque. A drawing that corresponds to Design 3, dated by Ricardo Zapata-Barrero (London: Routledge, 2006), 143–61. Ian Whiteman to 1982–83, can be seen on the designer’s 53. Abend, “Spain’s New Muslims,” 133. website, http://www.ianwhiteman.com/architecture.html 54. In Coleman’s view, the term “Morabitunes” was under- (accessed February 18, 2014). stood by those who opposed the mosque as “intentionally 62. Gutiérrez Fraguas, interview. provocative and symbolically loaded.” Coleman, “Persis- 63. Toro Moyano, Rodríguez Fernández, and Villareal Jimé- tence of the Past,” 166. It has been noted that the CIE of nez, “Excavación de Urgencia”; José Javier Álvarez García, Granada did not join other Muslim communities of the city “Informe sobre el seguimiento arqueológico en las labores in 1999, when it formed the Concejo Islámico de Granada de construcción de la mezquita, centro cultural y jardines (Islamic Council of Granada), the official body to represent en la Plaza de San Nicolás en al Albaycin (Granada), 9 de all Muslims to the municipal authorities. Rosón Lorente, febrero, 1995, expediente #288/94, Área de Urbanismo, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 372. Ayuntamiento de Granada.” I thank Pablo Jesús Casado 55. A nostalgic perspective on al-Andalus as a “paradise lost,” Millán, the archaeologist who conducted the second exca- articulated in much scholarly and popular writing, rel- vation on the site in 1995, for clarifying the findings of both egates al-Andalus to the past in the construction of both excavation campaigns, bringing to my attention all pub- personal and collective narratives. For an example of a lished materials, and allowing me to consult unpublished personal reflection on the sense of belonging to historic reports in the Área de Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento de al-Andalus, see Rana Kabbani, “Behind Him Lay the Great Granada. City of Cordoba,” Third Text Asia 3 (Spring 2009): 23–26. 64. Toro Moyano, Rodríguez Fernández, and Villareal Jiménez, For an analysis of al-Andalus as a paradise of coexistence “Excavación de Urgencia”; Moreno Onorato and Casado in contemporary popular film and literature, see Denise K. Millán, “La intervención arqueológica.” Filios, “Expulsion from Paradise: Exiled Intellectuals and 65. Toro Moyano, Rodríguez Fernández, and Villareal Jiménez, Andalusian Tolerance,” in In the Light of Medieval Spain, “Excavación de Urgencia,” 157–58. ed. Doubleday and Coleman, 91–114. 66. For a summary, see Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 479–80. 56. Drawings and plans have been preserved by the Renato 67. Gutiérrez Fraguas, interview, confirmed by Fidel Castellano Ramírez Nogueira architectural firm in Granada. I am Moliné. deeply indebted to Abdes Salam Gutiérrez Fraguas, the 68. “A la Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo del Tribunal secretary of the Fundación Mezquita, one of the CIE’s Superior de Justicia de Andalucía, sesión segunda recurso founding members, who was in charge of the construction 177/95, Hechos de la Contestación a la Demanda, Área de of the mosque in the 1990s, for relating to me his knowledge Urbanismo, Ayuntamiento de Granada,” Archives of the of the history of the community and of the different phases Ayuntamiento de Granada. of the mosque project in an interview conducted in June 69. The “Certificación de Acuerdo,” signed by Nicolás Ser- 2012. I wish to extend my gratitude to him for giving me his rano and Moisés Gutiérrez (that is, Abdes Salam Gutiérrez permission to access the archival architectural drawings Fraguas), on June 9, 1994, is included in the “Expediente and documents preserved in the firm of Ramírez Nogueira. 4728/91, Ayuntamiento de Granada no. 3320, 20 de enero, I also wish to acknowledge Fidel Castellano Moliné of 1994,” 42, Archives of the Ayuntamiento de Granada. Ramírez Nogueira’s architectural firm, who generously 70. Granada—along with Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela, put the archival materials at my disposal and shared his and Córdoba—competed with Madrid for this designa- understanding of the firm’s various designs. Documenta- tion. Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 328. For a tion of the decision-making process (e.g., minutes of inter- detailed analysis of the significance of “Spain’s Year” in the nal discussions of the CIE) in the evolution of the design is process of transforming Spain into a modern nation, see lacking. Tony Morgan, “1992: Memories and Modernities,” in Con- 57. The records preserved in the firm of Renato Ramírez temporary Spanish Cultural Studies, ed. Barry Jordan and Nogueira have not preserved the name(s) of the architect(s) Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas (New York: Oxford University responsible for this design, nor could Fidel Castellano Press, 2000), 58–67. Moliné or Abdes Salam Gutiérrez Fraguas identify them. 71. Morgan, “1992: Memories and Modernities,” 61–62. 58. Juan Castilla Brazales and Antonio Orihuela Uzal, En busca 72. The discussion of the origins of this celebration and the de la Granada andalusí (Granada: Editorial Comares, 2002), analysis of its underlying political and cultural impulses 120–22. go beyond the scope of this article. For an anthropological 59. Pierre Nora, “Preface to the English-Language Edition,” in analysis of the celebration and its repercussions within Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past, ed. Pierre the growing Muslim communities, as well as for a sum- Nora (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 1:xvii. mary of counterproposals—a “Day of Reconciliation,” for 60. Castilla Brazales and Orihuela Uzal, En busca de la Granada, instance—see Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 47–49. 422–68. 132 OLGA BUSH

73. Quoted in “Asesoría Jurídica Servicio de OO.PP y Urban- nismo, Ayuntamiento de Granada, expediente 288/94, 1 ismo, Ayuntamiento de Granada, expediente 288/94.” de marzo de 1994.” See also the litigation between the Real 74. For a discussion of the opposition to the mosque champi- Academia de Bellas Artes and the CIE, titled “Sentencia oned by journalists and intellectuals in the national press Núm. 838 de 2.000. Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo, and other publications, see Coleman, “Persistence of the recurso 177/95, Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía,” Past,” 163–75. and the rejoinder by the CIE’s lawyer, “A la Sala de lo Con- 75. Ideal, August 10, 1993, quoted in Rosón Lorente, “¿El tencioso Administrativo del Tribunal Superior de Justicia Retorno de Tariq?,” 408. For a more complete history of de Andalucía, sesión segunda, recurso 177/95, Hechos de la the litigation mobilized by the Asociación de Vecinos del Contestación a la Demanda, Área de Urbanismo, Ayunta- Albayzín against the construction of the mosque, see ibid., miento de Granada.” All the documents cited above have 402–22. been preserved in the Archives of the Ayuntamiento de 76. “A la Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo del Tribunal Granada. I am grateful to the Ayuntamiento de Granada Superior de Justicia de Andalucía, sesión segunda, recurso for making them available to me for consultation. 177/95, Área de Urbanismo, Ayuntamiento de Granada,” 91. “Asesoría Jurídica Servicio de OO.PP y Urbanismo, Ayun- Archives of the Ayuntamiento de Granada. tamiento de Granada, expediente 288/94, 1 de marzo de 77. Ibid. 1994.” 78. From an interview quoted in Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno 92. For a summary of crucial dates in the process of obtain- de Tariq?,” 408. ing a building permit, see “Sentencia Núm. 838 de 2.000, 79. Such fears were conditioned by the statements made by Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo, recurso 177/95.” foreign jihadists and Spanish politicians, such as José María For one of the first publications on historical Albayzín that Aznar. See Aidi, “Interference of al-Andalus,” 80–85. includes the discussion of the mosque project, published 80. See n. 76 above. before the mosque was constructed, see Gabriel Pozo Fel- 81. For an analysis of the impact of Catholic education and guera, Albayzín, Solar de los Reyes (Granada: Caja General religious celebrations on the formation of the collective de Ahorros de Granada, 1999), 141–46. memory of the residents of the Albayzín during the twen- 93. “Sentencia Núm. 838 de 2.000, Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo, recurso 177/95.” tieth century, see Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 94. Coleman, “Persistence of the Past,” 171. 148–70, 207–15. 95. On the positions of these institutions, see Rosón Lorente, 82. Castelló Nicás, La renovación urbana, 121–23. “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 412. 83. Ibid., 122. 96. Recorded in the judgment, “Sentencia Núm. 838 de 2.000, 84. M. Antequera, “El Albayzín se cristianiza,” Ideal, September Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo, recurso 177/95.” 20, 1936, 10, quoted in Castelló Nicás, La renovación urbana, 97. Álvarez García, “Informe sobre el seguimiento.” 122–23. Stone crosses were placed in front of other churches 98. Ibid. For a summary of findings from the Ibero period exca- in the Albayzín (San Gregorio Alto, San Cristóbal, de la vated in the Albayzín from 1981 to 1995 and an analysis of Victoria, San Ildefonso) as well as in small public plazas, the Ibero structures on the site of the future mosque, see among them Cruz de Quirós, Cruz de la Rauda, and Cruz Casado Millán et al., “Nuevos aportes,” 137–44. de Piedra. Juan Manuel Barrios Rozúa, Guía de la Granada 99. Avcıoğlu points out that in many European cities mosques desaparecida (Granada: Editorial Comares, 1999). have been banished beyond the city limits. This “solution” 85. On urban renovations and the recuperation of the national purports to promote “a more ‘passive’ presence of Islam,” patrimony in the Albayzín under the leadership of Antonio enabling the preservation of the “traditional” [i.e, West- Gallego Burín, during his tenure as mayor of Granada, see ern] architectural character of the cityscape. See Nebahat Castelló Nicás, La renovación urbana, 135–50. Avcıoğlu, “The Mosque and the European City,” in Islam 86. The creation of the Mirador de San Nicólas and the restora- and Public Controversy in Europe, ed. Nilüfer Göle (Burling- tion of its structures were executed by the Granadan archi- ton, Vt.: Ashgate, 2013), 57–68. tect Francisco Prieto-Moreno. Castelló Nicás, La renovación 100. I refer here to Henri Lefebvre’s work, in particular to urbana, 123–25, 135–50. The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith 87. The article is discussed in Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de (Oxford, U.K., and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1991). Simi- Tariq?,” 408–9. lar disputes have occurred recently in many Spanish cities, 88. Gutiérrez Fraguas, interview. among them Torrejón de Ardoz (Castilla), Lleida, Torroella 89. “A la Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo del Tribunal de Montgrí-L’Estartit, Badalona (Cataluña), and Zamarraga Superior de Justicia de Andalucía, sesión segunda recurso (País Vasco). These cases have received extensive coverage 177/95, Hechos de la Contestación a la Demanda.” in national and regional press. For a scholarly analysis of 90. “Informe de los Servicios Técnicos, 24 de febrero 1994,” debate in Badalona, see Avi Astor, “Memory, Community, “Informe de la Comisión Mixta de Seguimiento del Plan and Opposition to Mosques: The Case of Badalona,” Theory Especial de Protección y Reforma Interior Albayzín, Ayun- and Society 41, 4 (July 2012): 325–49. tamiento de Granada, expediente 288/94, 24 de febrero 101. “Ref/Licencia Urbanística para la construcción de la de 1994,” and “Asesoría Jurídica Servicio de OO.PP y Urba­ Mezquita, Área de Urbanismo, Sección de Licencias, ENTANGLED GAZES: THE POLYSEMY OF THE NEW GREAT MOSQUE OF GRANADA 133

­Negociado de Obras Mayores, expediente 288/94, 23 de 106.A rchitect Renato Ramírez Nogueira, the son of Renato marzo de 1994,” Archives of the Ayuntamiento de Granada. Ramírez Sánchez, finalized the construction of the mosque This major change is recorded in Renato Ramírez Nogueira, and certified that the building complied with all of the “Proyecto Final de Obra Mezquita, Centro Cultural y Jar- conditions for the urban development in the Albayzín as dines, Plaza de S. Nicolás y c/Horno de S. Agustín, Albaycin, stipulated in the PEPRI-Albayzín. This certificate is avail- Granada, Memoria,” which was made available to me by able for consultation in the archives of the Renato Ramírez the architectural firm of Renato Ramírez Nogueira. Nogueira’s architectural firm and in the offices of the Ayun- 102. Pablo Jesús Casado Millán, interview with author, June tamiento de Granada. 2012; Gutiérrez Fraguas, interview. 107. Great Mosque of Granada website, http://www.mezquita- 103. On the Nasrid and Morisco houses in the Albayzín, see La degranada.com/sobre-la-mezquita.html (accessed April 30, Casa Nazarí de Zafra, ed. Antonio Almagro Gorbea and 2013). Antonio Orihuela Uzal (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 108. I am grateful to Abdes Salam Gutiérrez Fraguas and Ahmed 1997); Antonio Almagro Gorbea, Antonio Orihuella Uzal, Bermejo for granting me permission to study the interior of and Carlos Sánchez Gómez, “Casas moriscas de Granada,” the mosque and take photographs for this essay. I wish to published on September 8, 2008, on the website of the thank Batul Hernández López for facilitating my visits to Asociación de Vecinas y Vecinos, Bajo Albayzín, www. the mosque and for many interesting conversations in the Albayzín.info/Principal.htm (accessed March 5, 2013); Car- summer of 2012. los Sánchez Gómez, Antonio Orihuela Uzal, and Antonio 109. Beebe Bahrami, “A Door to Paradise,” City and Society 10, Almagro Gorbea, “La casa nazarí de la calle del Cobertizo 1 (1998): 127–28. On the politics of the collective memory de Santa Inés, n. 4, en Granada,” Cuadernos de la Alhambra of the Moriscos, see Mary Elizabeth Perry, “Memory and 28 (1992): 135–66; Castilla Brazales and Orihuela Uzal, En Mutilation: The Case of the Moriscos,” in In the Light of busca de la Granada; Antonio Orihuela Uzal, Casas y pala- Medieval Spain, ed. Doubleday and Coleman, 67–90. cios nazaríes, siglos XIII–XV (Barcelona: Lunwerg Editores, 110. Aidi, “Interference of al-Andalus,” 76. Aidi quotes Muham- 1996); Antonio Orihuela Uzal, “The Use of Wood in Mor- mad ibn Azuz Hakim, a Moroccan historian, who traced isco Houses in the Sixteenth Century,” in Proceedings of the more than seven thousand surnames of Andalusi origin in Second International Congress on Construction History, ed. Tetuan alone. For an analysis of Andalusian identity among Malcolm Dunkeld, James Campbell, Hentie Louw, Michael the descendants of the Moriscos in Rabat, see Beebe Bah- Tutton, Bill Addis, and Robert Thorne (Exeter, U.K.: Short rami, “Al-Andalus and Memory: The Past and Being Present Run Press, 2006), 3:2363–78; Antonio Orihuela Uzal, “The among Hispano-Moroccan Andalusians from Rabat,” in Andalusi House in Granada (Thirteenth to Sixteenth Cen- Charting Memory: Recalling Medieval Spain, ed. Stacey N. turies),” in Revisiting al-Andalus, ed. Anderson and Rosser- Beckwith (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000), 111–43. Owen, 169–91. 111. Quoted in Bahrami, “Door to Paradise,” 127. 104. Castiñeira, “La comunidad musulmana de Granada.” 112. Anidjar, “Futures of al-Andalus,” 228. 105. “Sentencia Núm. 838 de 2.000, Sala de lo Contecioso 113. Quoted in Rosón Lorente, “¿El Retorno de Tariq?,” 75. Administrativo, recurso 177/95.” THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 135

Emi̇nF e etvaci

T he Gaze in the Album of Ahmed I

I n the preface to an album compiled for the Ottoman and drawings carefully arranged on specific pages could sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–17) circa 1610, the album-maker perhaps guide viewers to conclusions they may not have Kalender (d. 1616) writes the following about the works drawn by looking at the individual works of art. Aes- of art in the Topkapı Palace: “In addition to the fact that thetic pleasure and learning are intimately linked in his delicate heart is always filled with gems of knowl- Kalender’s understanding. edge and pearls of learning, those matchless pearls of The idea that aesthetic perception could lead to edi- crafted marvels, the personages of precious words and fication was not unique to Kalender’s preface. Gülru best of the features of depicted things, which are match- Necipoğlu’s essay in the present volume makes abun- less pearls of crafted marvel in the flawless palace and dantly clear that what she calls the “intimate connection heavenly castle adorned with words garbed in raiment between sight and insight” was a prevalent notion in of words and insight and seduced the hearts of world medieval and early modern Perso-Islamic sources.4 We rule and mussed the natures of the people of the heart might understand Kalender’s organization and embel- with their beguiling beauty.”1 Kalender describes the ef- lishment of the materials in the album as an aid to the fects of the “matchless pearls of crafted marvels” as “se- “scrutinizing gaze” (imʿān-i naẓar). His interventions duced,” “astonished,” and “excited” (firīfte, alüfte, and were intended to guide viewers to a higher level of un- āşüfte).2 In the next section Kalender writes about the derstanding by encouraging them to gaze with contem- power of images to educate and inspire, especially dur- plation—a level of understanding they might not reach ing difficult times: they “will certainly cause the acquisi- by themselves if they were simply perusing these art- tion of the capital of the science of wisdom, will result works individually or in a haphazard fashion. What Kal- in the perfection of the eye of learning by example, and ender was doing, in other words, was very much in line will additionally console the felicitous person and trou- with what Necipoğlu has identified in the context of ar- bled heart of the mighty sovereign by enlivening his chitectural ornamentation as “the willful complication mind and by pleasing his luminous inner self and his of the optical field … as a calculated way of inducing illuminated heart.”3 The next sentence, which tells us contemplative vision.”5 the sultan wanted these materials to be collected in an The introduction to the popular medieval book of album, begins with the word “consequently” (bināʾen fables, Kalila wa Dimna (Kalila and Dimna) presents us ʿalā). Because works of art, those seductive, astonishing, with another example in which aesthetic pleasure and and exciting things that enlivened the spirit of the sultan learning are closely linked. According to Avinoam and gave pleasure to him, could teach and inspire peo- Shalem, Ibn al-Muqaffa⁠ʾ (d. 756–57), the Persian transla- ple, the sultan asked Kalender to organize some in an tor of the fables, suggests in the introduction that the album format. Presumably this format would both make entertaining aspects of the book, such as its illustrations it easier for people to view the works of art and enhance and its animal protagonists, help to captivate readers of the power of the artwork by juxtaposing select pieces. various backgrounds and abilities, attracting them to The visual relationships among paintings, calligraphies, the contents of the book and encouraging them to spend

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P08 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 135-154 136 EMİNE FETVACI time with it. Their perusal, initiated by these pleasurable ­illumination and paper joinery skills are evident in the aspects of the book, would eventually lead to learning visual play created by the multiple frames, the dazzling from the deeper layers of the text. Yet this process is not contrast between subtly illuminated margins and rul- automatic, and viewers must engage with the book de- ings of psychedelic strips of color, the different back- liberately and in a self-conscious manner to move from grounds of marbled paper, and the careful detail work being entertained to being edified. Shalem highlights added to many of the images thus unified on the pages the following words from the introduction: “It is neces- of the album. Yet within the visual variety of colored sary, however, in order to reap the advantage which its papers, stenciled frames, gilding, marbling, and geomet- study is able to impart, to understand fully the spirit in ric colored strips, there is clear order and hierarchy on which it is composed, to disengage from its figurative the pages as well. This organized spectacle certainly language the truths which it is intended to convey, and seems to guide the gaze so that the eye derives maxi- to seize the exact purport of its fables: for reading with- mum pleasure and information from each page. The out reflection is not accompanied by any solid profit.”6 visual qualities of the works, when properly displayed, In the introduction to the album of Ahmed I, Kalen- and when gazed upon with care, would help the viewer der seems to suggest, like Ibn al-Muqaffa⁠ʾ, that the to move from pleasure to learning. ­viewer of the album needs to look with care, in a con­­ Kalender’s role, in short, was powerful, for his album- tem­plative fashion, so that pleasurable viewing can lead making brought these works to their full potential. If to learning. He writes that the sultan wanted the materi- album-making does indeed enhance the astonishing als in the album to be arranged “with respect to each quality of these works, one wonders how the album one’s relationship to each other” (her birisinin biri biri- functions as a visual object, as an organized conduit to sine münāsebeti ile tertīb olunup) and illuminated. He wonder and astonishment. One way of finding out is to repeats the phrase “each one’s relationship to each oth- explore its visual rhythms, examine how they direct the er” when he writes that he joined paintings (taṣvīrāt) gaze, and investigate the tools used to guide the viewer’s and calligraphic panels (muḳaṭṭaʿāt), pasted them onto experience of the object. By conducting such an inquiry colored papers, and turned them into an album.7 He focused around this one album, we are able to gain some presents his organization of the album as guided by aes- insight into at least one Ottoman view on the role and thetic concerns that can be appreciated by those who power of the visual arts. know how to look: “it is not unknown or hidden to those with acute perception and sagacious people of insight that by looking at each one of them with a scrutinizing CONTENT gaze [imʿān-i naẓar], if attention is paid, God willing, the four corners and the facing one are all in harmony with Ideally, this inquiry into Kalender’s tactics for guiding and conforming to each other, be it in color or in size the viewer’s gaze would consider the order of pages in and length and width.”8 Kalender’s description of his the album and examine what kinds of materials follow own interventions here brings his work into the realm each other. But unfortunately the album has lost some of artistic skill. Each folio was a careful composition in of its pages, and it was rebound in the nineteenth cen- which he matched examples of calligraphy with paint- tury. It has not yet been possible to determine whether ings or illumination. His parameters were both mechan- the current order of the pages was the original order, ical, focusing on size, proportion, and the fit of edges, and this is beyond the scope of the present essay, but I and stylistic, as is evidenced by the privileging of color will make suggestions further down about some folios and his illuminations that further unified the individual that clearly belong together. In its current state, the pieces. These works were chosen not by provenance or early pages contain paintings from manuscripts on the topic but rather according to their visual characteristics: history of the Ottomans’ ancestors, followed by Otto- the style of depiction, the calligraphic script, and man imperial portraits. Calligraphic examples dispersed the size and appearance of the sheets. Kalender’s between pages of single figure studies make up the bulk THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 137 of the album. In the middle of the album, there is a con- ­enhance these effects—his tactics. Each page of the al- centration of genre scenes with accompanying poetry. bum can be considered a composite work of art, created Following this section are single figures, calligraphy ex- by Kalender out of objects selected from Ahmed I’s col- amples, illumination, and more imperial portraits. lection. Kalender is a bit vague in the preface as to One of the most striking characteristics of the art- whether the sultan gave him specific pieces from his col- works in Ahmed I’s album is their unusual subject mat- lection to put in the album or Kalender himself selected ter. The genre paintings seen in such large numbers and them from a larger subset. In either case, he was respon- for the first time—at least in the Ottoman context—are sible for organizing them, as a curator would organize a prime example.9 These narrative scenes are not con- an exhibition. The pages then come together to form the nected to a literary text. Also unusual is the vast variety album, itself a kind of meta-artwork. Whether his crite- of the social backgrounds of the individual figures de- ria for organization were purely visual, as he claims, or picted on the album’s pages. It is populated by many also took into account relationships of content and more foreign (Persian, “Frank,” or Georgian) figures, meaning, as I suspect, the album attested to Kalender’s members of different professions, and various officers of skills not only as a paper joiner but also as a connoisseur, the court than one finds in the Safavid or Mughal con- a refined courtier who could appreciate and suggest re- text at this time. Judging by the circa 1610 date of the lationships among paintings, drawings, and calligra- album, interest in these different urban types appears phies from disparate contexts. That his work as an to be a phenomenon that appeared earlier in Ottoman artisan was appreciated is evident from notes on the Istanbul than in Safavid Isfahan (the famous painting margins of folios 29 and 30, which read “rare [or pre- “Nashmi the Archer” by Riza ʿAbbasi [d. 1635] dates to cious] paper joinery.”11 The rest of the album was meant 1622, for example), and their novelty renders them even to attest to his skills as a connoisseur. Both his aesthetic more “exciting” and “astonishing.” Indeed the astonish- interventions and his connoisseurship prove his creden- ment evoked by the variety of types here is not altogeth- tials as a courtier. During the late sixteenth and early er different from the astonishment that aims to praise seventeenth centuries increasing numbers of the Otto- the ʿajāʾib (wonders) of the creation of the world and man ruling elite engaged in the visual arts; we might thus of God.10 In addition to their inherent reference to even say it was expected.12 the varieties of humans created by God, these types also draw out astonishment at the multiplicity of individuals One of Kalender’s tactics was to dazzle the eye with in the Ottoman empire (or perhaps on the streets of Is- plenty. In earlier Ottoman albums, pages seem to con- tanbul), indirectly praising the sultan who presides over tain fewer works of art, often single ones. Safavid albums this astonishing mass of people. The aesthetic experi- are similar: even the Shah Tahmasp Album, which rou- ence once again leads to a different level of understand- tinely combines multiple images on one page, rarely ing. As the “scrutinizing gaze” wanders over the strange juxtaposes more than four images.13 In Ahmed’s album, and wondrous people depicted here, the viewer inevita- however, astonishment seems to be linked with over- bly ponders the wonders of creation and the wealth of whelming the eye with multiplicity. This response is the empire that encompasses them. Perhaps this was an achieved not only through the sheer number of objects edifying thought in the difficult times to which Kalender on a single page but also through the variety of works of alludes in his preface. art contained in the album as a whole. Yet within that variety there are also repetitions that contribute to the overwhelming effect by appearing to multiply the art- VISUAL TACTICS works. See, for example, the figures that are repeated with minute differences of pose or garments on folios The unusual and varied contents of the album are un- 12a, 11a, and 27b (see figs. 2–4, discussed in more detail doubtedly seductive, astonishing, and exciting on their below). Kalender has also chosen to depict a vast variety own. I will now outline what Kalender has done to of types of people from various ethnic and social 138 EMİNE FETVACI

Fig. 1. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 14a. Ottoman, Istanbul, ca. 1610. Each folio opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper, 47.5 × 33.5 cm. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. B 408. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe)

­backgrounds, infusing the album with yet another kind The poetry praises the beloved as so beautiful he or she of multiplicity. Whether repeating or contrasting fig- puts the fresh rose petal to shame, possibly causing its ures, their numbers serve to astonish the viewer. red color, as it blushes in embarrassment, and so sweet The relationships established among the elements on that sweetness has borrowed sugar from him or her. And a single page or on an opening of two pages is another of course the poet, the lover, constantly thinks of the important tool for guiding the eye. Despite Kalender's beloved’s face, that face which inspires flowers to bloom. claims to the contrary, the visual is not the only register While it is clear we have a kind of love story here, we on which these relationships are established. A connec- have no narrative for the story, no context, no informa- tion predicated on the play between words and images tion about identities, only love and praise. The images is suggested by folio 14a (fig. 1). The poem reads: below also clearly give a message of love and praise. B ravo! The fresh rose petal is embarrassed before you While the passionate embrace of the amorous couple on Sweetness has borrowed sugar from you the left could easily provide the context for such words, Every night I remember your lovely face the female gathering in the center image, where a book Roses and tulips bloom in the bed because of you.14 is being read, might also suggest these lines being THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 139

­verbalized, as one woman reads to the other. Or, per- the sixteenth century. And evoking yet not specifying a haps, the viewer of the album would be inclined to say narrative is not at all unusual for lyric poetry. The con- these lines to a beauty such as the one dancing in the tents of this poem are quite similar in nature to the right image. These images are also, to be sure, related to other poetic selections provided in the album, especial- each other stylistically, thus enhancing their thematic ly those that seem to be showcasing calligraphy, as this links. The ambiguous, or perhaps generic, nature of the one does. Whether it was this very page that always love story hinted at by the poem finds equally ambigu- faced folio 12a, or another, similar example, the struc- ous visual expression in these paintings. ture of the poem and its evocative yet opaque character The organization of the page encourages the eye to would be the same. move inward from the margins, with the use of multiple The facing page shows six male figures, organized framing devices as well as a rather consistent illumina- across two registers, each painted inside a discrete tion style. Finally, the band of illumination over the cen- frame. Their juxtaposition, especially the two on the up- tral image echoes the wider band placed above the per right and the two in the lower right, hint at a certain brown-and-cream checkered frame surrounding the kind of communication between them, suggesting, but calligraphy and the paintings, encouraging further still not fully presenting, a narrative. Both the poetry and the the eye’s movement toward the center. The two cypress- images, due to their suggestion of narrative, give the es establish a visual connection between the calligraphy sense of being parts of larger wholes that exist beyond panel and the paintings. The slant of the calligraphy di- the covers of the album. Their partial or incomplete na- rects the eye downward toward the images, enhancing ture is echoed in both word and image. The lack of a this connection. The thematic link between the poetry background, hindering us from identifying a context and the paintings, enhanced by the visual organization and fully imagining a story, ensures that these images of the page, suggests that word-image relationships are remain on the same suggestive but opaque platform as one of the ways in which the gaze is directed across the the poetry. Thus, visually, the images have the same pages in this album. kind of structure as the poem. As the gaze moves from The importance of word-image relationships for right page to left page, it is impossible not to notice the guiding the gaze across openings, beyond the single poem, or song, that the youth in the upper right image page, is well exemplified by a pairing of a calligraphic is reading to the young man facing him across the divide panel with one of the most common types of pages here, of the thin frame that separates them. The man on the one that combines multiple single figures (fols. 11b–12a, left is holding his musical instrument, perhaps putting fig. 2). The poem on folio 11b, on the right, may be trans- to music the poetry that his companion is reciting. The lated as: two figures are also bound together by the similarity of I t is the Night of Qadr and the book of Separation is finished their costumes. The lower couple presents an even Peace [greetings] until the break of dawn stronger image of communication because the wine cup I do not want to repent from drinking [carousing] offered by the sākī (cupbearer) pictured on the right ac- Even if she [he] were to harm me through abandonment tually traverses the frame toward the hunter to whom or stone [stoning]. 15 he is offering it. The tree behind the sākī also goes over V arious themes are evoked by the poem—distance, the frame that seemingly divides the figures, thus help- separation, drunkenness, and even the revelation of the ing to unify the composition further. The intended re- Koran on the Night of Qadr. Readers might visualize a cipient of the wine cup has one hand on his side, scene, perhaps fill in the blanks in their mind’s eye, but carrying what seem to be arrows, and his other hand is these few lines are far from telling us a story in its en- raised in front of his chest in what can be interpreted as tirety. There is a narrative evoked here that is rather dif- a gesture of communication. This hand helps to direct ferent from that in prose works, or in masnavī form the gaze of the viewer back to the sākī on the right, long-verse works such as the Shāhnāma (Book of Kings), strengthening the link and communication between the or the Ottoman histories written and illustrated during two figures. In both registers, then, Kalender has created 140 EMİNE FETVACI

Fig. 2. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fols. 11b–12a. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe)

images of amorous communication of the kind one finds the raḳīb figure helps us to situate more concretely the in the lyric poetry of the period, as is exemplified by the gaze of the viewer that Kalender is manipulating. poem on the facing page. Kalender has also constructed relationships across The third figure, on the left hand side of both regis- frames that are purely predicated on the visual, exempli- ters, repeats, and in doing so strengthens the link be- fied by folios 11a and 27b (figs. 3 and 4).17 These, too, sug- tween the images and a poetic reading. This figure may gest loose narratives. Depicted here are types of officials be considered the representation of the raḳīb, or rival, and servants one would find in the Ottoman palace. Yet that is present in the background story to many Otto- instead of being organized into discrete pages as they man lyric poems.16 His presence enhances the poetic were on costume albums prepared for visitors to Istan- narrative even further and encourages us to consider the bul at the time, these images are organized in such a way relationships depicted by the images in the context of as to suggest narrative scenes. The sultan converses with lyric poetry. The raḳīb figure who, as his posture and a eunuch in one, and a servant of the privy chamber in glance suggest, is listening to the poem and witnessing the other, while being guarded in the back by a eunuch, the encounter between the lovers, might also serve to and vice versa. The figures, which at first appear to be remind the viewers of what they are doing—observing distinct depictions simply pasted onto the same page, the relationships depicted on the pages of the album, are clearly in communication with each other, creating reading the poetry, and looking at the images. As such, a loose narrative about an unspecified moment in the THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 141

Fig. 3. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 11a. (Photo: Hadiye Fig. 4. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 27b. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) Cangökçe)

Ottoman court. The ruler is placed in the upper right, in point. They are wearing almost identical clothes but are a place of compositional authority, as he often was in in slightly different poses. The images challenge the eye narrative paintings. The courtiers then are organized in to spot the differences. Mainly, however, the eye is in- a loose circular composition with the sultan at its apex. vited to go back and forth, to compare. Kalender could As the eye moves across the pages of the album, it lingers easily have provided different raḳīb figures for the two further on those that hint at a narrative, perhaps encour- registers: the lovers, after all, are different. Why, then, aging the viewers to consider their own role in the nar- did he use different versions of the same figure? It is pos- rative. If there was a courtly narrative to be gleaned from sible, as noted above, that this raḳīb figure might be in- these images, certainly the original viewers of the album tended for the viewer to identify with—after all, the would have been able to do so: they were, after all, court- other repeating gaze from register to register, folio to iers themselves. This elusive narrative, in turn, helps to folio, is that of the viewer himself. But more important, give order to the dazzling array of images and calligra- the repetition immediately triggers the comparative phies in the album. gaze and forces the viewer to look carefully. When con- These folios (12a, 11a, 27b [see figs. 2–4]) also contain sidered together with Kalender’s repeated statement in another method of directing the gaze across the album: the preface that he organized the contents “with respect comparison. The two figures on the left side of folio 12a to each one’s relationship to each other” (her birisinin (see fig. 2) that I identified as the raḳīb are a case in biri birisine münāsebeti ile tertīb olunup),18 it becomes 142 EMİNE FETVACI

Fig. 5. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fols. 14b–15a. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe)

clear that the viewer is being asked to identify the rela- belt unfastened. The slight difference in color between tionships among the images. Kalender writes that when the tunics (one blue, one green) and the opposite direc- the artworks in the album are viewed with attention to tions they are facing encourage the eye to move back detail and looked upon with the “scrutinizing gaze,” and forth, spotting the differences and similarities. The these relationships become obvious. The comparison, same can be said for the figures in red, rendered in dif- then, is meant to encourage the scrutinizing gaze and ferent sizes, in the lower register of this page and the also becomes obvious by means of it, in a circular fash- upper register of the facing folio 14b. At the same time, ion. Out of this circularity, however, the viewer emerges as the eye moves back and forth visually comparing, one edified, having thought beyond the individual works of notices the variety of types on these pages, too, and also art, beyond the aesthetic properties of the page, to realizes that some of the figures appear to be in conver- something more grand. sation with each other. Thus the visual comparison The same comparative gesture seems to be suggested works in tandem with the other two strategies of guiding by other folios, too (fols. 14b–15a, fig. 5). The two female the gaze that I have outlined above. figures on the left side of folio 15a, for example, have The two folios of palace-related figures discussed costumes very similar to each other and almost appear above (fols. 11a, 27b; see figs. 3 and 4) similarly come to to be mirror images, except for the fact that one has her life when viewed with the comparative gaze, and the THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 143 relationships among the figures on them become more significant in the comparison. Yet in this grander view it is not a comparison between the elements on a single page but rather a larger comparison of the folios with each other. The fact that a discrete composition is being created on each page becomes obvious only upon view- ing the two pages in tandem. Currently these two folios are placed in different parts of the album, but the simi- larities between them are so remarkable that when the viewer comes upon the second page, he or she immedi- ately remembers the first one. It is tempting to suggest that in the original order of the album these two pages were placed closer together, perhaps even facing each other, but at present this is not possible to demonstrate. Regardless of their placement, the two pages have un- cannily similar compositions. Both have four figures in their upper register and three in the lower, separated by simple frames. The entire composition is framed by a tan-colored inner border, a brown-and-white checkered secondary border, and margins of a gold floral scroll against a neutral background. Each folio has one figure in the lower register that has been depicted against a different background color and framed with a more elaborate frame than the others. The upper registers show an Ottoman ruler accompanied, as mentioned above, by a servant of the privy chamber and a eunuch. The fourth figure on folio 27b is a servant bringing in Fig. 6. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 7a. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) food to the ruler, and the fourth figure on folio 11a is a dervish reading poetry. Both figures could have been present at court. The poses of the sultanic depictions are in which these are presented incites the comparative mirror images of each other, but they are placed in the gaze immediately (fig. 6). Currently there is one folio in same spot on both pages—second figure from the right the beginning with the portraits of four sultans and a in the upper register. With such strong invitations to folio bound at the very end that contains eight others, compare the two compositions, one wonders if a deeper four on each side (figs. 7 and 8). It is quite likely that comparison is being suggested here between the courts originally these folios were bound together, as they of different Ottoman sultans. In this case the scrutiniz- would have continued an existing tradition in Ottoman ing gaze encourages us to identify the rulers being de- book arts of picturing all the sultans of the dynasty in a picted, since the differences between them suggest a series. Yet in this series there are mistakes that are hard certain kind of specificity. When considered in tandem to comprehend and were perhaps intended as an inside (and compared with other portraits of the two sultans), joke. The first four are named in the correct order: Os- we are tempted to identify the portraits as Selim I (r. man, Orhan, Murad, and Yıldırım (Bayezid). The next 1512–20) on folio 27b and Ahmed I on folio 11a. four should be Mehmed I, Murad II, Mehmed II, Bayezid Another strong incentive to identify the rulers por- II.19 Instead the names are Mehmed, Bayezid, Mehmed, trayed on these two folios is provided by the other por- and Murad, going from right to left and from top to bot- traits of Ottoman rulers in the album. The serial format tom. If we read the page from the bottom up, Mehmed 144 EMİNE FETVACI

Fig. 7. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 32a. (Photo: Hadiye Fig. 8. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 32b. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) Cangökçe)

I, Murad II, Mehmed II, Bayezid, the names would be in ­between rulers of the same name and to move back and the right order. Alternatively, it is possible that Mehmed forth across the series, spotting similarities and differ- II is illustrated twice, as part of a father-son coupling on ences. She demonstrated that the comparative act both registers. In the upper register, he is the father and helped to create a group identity for the rulers and laid in the lower register, the son. However, this would mean the emphasis on the entire dynasty.20 Elsewhere I have there are no images of Mehmed I. These mistakes or rep- made a similar point, focusing on the seriality of the im- etitions become particularly striking when one com- perial portraits in the Şemāʾilnāme (Book of Disposi- pares this series with others. tions) and their emphasis on order and repetition.21 For Such series by their very nature encourage a com- the purposes of this essay, I simply want to point out that parative gaze. Necipoğlu first drew attention to the pro- these portraits are intended to evoke a comparison, and, cess of viewing imperial portrait series. She argued that indeed, they make sense only in a comparative context. the viewer was encouraged to make connections As such, they attest to the importance of the scrutinizing THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 145 gaze in the workings of the album. Scrutiny reveals their would write naẓīre to Persian poems in exactly the same individual and shared characteristics, both creating a way as they would to Ottoman poems. Andrews points corporate identity for the group and ascribing a distinct out that sixteenth-century Ottoman poets considered identity to each ruler. And it is only through scrutiny Ottoman poetry proper to begin with the naẓīre re- that the oddity of their ordering becomes obvious. The sponses of Ahmed Pasha (d. 1496) to the poetry of the order also suggests something about the audience of the Timurid poet and statesman Ali Shir Nava⁠ʾi (d. 1501).25 album: to fully appreciate the twist, one would not only The act of writing responses to other poems continued have to be well versed in Ottoman history but also have to be a fundamental part of early modern Ottoman liter- to be familiar with the manuscripts of imperial portraits ary culture. Hatice Aynur gives the extreme example of produced in large numbers at the end of the sixteenth 150 naẓīres being written to a single ghazal as proof of century. Knowledge of these previous works of art, and the prevalence of this practice.26 Naẓīre poems were their proper ordering of the sultans, highlights the odd- also collected in mecmūʿas (anthologies) beginning in ity of Kalender’s ordering. Moreover, to the connoisseur the fifteenth century, and these collections became familiar with the earliest versions of such portrait books, most prevalent in the seventeenth.27 One notable ex- this series would seem rudimentary, as the paintings are ample is a naẓīre collection created by a servant of Sül- rather small and lack the detail and finish of the original eyman I (r. 1520–66) but copied during the reign of portraits. Ahmed I. This collection also includes poems by Ahmed In the realm of poetry, which seems to have provided I himself, both response poems and independent po- aesthetic criteria for the other arts in the early modern ems.28 The increased popularity of such compilations Islamic world, the comparative impulse was rather corresponds to the century in which Ahmed I’s album strong. Necipoğlu has already demonstrated how the was prepared. poetic comparative impulse displayed by the practice of Walter Feldman writes: “The importance of the con- naẓīre writing can be used to understand architectural cept of imitatio in Ottoman artistic thought can be seen history, as embodied in the architect Sinan’s (d. 1588) from the fact that the term nazire had a parallel musical competitive response to earlier Ottoman and Byzantine usage during the seventeenth century.”29 The contents architecture in his mosques.22 It is even more appropri- of the album of Ahmed I suggest that imitation was not ate to consider the literary device of the naẓīre in the case of an album of painting and calligraphy in which limited to the literary and musical arts but also had its the calligraphic fragments are for the most part poetic place in the visual sphere. By incorporating the images selections. Naẓīre poems respond to earlier works by of men and women dressed in almost identical cos- contemporaneous or later poets by offering either praise tumes and in poses that are difficult to distinguish from or criticism, often with the intent of showcasing the re- each other, the album visually encourages comparison sponding poet’s literary skills. They would either refer and seems to point to the idea of imitation. The images to or parallel earlier poems by repeating the theme or can be seen as responses to each other. the rhyme scheme, thus retaining some aspect of the The seventeenth century is also a period in which Ot- earlier poem, but they were new, different creations.23 toman poets repeatedly rewrote or updated older texts. Indeed, Ottoman poets and authors of poets’ biogra- Examples range from the rewriting by Cevri (d. 1654) of phies considered slavish imitation and substitutive the Selīmnāme (Book of Selim) and other texts using translation to be inferior practices, and naẓīres needed more Persian and Arabic words than the original, to the to have originality in order to be appreciated.24 Ḫamse (Quintet) of ʿAta⁠ʾi (d. 1635), which consists of five Some translations of Persian poetry into Ottoman are masnavīs that feature Istanbul and its inhabitants.30 also considered to be naẓīre-type responses. Walter An- Both the recasting of earlier texts in accordance with drews considers such poetry to be of fundamental im- contemporary linguistic preferences and the composi- portance for incorporating the wider Persianate literary tion of a new Ḫamse are ways of responding to older world into the Ottoman cultural sphere: Ottoman poets works and can be categorized as naẓīre.31 As such, they 146 EMİNE FETVACI invite or, indeed, depend upon, comparison in order to ­compositions. The size and style of the script, the angle be fully appreciated. at which the verses are placed, and the framing of the The calligraphic samples in the album, all of the same verses are perhaps the most important common ele- script, nastaʿlīq, by Ottoman and Safavid calligraphers, ments. Again an extremely similar illumination sur- also attest to such a comparative framework (fols. 31a– rounds the poetry, with triangular blank spaces filled 31b, figs. 9 and 10). Here we see the work of a Persian and with floral designs and the lower left corner of each an Ottoman calligrapher gracing the opposite sides of frame occupied by a signature. The color scheme, too, is the same folio, arranged in a similar page layout, again very close, but not the same. At first glance, the two inspiring an assessment. Furthermore, the use of the pages seem to have the same design. Upon closer ex- same nastaʿlīq style by Ottoman and Safavid calligra- amination, the eye begins to spot the differences, and phers echoes the relationship between Ottoman and the viewer remains interested. On the one hand this ar- Safavid poetry. Ottoman calligraphers could clearly re- rangement can be interpreted as the album-maker’s spond to or parallel the writing of their Persian peers. decision to bring aesthetic unity to a group of disparate There is certainly an element of competition here, too, works of art, yet the subtle differences he introduces and an invitation to judge the relevant competencies of the his choice not to make the illumination identical but calligraphers whose works are in the album and perhaps rather as “variations on a theme” enhance the compara- even an invitation to judge the Ottoman and the Safa- tive glance in a way not unlike the way imperial por- vid calligraphic traditions against each other.32 Just as traits are viewed in tandem with each other. the organization of figures on a page encourages the eye When considered together with the importance of to compare figures stacked above each other or in op- comparative judgment in the practice and appreciation posite corners of the same folio, so the eye is invited to of calligraphy, Kalender’s illumination and organization see the similarities and differences between calligraph- choices become more obvious. For a comparison of our ic panels. own, consider the calligraphic study from the Timurid Let us consider in detail the two sides of folio 31 (see context that David Roxburgh so astutely analyzed on figs. 9 and 10). No matter what the order of the album two different occasions. The study in question consists would have been, the two sides of the folio would still of the responses, or imitations, of calligraphers at the come one after the other. The illumination on these pages is almost, but not quite, identical. Both have an court of Baysunghur (d. 1433) to a line by Ahmad al- outer border of pale rose with gold floral pattern, and Rumi (fl. before 1433). Roxburgh discusses how each cal- just inside this border is a checkered color block pattern ligrapher deliberately “personalized” the model but of two colors—brown and cream on one, rose and contends that their interventions become most obvious cream on the other. The corners of the checkered ruling when all eighteen lines are seen together.33 That the are blue in one case and pink in the other. Moving in- imitation of a calligraphic line was a courtly pastime ward, both folios contain an illuminated ground with a reminds us of the prevalence of such comparative tripartite design. While the “a” side has one whole and modes in the early modern Persianate cultural sphere of two half cartouches, and the “b” side has three whole which the Ottomans were a part. cartouches, the rhythm they create is identical. The car- Calligraphic training and practice offer an insight touches on one side have gold ground with a floral orna- into the way comparative modes worked in the early ment executed in white, and the cartouches on the modern Islamic world. As Roxburgh has recently out- other side have a white ground with gold decorations, lined, the training of calligraphers included both the creating the impression that they are negatives of each visual study of earlier models and the attempt to emu- other. Both have a smaller inner border of three strips, late them. Yet training also encouraged creativity, and one of which is again a checkered pattern, but not in calligraphers would often repeat a calligraphic composi- the same order or with the same colors. At the center of tion with the incorporation of personal flairs. The subtle both pages are calligraphic panels with almost identical differences between the models and the works inspired THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 147

Fig. 9. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 31a. (Photo: Hadiye Fig. 10. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 31b. (Photo: Hadi- Cangökçe) ye Cangökçe) by them would become obvious when compared side by ­connoisseurship. Albums were often perused in small side.34 groups, and, as we can tell from the way images are often Thus the comparative framework can be thought of pasted onto album pages with different orientations, the almost as a default mode among calligraphers and poets audience would gather around the codex, sometimes in the Ottoman empire, as well as in the wider Perso- moving around it, sometimes turning it. They would un- Islamic world. Such a framework determined the way doubtedly have had conversations about what it is they not only Ottomans but other participants in Perso-Is- were looking at and discuss the visual characteristics of lamic visual culture often viewed paintings and poetry, the images, the qualities of the calligraphy, and the use especially in the context of albums or other compila- of colors or different inks. Comparisons would almost tions.35 Visual comparison of artworks, whether callig- certainly be made to works of art that were not in this raphy or painting, is closely related to the social contexts album, perhaps referencing other albums. The compar- of viewing in which these works are appreciated, ative mode in poetry, too, is in a way a gesture of con- for they are gestures that belong to the realm of noisseurship, for one needs to know both the original 148 EMİNE FETVACI and the parallel poem in order to appreciate fully the Ahmed I to appreciate the exact effect of Kalender’s full relationship between them and to judge their relative visual strategy, for the album was rebound.36 However, merits, thus inviting a competitive interpretation as codicological analysis with particular attention to the well. The connoisseurship aspect also explains the illumination shows that some folios in the album are movement of the gaze across the pages and back, com- still in their original order, making it possible to tease paring things that are not necessarily next to each other. out some of Kalender’s larger tactics. I would like to Such a viewing would require an excellent visual mem- briefly consider a few of these visual strategies that go ory and a storehouse of preexisting forms to draw upon beyond the single folio. with every new encounter. Their current physical state suggests that folios 17b and 18a belonged together in the original album (fig. 11). The maroon border around folio 17b extends across the ORDER album’s gutter to the inner border of folio 18a, joining these two with certainty. From this pairing we can see While comparative judgment is encouraged every time that the border colors did not need to be the same in a the viewer turns the page, the cumulative effects of single opening; indeed, the matching of a lighter and a browsing through the entire album, with its astonish- darker color seems to have been used elsewhere. The ingly rich contents, would have been even more intense. gold floral motif on the border, however, is similar It has not yet been possible to reconstruct the album of enough on the two pages to be considered a match.

Fig. 11. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fols. 17b–18a. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 149

Similarly, the ruling, which in this case consists of di- on one side and calligraphy on the other. But they have agonal strips of colored papers, is, while not identical, been arranged into frames that approximate each other closely related in its tones and hues in the two facing in size. They are thematically related to each other, very pages. The proportion of the border width to the text- much in the same vein of the earlier folios discussed block is also rather close on the two pages; that is to say, here. The paintings on folio 18a exemplify two kinds of the borders have similar proportions and width. love—the acceptable, demure kind of homosocializa- Let us consider another pairing that again retains tion in the bath scene above contrasts with carnal love traces of the original binding, folios 21b–22a (fig. 12). gone mad in the image below.37 That they are the op- Here, too, we have a page with a maroon border facing posite sides of the same coin becomes obvious only by one with a lighter border, with the maroon paper ex- comparison. Of the three poetic samples on the facing tending onto the facing page ever so slightly. The char- page, one discusses unrequited love, a second is about a acteristics of the previous paring are to be found here as beauty who plays with his curls, and the last one curses well: the borders have similarly sized and shaped golden those who do not want the beloved’s happiness. Folio design elements, the ruling has diagonal strips of col- 22a is a single page of text removed from a manuscript, ored paper on both pages, and the text-block is of quite and it is comparatively small in size. The space it occu- similar though not identical size. pies has been expanded through extensive illumination The contents of both pairings are distinct from each and the use of different colored papers; in fact, a whole other. In the case of folios 17b–18a, there are paintings composition has been orchestrated so that it matches

Fig. 12. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fols. 21b–22a. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) 150 EMİNE FETVACI

Fig. 13. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 7b. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe) the dimensions of the center portion of the facing folio, in terms of content. Consequently, one might conclude 21b. In turn, folio 21b contains six discrete pieces of writ- that various sections of the album were intended to have ing, two of which seem to have come out of the same thematic as well as stylistic coherence. See, for example, manuscript, or, to be more precise, the same cöng or the two sides of folios 31 and 32. I discussed folio 31 above sefīne, which were small books or literary miscellanies, in great detail (see figs. 9 and 10). Folio 32 (see figs. 7 and bound on the short end of their folios.38 The other four 8, also discussed above) contains sultanic portraits on are calligraphic panels. These differences highlight Kal- both sides. In this case the organizations of the backing ender’s effort to bring some visual unity to the pages. We pages are as similar as they are on folio 31, but their bor- can conclude from these pairings that Kalender’s modus ders are of different colors. Furthermore, both the inter- operandi involved creating double-page compositions nal organization and the framing of this folio match the that held together aesthetically. While the facing pages appearance of folio 7a (see fig. 6), featuring the first four did not at all need to be mirror images of each other, rulers of the house of Osman. Together these portraits they did have some amount of stylistic unity. add up to twelve, the correct number of Ottoman sul- The current state of the album provides us with an- tans culminating with Murad III, the last one portrayed other clue about the original ordering. It contains a large in the series.39 Although they may not have been adja- number of folios that have relevant works of art and cent pages, it is quite likely that originally these sultanic closely related compositions and illumination on both portraits would have been in the same part of the album. sides. The two sides would be matched with facing pag- Similarly, folio 31 has affinities with other pages earlier es that would also, in all likelihood, relate visually and in the album and may have been placed with them.40 THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 151

Fig. 14. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 28b. (Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe)

In addition to the presence of such folios, the current on its “a” side it features the four sultanic portraits men- arrangement of the album also suggests groupings of tioned previously, on the “b” side it contains two scenes thematic or visual relevance. A sense of different sec- from a historical manuscript that details earlier ances- tions still remains in the album, and there is no reason tors of the Ottomans (fig. 13). This arrangement suggests to believe it necessarily distorts the original order of that the album had a section that focused on Ottoman pages. It is even possible to think that works of art placed genealogy in the broader sense. Given that this is the in proximity to each other on opposite sides of folios, or case, folio 28, which also has a page from the same (or a on facing pages, had a much more intimate relationship similar) historical text about the Ottomans’ ancestors, to each other when the album was closed. They would would also belong in the earlier part of the book (fol. be mapped one to the other, in a way, as they would be 28b, fig. 14, compare with fig. 13). Its illumination and placed on top of each other.41 The few exceptions that borders are also akin to those other folios that contain do not fit into thematic sections appear to be bound out similar historical works. The consistent aesthetics of of place. Folio 7 offers even further sense of thematic Kalender’s framing also strengthens the link between continuity, a clue to the “sectioning” of the album. While these pages. 152 EMİNE FETVACI

CONCLUSION Kalender, as well as to admire the precision of his paper joinery and illumination work. This brief discussion of select folios from the album al- Kalender’s visual interventions suggest a movement lows us to infer some of Kalender’s larger visual and through the album that is not linear. Indeed with the content-related strategies. The album in its original multiple traverses back and forth to compare pages and form most likely had different sections that contained to trace potential narratives, each viewing of the album thematically related artworks. These sections had simi- becomes personalized. As the eye takes stock of the full lar aesthetic qualities as well, as is evident from the con- contents of the album, it becomes dazzled by the wealth sistent aesthetics of facing folios and backing sides. of materials, the variety of figures, and the diverse vi- Openings of two pages held together visually and often sual formulas that anchor these disparate works of art worked in unison to create meaning, building on the in the album. By gazing at the image-text relationships, motions of the eye as the gaze is directed by Kalender’s visual comparisons, ambiguous and suggestive relation- illumination and ordering of artworks. No two pages are ships, the viewer is seduced, astonished, and excited. identical, however, and the illumination is varied enough to create visual interest and keep the eye com- Department of History of Art and Architecture, Boston paring, moving back and forth. Kalender’s tactics on the University level of the individual folios or pairings—that is, the Boston, Mass. dazzling of the eye with plenty, the establishing of rela- tionships across frames, the suggestion of narrative, and the encouragement of the comparative gaze—are thus NOTES complemented by his choices for sections of the album 1. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, ca. 1610, Topkapı Palace and his overall curating choices. Museum Library, Ms. B. 408, fol. 2b, as transliterated and Kalender’s tactics draw upon the contemporaneous translated by Wheeler M. Thackston in appendix II of Serpil notion of the “scrutinizing gaze” examined by Necipoğlu Bağcı, “Presenting Vaṣṣāl Kalender’s Works: The Prefaces of in this volume.42 Word and image together inspire the Three Ottoman Albums,” Muqarnas 30 (2013): 255–313, at 303, 305–6: dāyimā cevāhir-i ʿirfān-ı ‛avārif ü le’ālī-i ma‛ānī scrutinizing gaze, and they are combined to good effect vü ma‛ārif birle ḳalb-i laṭīfleri memlū olmaġile ol dürer- here. Kalender himself already states in the beginning i ġurer-i ṣanāyi‛ ü bedāyi‛i sarāy-ı bī‛-ayb u serāperde-i of the album that images are tools to learning and sourc- lāreybde olan enfüs-i nefāyis-i maḳālāt ve aḥsen-i maḥāsin-i es of great wisdom.43 His manipulation of the gaze to muṣavverāt benāt-ı nükāta ḥilye-i ḥulel-i elfāẓ u ebṣārla zīver ü zīb verüp zīnet-i dilfirīb ile ḳulūb-ı cihānbānı firīfte ve ṭab‛-ı encourage contemplation is intended to enhance this ehl-i dilānı alüfte vü āşüfte itmişlerdür. For an overview of wisdom-inspiring capacity of the individual works of the album and its preface, see Bağcı, “Presenting Vaṣṣāl art. Kalender’s interventions are attempts to bring as- Kalender’s Works,” 263–69; Emine Fetvacı, “The Album of tonishment to the viewer and, through it, to inspire and Ahmed I,” Ars Orientalis 42 (2012): 127–38; Ahmed Süheyl Ünver, “L’Album d’Ahmed Ier,” Annali dell’Istituto Univer- educate. He does so by using unusual, exciting works of sitario orientale di Napoli, n.s., 13 (1963): 127–62. art, establishing ambiguous and changing visual rela- 2. These are my translations of these three specific terms, tionships among works on a single page, evoking con- which Thackston has chosen to convey contextually and temporaneous practices of comparison and imitation, not individually. 3. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 2b (Thackston, Appen- and juxtaposing word and image to create fluid themat- dix II, in Bağcı, “Presenting Vaṣṣāl Kalender’s Works,” 303, ic and visual relationships among the folios. His tactics 305): taḥṣīl-i sermāye-i ‛ilm-i ḥikmet ve sebeb-i tekmīl pīrāye-i appeal to the connoisseur’s careful eye, reminding us ‛ayn-ı ‛ibret olduğundan mā‛adā ol zāt-ı ferḫunde-sumāt-ı that this album was intended for a limited audience of pādişāh-ı ‛ālī-derecāta mūcib-i tenşīṭ-i ḫāṭır-ı ḫaṭīr u müste- courtiers whose training and acculturation would have vcib-i taṭyīb-i żamīr-i münīr ve ḳalb-ı müstenīr olmaḳ. 4. Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Scrutinizing Gaze in the Aesthetics sensitized them to such aesthetic notions. As these con- of Islamic Visual Cultures: Sight, Insight, and Desire,” in this noisseurs leafed through the album they would come to volume, p. 40. The “scrutinizing gaze” was first discussed appreciate the visual play and the connections set up by by Gülru Necipoğlu, The Topkapı Scroll: Geometry and THE GAZE IN THE ALBUM OF AHMED I 153

Ornament in Islamic Architecture (Santa Monica: Getty joinery. Gelibolulu Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī, Menāḳıb-ı Hünerverān Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1995), (Istanbul: Matbaa-i Amire, 1926), 76–77. Serpil Bağcı, “The 185–215, esp. 204–6. See also Gülru Necipoğlu, “L’idée de Falnama of Ahmed I,” in Falnama: The Book of Omens, ed. décor dans les régimes de visualité islamiques,” in Purs Massumeh Farhad with Serpil Bağcı (Washington, D.C.: décors? Arts de l’Islam, regards du XIXe siècle: Collections Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2009), des Arts Décoratifs, ed. Rémi Labrusse, exh. cat., Musée des 68–75, provides an English translation. Arts Décoratifs, Musée du Louvre (Paris: Arts Décoratifs, 12. Emine Fetvacı, “Enriched Narratives and Empowered Musée du Louvre, 2007), 10–23. Images in Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Manuscripts,” 5. Necipoğlu, Topkapı Scroll, 204. Ars Orientalis 40 (2011): 243–66. The same was true of Safa- 6. Avinoam Shalem, “The Idol (Sanam) or the Man without a vid courtiers, too, and built on Timurid-era practices. Soul: A Short Note on a Unique Illustration in the Kalila wa 13. See David J. Roxburgh, The Persian Album, 1400–1600: From Dimna Manuscript (cod. Arab. 625) in the Bavarian State Dispersal to Collection (New Haven and London: Yale Uni- Library in Munich,” in The Phenomenon of “Foreign” in Ori- versity Press, 2005), fig. 108. ental Art, ed. Annette Hagedorn (Wiesbaden: Reichert Ver- 14. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fol. 14a: Zahī sharmanda lag, 2006), 61–70, esp. 64–65. Shalem quotes from Kalila and gulbarg-i tar az tū / Ḥalāvat vām karda shakar az tū / Marā Dimna; or, The Fables of Bidpai, trans. Wyndham Knatch- har shab be-yād-i rū-yi khūbat / Gul va lāla damad dar bull (Oxford: W. Baxter for J. Parker, 1819; repr., Cairo, 1905), bastar az tū. 48, and points to the Arabic original in Kitab Kalila wa 15. Ibid., fol. 11b: Shab-i Qadr ast ve ṭay shud nāma-i hijr / Dimna (Beirut, n.d.), 63. Salām fi ḥattā maṭlaʿ al-fajr / Man az rindī na khvāham kard 7. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fols. 3a–3b (Thackston, tavba / Walaw aadhatnī bī’l-hajr wa’l ḥajar. Appendix II, in Bağcı, “Presenting Vaṣṣāl Kalender’s 16. Walter G. Andrews and Mehmet Kalpaklı, The Age of Works,” 304, 306): her birisinin biri birisine münāsebeti ile Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman tertīb olunup and muḳaṭṭa‛āt u taṣvīrāt evrāḳını biri biri- and European Culture and Society (Durham, N.C., and Lon- sine münāsebeti ile envā‛-ı reng-āmīz kâğıdlara vaṣl edüp don: Duke University Press, 2005), 109. I am grateful to Pro- muraḳḳa‛ etmeği. fessor Andrews for this suggestion. 8. Ibid., fol. 4a (Thackston, Appendix II, in Bağcı, “Presenting 17. Folio 10b, which faces 11a, has lyric poetry similar in tone Vaṣṣāl Kalender’s Works,” 304, 306): rengāreng olan naḳş-ı to those discussed above, and folio 28a, which faces folio būḳalemūnī ebrī vü sulṭānī vü aḥmedābādī vü devletābādī vü 27b, has other paintings that do not seem to relate to 27b. I ḫitāyī vü ‛adilşāhī vü ḥarīrī vü semerḳandī evrāḳtur ve eger suspect it was not originally meant to face folio 27b. ṣan‛at-ı vaṣṣālīde her bir ḳıṭ‛anuñ kenārlarına fereskūrī alaca 18. See n. 7 above. This is my translation; Thackston, Appen- ḳumāş ṭarzında ikişer ü üçer ḳāt ḫurde evrāḳtur ḫurdebīnān dix II, in Bağcı, “Presenting Vaṣṣāl Kalender’s Works,” 306, u ḫurdedān ehl-i ‛irfāna ḫafī vü pūşīde değildür her birisine translates the phrase as “each with some conformity to the im‛ān-ı naẓarla iltifāt müte‛alliḳ olsa inşā’allāhu te‛ālā çār others.” gūşeleri vü muḳābelesi cemī‛an biri birisine eger renginde 19. With Murad II abdicating the throne in favor of his son vü eger cirminde vü ṭūl-ı ‛arżında muvāfıḳ u muṭābıḳ vāḳi‛ Mehmed II between 1444 and 1448 and then ruling again olmıştur. between 1448 and 1451, with Mehmed II then ruling until 9. I have discussed some of these in “Love in the Album of 1481. Ahmed I,” Journal of Turkish Studies 34, 2 (Fall 2010): 37–51. 20. Gülru Necipoğlu, “Word and Image: The Serial Portraits 10. For an excellent discussion of these notions and their of Ottoman Sultans in Comparative Perspective,” in The embodiment in the ʿAjāʾib al Makhlūqāt (Wonders of Cre- Sultan’s Portrait: Picturing the House of Osman, ed. Selmin ation) manuscripts, see Persis Berlekamp, Wonder, Image Kangal, exh. cat., Topkapı Palace Museum (Istanbul: İş and Cosmos in Medieval Islam (New Haven and London: Bankası, 2000), 22–61. Yale University Press, 2011). The Wonders of Creation text 21. Emine Fetvacı, “From Print to Trace: An Ottoman Imperial was translated into Ottoman Turkish in the late sixteenth Portrait Book and Its Western European Models,” Art Bul- century and was illustrated numerous times during the letin 95, 2 (June 2013): 243–68. late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, as Ber- 22. Gülru Necipoğlu, “Challenging the Past: Sinan and the lekamp also points out (157–61). Thus it would have been Competitive Discourse of Early Modern Islamic Architec- well known to Ahmed I, Kalender, and their courtly circle. ture,” Muqarnas 10 (1993): 169–80, esp. 176. Necipoğlu also reminds us in her contribution to the pres- 23. Walter Feldman, “Imitatio in Ottoman Poetry: Three ent volume that according to al-Ghazali, “visual beauty Ghazals of the Mid-Seventeenth Century,” Turkish Studies could induce in those spiritually or intellectually inclined Association Bulletin 21, 2 (1997): 41–58, esp. 42. a contemplation of the wonders of creation.” Necipoğlu, 24. Walter Andrews, “Starting Over Again: Some Suggestions “Scrutinizing Gaze,” 33. for Rethinking Ottoman Divan Poetry in the Context of 11. Kalender, Album of Ahmed I, fols. 29, 30: Vaṣṣālī-yi nādire. Translation and Transmission,” in Translations: (Re)Shap- Additionally, Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī in his Menāḳıb-ı Hünerverān (Epic ing of Literature and Culture, ed. Saliha Paker (Istanbul: Deeds of Artists) refers to Kalender as a master of paper Boğaziçi University Press, 2002), 15–37. 154 EMİNE FETVACI

25.I bid. contains a scene from a historical manuscript regarding the 26. Hatice Aynur, “Ottoman Literature,” in The Cambridge His- Ottomans’ ancestors that is clearly linked with folios 6b, 7b, tory of Turkey, ed. Suraiya Faroqhi (Cambridge: Cambridge and 8a. Folio 32 contains the eight sultanic portraits that University Press, 2006–9), 4:503. belong with folio 7a. Their content suggests that they are 27. Fatih Köksal, Sana Benzer Güzel Olmaz: Divan Şiirinde currently bound out of place and that the order of at least Nazire (Ankara: Akçaǧ Yayınları, 2006), 70. some (if not all) of the folios has changed. 28. Ibid. The collection is in the Topkapı Palace Library, Ms. B 37. I have written more extensively about these folios in “Love 406. in the Album of Ahmed I.” 29. Feldman, “Imitatio in Ottoman Poetry,” 43. 38. See David J. Roxburgh, “Jong,” in Encyclopedia Iranica, 30. Aynur, “Ottoman Literature,” 483, 496. www/iranicaonline.org (accessed May 26, 2014). 31. According to Haluk İpekten, Karamanlı Nizâmî Divanı 39. One odd characteristic of these portraits must be men- (Ankara: Atatürk Üniversitesi Yayınları, 1974), 27, since tioned, however: they appear to be in reverse order. If the naẓīre collections include poems that have a wide variety order were from earliest to latest, we would expect the “b” of relationships to earlier poems, our definition of naẓīre side of folio 7 to have the images of sultans 5–8. Instead, must also be kept loose. there is a different kind of historical painting here. Judging 32. See Fetvacı, “Album of Ahmed I,” for an elaboration of this from the thinner inner frame on the right side of folio 7a, it competitive idea. is not bound on the wrong side. Folio 32 also appears to be 33. For a detailed discussion of such comparative judgment, bound on the appropriate side based on the frame designs see David J. Roxburgh, “‘The Eye Is Favored for Seeing and proportions, and its “a” side contains images of sultans the Writing’s Form’: On the Sensual and the Sensuous in 9–12, with the “b” side containing images of sultans 5–8. Islamic Calligraphy,” Muqarnas 25 (2008): 275–98; Rox- Furthermore, the order of sultans 5–8 itself is reversed on burgh, Persian Album, 85–87. the page, going from the bottom to the top. 34. Roxburgh, “Eye Is Favored,” 7–15. 40. For example, folios 9b, 11b, 12b. 35. Roxburgh, Persian Album, esp. 85–147. 41. I thank Avinoam Shalem for this suggestion. 36. Two folios currently at the back of the album (folios 28 42. Necipoğlu, “Scrutinizing Gaze.” and 32) are clearly related to earlier materials. Folio 28 43. See n. 3 above; Fetvacı, “Album of Ahmed I.”

Abstract

This essay explores the visual rhythms of an album pre- pared for the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617), examines how they direct the gaze, and investigates the tools used to guide the viewer’s experience of the object. The album works as an aid to the “scrutinizing gaze” (imʿān-i naẓar), and the album maker’s interventions were intended to guide viewers to a higher level of un- derstanding by encouraging them to gaze with contem- plation. Some of the tactics employed include the inclusion of a vast variety of material with unusual sub- ject matter; the establishment of word-image relation- ships among the elements on a single page or on an opening of two pages; the loose organization of visual materials to suggest narratives; and the construction of relationships across frames that are at times purely predicated on the visual. Most important, the album pages invite the eye to go back and forth, and to use the comparative gaze.

Key words

Ahmed I, Kalender Pasha, album, calligraphy, painting, poetry, drawing, Ottoman, scrutinizing gaze, nazire, comparison, imperial portraiture A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 155

Matthew D. Saba

A Restricted Gaze: The Ornament of the Main Caliphal Palace of Samarra

The vast palaces of Samarra are well known for their ar- his finds.6 His immediate successors adopted his tripar- chitectural ornament. The Abbasid dynasty of Iraq (750– tite typology, and a number of studies have appeared 1258) founded Samarra on the banks of the Tigris in 836 debating the origins and relative chronology of these and used it as an imperial capital for a number of de- three styles.7 More recently, scholars have shifted atten- cades, returning to Baghdad in 892. The city shrank after tion toward the possible cultural resonances of Samar- the departure of the court, leaving a large area open to ra’s architectural ornament, relating the tendencies archaeological exploration. Surveys and excavations at toward abstraction and complexity so indicative of this the site during the first two decades of the twentieth material to contemporary aesthetic interests.8 The other century revealed that many of its palaces and smaller types of architectural ornament found at the site have domestic structures had extensive interior decorations, received less attention. the most common form of embellishment being dadoes One problem that scholarship on Samarra’s orna- made of stucco carved with repeating vegetal patterns. ment has not fully addressed is that the fragments of Several early publications introduced the art and ar- doors, walls, and ceilings excavated from the site are chitecture of Samarra to the scholarly world.1 Most in- usually studied as individual pieces, with little reference fluential were the publications of Ernst Herzfeld, a to their original context as parts of buildings. In both German archaeologist who conducted the first major museum displays and scholarly articles, single examples excavation at the site in 1911–13.2 Herzfeld found hun- tend to stand alone as a masterpiece or serve as indica- dreds of panels of carved stucco as well as more frag- tive examples of a style or other artistic phenomenon. mentary samples of marble, wood, glass, and ceramic As Marcus Milwright has argued, however, the experi- decorative elements. Many of these finds were pub- ence of a viewer entering an extensively ornamented lished in a series of catalogues during the 1920s, and a space must have been one of the key factors determining sample was put on display in Berlin at the Kaiser-Fried- the design of Samarra’s decorations, in addition to costs, rich-Museum (fig. 1).3 The material from Herzfeld’s ex- resources, and manpower.9 The implication is that to cavations is currently dispersed among a number of fully appreciate the ornament of Samarra, it is necessary museum collections, and some has been lost.4 to understand how its designers intended their original Samarra’s architectural ornament has received a audience to see it. I want to push this idea further here: great deal of attention since then, especially the carved where, exactly, were these fragments of walls, floors, and stucco wall panels, whose abstract designs quickly ceilings located within Samarra’s monuments? Who got caught the attention of art historians.5 In his publica- to see them, and under what circumstances? How might tions, Herzfeld approached this material in terms of these factors affect our understanding of them? style: he identified three styles of carved ornament at This article utilizes archaeological evidence and tex- Samarra, naming them the First Style (also known as the tual sources to imagine the ornament of Samarra’s Main Beveled Style), the Second Style, and the Third Style ac- Caliphal Palace, known in Arabic as the Dār al-Khilāfa, cording to the relative frequency of their occurrence in from the vantage point of a hypothetical viewer, a guest

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P09 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 155-195 156 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 1. Exhibition of carved stucco wall panels and ceramics from Samarra in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin, Hall 14, in 1922. (Photo: Gustav Schwarz, courtesy of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

to the palace during its period of occupancy in the mid- studies also draw on Herzfeld’s archive to reconstruct ninth century. I focus on the ornament of just one sec- ornament programs at their respective sites. tion of this monument, its main Audience Hall Complex. In the second part of the article, I turn to the context This investigation requires two distinct steps under- in which the ornamented Audience Hall Complex taken in two parts. Because the findings from Herzfeld’s would have been experienced: the official audience. I excavation of the Main Caliphal Palace were never fully revisit a group of celebrated texts describing official au- published, I first present his documentation of the com- diences under the Abbasids along with interpretations plex preserved in archival collections to make an argu- of these texts by other scholars to highlight the protocol ment for the placement of various types of ornament used during these events. It is clear from such accounts and specific patterns within its rooms. Herzfeld’s notes, that movements within the palace were strictly con- photographs, and sketches made during and after his trolled, and what individuals could see depended very excavations at the site make it possible to understand much on their rank. One implication is that the care- the original locations of the carved panels that once cov- fully designed ornament program presented in the first ered the lower half of the complex’s walls and to hazard part of the article would have been only partly visible to guesses about the decorations in the upper reaches of most palace guests. the rooms. Analyses of Herzfeld’s other excavations un- I conclude by pointing to the ideology of a “restricted dertaken by Thomas Leisten and Trudy S. Kawami serve gaze” facilitated by this decorative program, whose vis- as methodological models for this discussion.10 These ibility would have depended on the status of the viewer. A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 157

THE PLAN AND ORNAMENT OF drawn from Herzfeld’s documentation and Herzfeld’s SAMARRA’S AUDIENCE HALL COMPLEX own conclusions that, due to the vicissitudes of history, were never articulated in print. Herzfeld excavated part of Samarra’s Main Caliphal Pal- ace during his second season at Samarra, which began The palace plan during the first week of December 1912 and ran for near- Among the notable features that scholars have identi- ly seven months, until July 18, 1913.11 The findings of the fied for the palaces at Samarra are their immense scale, excavation were briefly summarized in a preliminary their restricted access, and their sprawling plans.19 Situ- report, which described the plan and ornamentation of ated on bluffs along the Tigris that afforded vistas over the Main Caliphal Palace in general terms.12 Many but the surrounding plains, these palaces took full advan- not all of the artifacts excavated were later published in tage of the space and landscape available in Samarra to the Ausgrabungen von Samarra catalogues, with infor- effectively represent the caliph’s sovereignty.20 Samar- mation on dimensions, findspots, and physical descrip- ra’s Main Caliphal Palace embodies many of these traits. tions. K. A. C. Creswell quoted Herzfeld’s preliminary It was a massive complex that spanned 125 hectares and report at length in translation in the second part of his included gardens, game parks, and living quarters in ad- Early Muslim Architecture, which also provided illustra- dition to its audience halls and courtyards (fig. 2). The tions of indicative finds.13 These reports were meant to palace was built at the foundation of Samarra in 836 by serve as an overview but were never followed up by a the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtasim bi’llah (r. 833–42). It was synthetic presentation of the architecture.14 A full pub- probably inhabited for most of the period of the city’s lication of the architecture is still under way.15 Thus, occupation by the court until 892. Alastair Northedge while a great deal of finds information is published, it is has interpreted the plan as divided into two major difficult to connect finds to locations within excavated ­portions. According to his interpretation, the southern buildings on the site without consulting a number of portion of the complex, centered on a row of axially ar- sources, including unpublished archival materials. ranged gardens, courtyards, and halls, constitutes the Documentation related to Herzfeld’s excavation of public portion of the palace, referred to as the Dār the Main Caliphal Palace is preserved in the Archives of al-ʿĀmma (Public Palace) in texts. This portion of the the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gal- palace is shown in figure 2. Northedge interprets the lery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the rectangular double-walled enclosure just to the north of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Mu- this complex as private quarters, possibly to be identi- seum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Ber- fied with the toponym al-Jawsaq al-Khāqānī.21 lin.16 Of particular importance is Herzfeld’s Second All excavations at this site to date have taken place in Campaign Diary, now housed in the Freer and Sackler the southern, public portion of the complex. The plan Archives, in which he recorded the progress of the Main of its main axis is thus well established. From west to Caliphal Palace’s excavation.17 Also critical to under- east, first came a monumental, three-arched gate facing standing the excavation are Herzfeld’s sketchbooks and the floodplain of the Tigris River, usually identified in Finds Journal, the latter a handwritten inventory of finds scholarly literature as the Bāb al-ʿĀmma (Public Gate) from the excavations with sketches, findspot informa- but which I will refer to as the Western Gate. Immedi- tion, and brief descriptions of the objects.18 The infor- ately behind this gate comes a block of halls and courts, mation in these resources ranges from synthetic dubbed “the Reception-Hall Block” by Northedge.22 This statements to disconnected descriptions of specific block, in turn, opens on its east to a large open courtyard finds, however, and certain data are available only in the usually called the Great Courtyard or Great Esplanade form of sketches or photographs. It has thus been neces- in scholarly descriptions. Farther east still is a complex sary at times to draw conclusions not explicitly stated in whose form suggests that it served as leisure grounds. At but rather implied by Herzfeld’s records. In the follow- its center is a sardāb, or pool of water sunk below ground ing, I have tried to distinguish between my conclusions level surrounded by rooms opening onto it. To its north 158 MATTHEW D. SABA rzfeld) e H nst r E chaeological Survey, after r A an: Samarra l P lace of Samarra. ( a P liphal a C l P i F g. 2. an of the Main A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 159

F ig. 3. Plan of the Audience Hall Complex of the Main Caliphal Palace of Samarra. (Plan: Samarra Archaeological Survey, with my annotations) and south are two courtyards with pavilions in the form The original use of this space remains enigmatic, but of iwans, and to its east are a polo grounds and stables. halls of private audience (majlis al-khāṣṣa) are one pos- Northedge has argued that this entire recreational com- sibility. plex was possibly a later addition to the palace, for it is This article is concerned with the cruciform Audi- aligned with a racecourse that clearly overlays an older ence Hall Complex (fig. 3). The identification of this course.23 It is possible that the area south of the Great space as an audience hall, first articulated by Herzfeld Courtyard also contained an important entrance to the in his notes, rests on its sophisticated architectural palace, given its communication with one of the city’s form.26 One enters the complex on all four sides from major avenues.24 open courtyards through a portico, which in turn gives The Reception-Hall Block at the western end of the onto a long covered hall. Clear traces of column founda- palace is composed of a series of entry halls, followed by tions and shards of broken window glass found in these a courtyard and then by a group of covered halls forming halls led Herzfeld to conclude that each had columns, a cross, traditionally identified as an audience hall. Im- four per side, which supported a central bay higher than mediately south of this cruciform Audience Hall Com- the surrounding rooms with clerestory windows.27 plex is another group of richly decorated rooms centered Flanking these halls were a series of smaller side rooms. on a domed hall surrounded by an ambulatory. Herzfeld At the center of the complex was a square chamber that called this space the “Harem,” given his finds of figural Herzfeld believed held a wooden dome due to its shape wall paintings in the debris around the domed hall.25 and the noticeable lack of debris from a plaster ceiling.28 160 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 4. Part of the central axis of the Main Caliphal Palace of Samarra shown after Ernst Herzfeld’s excavations in 1913, view facing west from the East Columned Hall in the Audience Hall Complex toward the back of the Western Gate. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 04.PF.22.041. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution)

This architectural form (a long covered hall preceded by see the area cleared by Herzfeld’s team stretching to the a courtyard) has several immediate historical prece- back of the Western Gate. This space included the five dents, for example at Ukhaydir and Mshatta, also inter- axially aligned entry halls and two courtyards immedi- preted by scholars as audience halls.29 The structure at ately behind the Western Gate. Samarra’s Main Caliphal Palace is notably more com- There is evidence that the plan of the Audience Hall plex, however, with four identical oblong halls situated Complex was modified over time. These changes main- on the axis of the Central Square Chamber. Because ly had to do with the Central Square Chamber itself. each of its modules is roughly aligned with the cardinal Herzfeld noted that openings had been pierced into the directions, I will refer to the various components of the short stretches of wall located between the Central complex with the associated cardinal direction, for ex- Square Chamber and the spaces behind the arcades of ample, West Columned Hall, East Portico, South Court- the columned halls, two being refilled again at a later yard, and Central Square Chamber (see the labeled plan date, indicating multiple building phases (fig. 5). In ad- in fig. 3). dition, Herzfeld mentioned that he found evidence of Figure 4 shows the area just described after Herzfeld’s the basin of a fountain that was originally set into the 1913 excavation. The photograph was taken from the floor but was later bricked over or blocked up (zuge- eastern end of the Audience Hall Complex. In the fore- setzt).30 No such basin is readily identifiable in photo- ground lies the East Columned Hall. Immediately be- graphs taken of the Central Square Chamber, although hind it is the Central Square Chamber. The figure in the the pavement is sketched and labeled in his notebooks.31 center of the photograph is standing at the western side More significant, Herzfeld mentioned evidence for the of the Central Square Chamber. Beyond him, one can remains of a floor some 70 centimeters below the level A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 161

F ig. 5. Detail of page 88 from Ernst Herzfeld’s Second Campaign Diary, with sketches showing alterations made to the walls of the Central Square Chamber. In the sketch on the right, new openings in the walls are marked with the letter a. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 07.09. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution) of the top floor in the Central Square Chamber, on top ­evidence, and photographs of the space show that the of which was a backfill layer.32 There was no evidence, columns had been removed long before the excava- however, for lower floors in the surrounding rooms or tion.36 Supporting his statement, however, is the fact for steps leading from the doorsills into the Central that he also found column shafts made of white marble Square Chamber, so Herzfeld concluded that this lower in a room southwest of the Audience Hall Complex and floor was a mistake quickly repaired during the founda- a large stone column base just north of this room, dem- tion phase of the palace and not evidence that the Audi- onstrating the use of these materials for columns in the ence Hall Complex was part of a renovation.33 Another palace.37 The fact that no marble columns were found possibility is that this earlier floor pre-dated the Samar- in situ does not contradict Herzfeld’s theory, as such ra period. Textual sources do mention that the public items would surely have been taken from the site and palace of al-Muʿtasim was founded on the site of a mon- reused elsewhere after the court abandoned the palace astery.34 Other than these changes, Northedge has not- in or around 892. ed evidence of modification to the portico leading from Herzfeld also advanced the theory in his preliminary the East Columned Hall onto the Great Courtyard. report that the dadoes of the columned halls and their Namely, the piers and walls of this structure are substan- porticoes were clad with marble slabs carved with vari- tially larger than those surrounding it, indicating that it ous repeat patterns.38 This theory has been assumed to might be part of a separate building phase.35 be true since then,39 but the argument for it has never been articulated. I will take time to present that evi- The wall ornament of the Audience Hall Complex dence here, as it also allows for further arguments made The surface ornament in the Audience Hall Complex or implied in Herzfeld’s Second Campaign Diary regard- echoes the sense of gravity achieved through the ground ing the specific character and arrangement of the mar- plan. Herzfeld’s findings demonstrate that the transition ble dadoes in these halls. from the block of halls to the west is marked by a notable Scarcely any marble paneling was found in situ in the improvement in the quality of materials used for surface Audience Hall Complex, but the architectural remains cladding and the complexity of their arrangement as strongly support the idea that the bottom half of the side part of a cohesive decorative program. walls in all four columned halls and adjoining porticoes First, let us address the question of building materi- were indeed clad in white marble with blue veins. A als. Herzfeld stated in his Second Campaign Diary that photograph taken in the West Portico makes the ar- the columns of the columned halls were made of mar- chaeological situation clear (fig. 6). It shows a section of ble, although he never supported the point with the south wall about 2 meters long where the layer of 162 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 6. Impressions of marble slabs in plaster bedding found on the south wall of the West Portico in the Audience Hall Complex. The “impression of a Byzantine panel” mentioned in the handwritten notes below the photograph is visible to the right. Note also the large excavated column shaft (?) behind the wall. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 04.PF.22.042 (Photo: courtesy of Smithsonian Institution) plaster that coated the baked brick wall is exposed. The at least three and, in all likelihood, all four of the col- photograph shows concave impressions in the plaster umned halls of the Audience Hall Complex. In addition marked by irregularly spaced vertical ridges. To the left, to the spot on the south wall of the West Portico just a marble baseboard element with a beaded pattern is described, I have identified photographs and drawings preserved in situ just below floor level, with part of a in Herzfeld’s archive that document concave impres- panel still attached above it, demonstrating conclusive- sions of irregularly sized marble slabs on the south and ly that these impressions were made from marble pan- east walls of the West Columned Hall,41 the north and els. To the right is an impression in the plaster made by east walls of the South Columned Hall,42 and the south another rectangular panel, this time with a carved de- wall of the East Columned Hall (fig. 7).43 sign, placed horizontally into the wall. Herzfeld attrib- It is also possible to propose the specific character of uted this impression to a “Byzantine panel.”40 While these marble dadoes because a large number of marble Herzfeld’s specific attribution to Byzantium is debat- fragments used for wall facings were found in the rubble able, this imprint is clearly from a carved panel taken of the Audience Hall Complex as well as elsewhere in from another monument and reused here. the palace. These fragments are identifiable as pieces of From Herzfeld’s photographs and drawings, it is pos- wall facing by their flat, rectilinear shape as well as by sible to deduce that marble paneling of this sort covered the presence of holes drilled in their sides ranging from A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 163

F ig. 7. Page 25 from Ernst Herzfeld’s Samarra Ornament Sketchbook. Sketches depict a corner fragment of carved and blue-painted stucco from a collapsed arcade element found in one of the columned halls (top), and impressions made by marble slabs in plaster bedding found in situ on east wall of the South Columned Hall in the Audience Hall Complex (cen- ter and bottom). Herzfeld’s caption for top sketch reads: Eckstück im [?] T-Raum Ostreihe blau bemalt. The caption for bottom sketch reads: Thürrahmen; südl. T-Zimmer. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Department of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, eeh1500. (Photo: courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art) 164 MATTHEW D. SABA

.8 to 1.2 centimeters in diameter (figs. 8 and 9), like those ­fragment with part of a beaded border.54 Based on this in marble wall panels excavated from other early Islam- evidence, Herzfeld reconstructed a full dado decorated ic sites in Syria-Palestine.44 These may have been holes with this pattern and framed by a beaded border.55 for metal clamps used to hold the panels in place, ex- The fourth and final pattern is composed of a five- amples of which were found in the excavations.45 As for lobed leaf motif (oriented upside down) attached by a decoration, the vast majority of the many fragments clasp to a five-pronged fan. At the clasp are two rounded from marble wall panels excavated by Herzfeld are knobs. The spaces in between these “palmette-fans” are carved with one of just four patterns.46 This observation shaped as double-pointed spades (fig. 13).56 This pattern convinced Herzfeld that the dadoes of the Audience is the most complex of the four. Like the previous two Hall Complex bore these same patterns. I will review the patterns, the palmette-fan is found on panels with bead- four patterns here, all of which appear in Herzfeld’s Der ed border elements attached.57 Unlike the others, there Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine Orna- is no example of a marble fragment in which the pattern mentik (1923). is repeated side to side, although it does appear in stuc- The first pattern that appears on fragments of marble co as a repeat pattern (as seen in fig. 15). Two further wall facings excavated from the Audience Hall Complex anomalies should be mentioned: both Herzfeld and the consists of horseshoe shapes in alternating rows (fig. Iraqi excavations in the 1930s uncovered examples of a 10).47 Among the pieces found are slabs large enough to marble slab with this motif in which the palmette-fan is show that this pattern was repeated to cover substantial repeated up and down and another with a beaded bor- surfaces.48 Several pieces had bits of beaded border pat- der on either side of just one motif.58 Thus, in addition terns attached, oriented both vertically (to be used as a to being used part of a repeat pattern for a long dado as side border) and horizontally (as a baseboard or top bor- Herzfeld suggested in Der Wandschmuck der Bauten von der).49 This evidence suggests that the palace contained Samarra und seine Ornamentik,59 marble slabs carved one or more dadoes of marble carved with the horse- with the palmette-fan motif must have also been shoe pattern, framed on all four sides by beaded bor- mounted individually as door frames, possibly in con- ders. junction with dadoes that had other patterns. The second pattern found on the fragments of marble The marble panels of these dadoes, then, were carved wall panels was composed of trefoil motifs interlocking in one of four patterns in the Beveled Style. In one in- in alternation with vase-shaped motifs. The trefoil mo- stance, Herzfeld’s notes indicate “traces of red color” on tifs were joined together at their bases by arched bands a panel.60 While virtually no traces of these pigments (fig. 11).50 For simplicity’s sake, I will call this the “vase- remain visible on the fragments I examined, the idea of trefoil” motif. As was the case with the marble fragments painted marble dadoes is not far-fetched. Carved marble bearing the horseshoe pattern, the vase-trefoil frag- wall facings employed at other early and medieval Is- ments were found in large enough slabs with and with- lamic sites had color.61 However, the fact that Herzfeld out border elements attached to suggest that they, too, does not mention any other traces of paint on these were joined together horizontally to form large dadoes marbles (at least to my knowledge) is cautionary: this framed by beaded borders.51 may be a case in which a piece of marble was colored at The third pattern found on the marble fragments a later date, and until further analysis is undertaken on consists of petal-shaped forms alternating with elon- the marble fragments from Samarra the possibility of gated stems rising from large, circular bases (fig. 12). Due coloration must be considered a hypothesis only. to the appearance of this pattern in various media at the To summarize the argument presented above: ar- site, Herzfeld called it the “Samarra Frieze.”52 Marble chaeological evidence supports Herzfeld’s claim that all fragments carved with this pattern in museum collec- four columned halls and their porticoes had facings on tions include both molding elements and wall panels, the lower halves of their walls composed of slabs of providing evidence for different uses.53 In at least one white marble with blue striations. These slabs were instance the pattern appears on a flat wall panel carved in one of four patterns in the Beveled Style. Two A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 165

8 9 F igs. 8 and 9. Fragment of a marble wall panel with vase-trefoil motif found at Samarra, views of front and side with pin hole, exact findspot unknown (Herzfeld IN 256), 18.8 cm (height) × 17.2 (width) × 6.5 cm (max. depth). Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, acc. no. Sam. I. 477. (Photo: courtesy of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

F ig. 10. Fragment of a marble wall panel with horseshoe motif found in the Audience Hall Complex (Herzfeld IN 911). Cur- rent location of fragment unknown. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 PF.04.19.128 (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution) 166 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 11. Fragments of a marble wall panel Fig. 12. Fragment of marble wall panel with what Ernst Herzfeld called the “Sa- with vase-trefoil motif found in an area marra Frieze” motif, found in an area south of the Audience Hall Complex (Herz­ south of the Audience Hall Complex (Her- feld IN 883). Current location of fragment unknown. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, zfeld IN 791). Current location of frag- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian ments unknown. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, ­Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 04.PF.22.178. (Photo: courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Smithsonian Institution) Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 04.PF.19.118. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Insti- tution) A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 167

annotated maps in Herzfeld’s notebooks allow for fur- ther speculation regarding the placement of specific pat- terns in the four marble-clad halls as well as the other rooms in the complex. The first is preserved in his Sec- ond Campaign Diary (fig. 14). Each room is labeled with a letter (f – k). Corresponding notes in the diary indicate that the letter f signifies dadoes made of marble slabs carved in one of the four patterns identified above, letter i stands for stucco dadoes carved with the palmette-fan pattern, and letter k stands for stucco dadoes carved in the vase-trefoil pattern.62 Photographs confirm Herz­ feld’s map, showing that these two patterns dominated the complex’s wall ornament, alternating between rooms (fig. 15).63 The two other letters, g and h, signify two new pat- terns. Letter g, which appears in the two rooms south- west and southeast of the Central Square Chamber, indicates a pattern of shaped marble slabs. As is clear in photographs taken on-site, this pattern consisted of con- fronted pencil-tips in pink and gray marble with a row of diamonds in white in between (fig. 16).64 The beaded borders carved in white marble with blue veins that we have come to expect surrounded the dado.65 Letter h, which appears in the two rooms northwest and north- east of the Central Square Chamber, stands for a door frame motif closely related to the palmette-fan pattern (fig. 17).66 In a later version of this same map, Herzfeld labeled each room with the name of the specific pattern (fig. 18).67 This version places the patterns in the same order, except that Herzfeld further suggested specific patterns for each of the columned halls with marble dadoes: the horseshoe pattern (Hufeisen) for the West Columned Hall, the vase-trefoil pattern (Vasen) for the East Col- umned Hall, and the palmette-fan (Palmetten) for the South Columned Hall. Because the marble slabs were all removed, there is no way to be sure that these specific attributions are correct, but the idea that each columned hall had just one pattern, and each was different, is plau- F ig. 13. Photograph of a marble wall panel with palmette-fan sible given that in all of the other rooms only one pattern motif found in the South Columned Hall of the Audience Hall Complex. Current location of panel: Istanbul, Türk ve was used. İslam Eserleri Müzesi, acc. no. 2434. Photo: Ernst Herzfeld Figure 19 combines Herzfeld’s notes and photographs Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the subsequent work undertaken by Iraqi teams Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 published in 1982 in the northeastern corner of the 04.PF.19.089. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution) A­ udience Hall Complex, where the same patterns were 168 MATTHEW D. SABA m- a C stitution) n eer Gallery I r F pers, a P rzfeld e mplex is labeled with letters o H C ll nst a r E H dience oto: courtesy of the Smithsonian rzfeld, foldout preserved in his Second u h e A P H e h T nst r E 6 07.09. ( . A

A signify specific patterns. S F k , – . g C lace excavated by a P shington, D. a liphal W a C stitution, n I ) representing the room’s wall ornament. x and a–o ock in Samarra’s Main l B ll a H chives, Smithsonian r A signifies marble dadoes carved in one of four repeat patterns, and f ch room is labeled with a letter ( a thur M. Sackler Gallery E r A l this case, P n I . t and r k A – i f

of paign Diary. F g. 14. an of areas of the Reception A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 169

A S F , . C shington, D. a W stitution, n I ree rooms are visible here, each with a h T mplex. o C ll a chives, Smithsonian r H A dience u A thur M. Sackler Gallery r A t and r A stitution) n I eer Gallery of r F pers, a P rzfeld e H nst r E oto: courtesy of the Smithsonian h P 19.119. ( . F P 6 04. . i F g. 15. View of stucco and marble dadoes found in the southwestern quadrant of the A different dado pattern. 170 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 16. View of the south and west walls of corner room between the South Columned Hall and the West Columned Hall in the Audience Hall Complex, decorated with a dado made of shaped marble pieces arranged in a repeat pattern. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 04.PF.22.052. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution)

Fig. 17. View of the west wall and doorway of the corner room between the East Columned Hall and the North Columned Hall in the Audience Hall Complex, decorated with carved stucco door frames only. Note also the “field train” visible in the background. The field train ran through the palace’s central axis and was used to clear debris and transport finds from the site. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washing- ton, D.C., FSA A.6 04.PF.22.051. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution) A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 171 , chives, r A Marmor Palmetten , ch room is labeled with a E thur M. Sackler Gallery r mplex. A o C ll a t and H r A dience u A Marmor Hufeisen, Marmor Vasen stitution) n I eer Gallery of r F pers, a P Palm. Türrahm , , rzfeld e Vasen H , nst r E Palmetten oto: courtesy of the Smithsonian h P bels include: 6 07.29. ( a . L chitectural Studies Sketchbook 9 with plan of the A r

A A S F , . C rzfeld’s Samarra e shington, D. a H W nst r E stitution, n I a P i Smithsonian and a symbol representing the marble dadoes made of shaped pieces. the name of the carved pattern used on its dado. F g. 18. ge 9 from 172 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 19. Plan of the Audience Hall Complex with each room labeled with a letter signifying the carved pattern used on its dado. This plan is reconstructed based on Ernst Herzfeld’s excavation notes and the published report from subsequent excavations made by the Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities in the northeastern quadrant. Key (black letters signify stucco decoration, blue letters signify marble): A = palmette-fan motif; B = vase-trefoil motif; B* = vase-trefoil motif on dadoes, version of “Samarra Frieze” motif in mihrab; C = horseshoe motif; D = Samarra Frieze motif; E = frieze of shaped marble slabs arranged as repeat pattern; F = palmette doorframe motif only. (Plan: Samarra Archaeological Survey, with my additions).

­recorded in three additional rooms.68 Each dado pattern material, marble, was strategically clustered in the spac- has been given a letter, A–F, and the rooms decorated es that were architecturally most important—the four with marble dadoes are signified by blue type. A ques- columned halls and two adjoining corner rooms. The tion mark has been placed after the letters in the four wall ornament of the entire complex is dominated by a columned halls to indicate the fact that the panels had few patterns, rendered in two different media, all in the been removed before Herzfeld’s documentation. same style and at the same scale.69 Moreover, the dado The point that this plan suggests and that I would like patterns repeat in predetermined ways. For example, to emphasize here is that the ornamentation of the da- the room in the southeastern quadrant with a prayer does in the Audience Hall Complex was planned as a niche that Herzfeld called the “Kalifenmoschee” (labeled program in conjunction with the architecture. The best with B* on the map in fig. 19) has an identical match in A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 173 the northeastern quadrant, also decorated with precise- during the Abbasids’ occupation of the palace. As I men- ly the same dado: a vase-trefoil pattern surrounds the tioned above, while Herzfeld only recorded impressions room and is replaced by a more complex version of the made from marble panels in the Audience Hall Com- Samarra Frieze within the niche itself. There is no ap- plex, fragments of carved marble dadoes were found parent reason for these duplications other than an un- throughout the palace.74 For example, Herzfeld found a derlying desire to maintain a sense of symmetry in the number of panels carved with the same motifs described design. above in the area to the south of the Audience Hall Com- plex (Herzfeld’s “Harem”) but recorded no extensive A note on the date of the dadoes impressions there. This situation suggests to me that the marble dadoes of the Audience Hall Complex were par- Herzfeld stated emphatically in his notes and later pub- tially dismantled and repurposed, either in a phase of lications that he believed the marble and stucco dadoes renovation or after the Abbasid court abandoned Sa- dated to the period of the palace’s foundation under al- marra. The area to the south of the Audience Hall Com- Muʿtasim.70 If correct, this dating would have significant plex was renovated extensively, for example.75 Marble, implications regarding the history of the Beveled Style being scarce in Iraq, may well have been repurposed of Samarra because it would demonstrate conclusively within a site during its occupation period and was cer- that the style existed from the beginning of the site’s tainly one of the first materials to be harvested after a foundation in both marble and stucco. site was abandoned. The fact that Herzfeld documented several changes to the building, including the floor underneath the Cen- Ceilings and upper elevations: Wood and glass tral Square Chamber, means that the dating of these ­ornaments ornaments must be approached with caution until more research can be undertaken. However, whether they The carved stucco and marble dadoes were only part of date to the period of al-Muʿtasim as Herzfeld suggested the Audience Hall Complex’s decorative program, al- or, less likely, to a later renovation, it is clear at least that beit a significant one in terms of surface area. Herzfeld they are contemporaneous with the construction of the briefly summarized the evidence for other types of cruciform Audience Hall Complex itself. Herzfeld noted ­architectural ornament in his preliminary report as that the baseboards of dadoes found in situ are either ­follows: “In the halls, a decoration of rhombic mother- flush with or just slightly underlie the level of the floor of-pearl pieces and convex glass in various patterns was in the columned halls, as is visible in photographs.71 found that has otherwise never been researched. All of Herzfeld also demonstrated that these baseboards were the woodwork (doors, beams, ceilings) was carved from contemporaneous with the column foundations and teak, some pieces were painted and others not, and doorsills of the rooms they adorned, as they were set at some were gilded. Decorative nails in gilded bronze the same level.72 Furthermore, Herzfeld found no evi- heightened the effect.”76 dence that the stucco or marble dadoes in the outer More information is available regarding these finds rooms surrounding the columned halls had been reno- in the Ausgrabungen von Samarra catalogues and the vated. This was not the case in other parts of the palace, reports from later excavations, and others are docu- where clear layers of carved and painted ornament were mented in Herzfeld’s sketchbooks and finds journal. visible on fragments of wall ornament. His conclusion These sources suggest that in addition to the wood and that the carved dadoes of the Audience Hall Complex glass inlay mentioned above, the palace’s ornament also represent the original ornament of that structure must included revetments of monochrome luster tiles deco- be correct.73 rated with vegetal patterns, animals, and Arabic inscrip- To Herzfeld’s conclusions I would add that the distri- tions,77 revetments of shaped polychrome luster tiles,78 bution of findspots for marble panels at the site suggests monochrome-glazed tile pavements or revetments,79 that the marble ornament of the Audience Hall Com- and fragments from opus sectile pavements of some plex may have been partly dismantled at some point complexity (fig. 20).80 Several types of glass tile were 174 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 20. Page 3 from Ernst Herzfeld’s Samarra Finds Sketchbook 8 with sketches of shaped opus sectile pieces found in the Audience Hall Complex (Herzfeld IN 918). Herzfeld’s caption refers to these as “camel’s feet” (Kamels-Füße) and notes that they are made of black marble with white veins (schwarzer weiß geäderter Marmor). Current location of pieces unknown. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 07.19. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution) found, including millefiori tiles and a glossy, opaque findspots do not necessarily indicate the place in which black type, whose polished surfaces and rough backs led the fragment was originally employed. Because the Aus- C. J. Lamm to believe they were used on walls.81 Herzfeld grabungen von Samarra volumes are organized accord- recorded one tantalizing fragment from an aquamarine ing to medium and style, it is difficult to get a clear glass floor panel of the type known from the glass-paved understanding of what was actually found in the Audi- audience hall of Raqqa’s “Palace B,” a decorative tech- ence Hall Complex and what can actually be attributed nique that is otherwise unique to my knowledge.82 The to its original ornament program. I will thus summarize Iraqi excavations of the 1930s even uncovered fragments Herzfeld’s findings here, supplementing them with ad- from a glass inscription whose specific findspot is unfor- ditional information that has come to light since the tunately not recorded.83 The reception area just south 1920s, in order to provide a snapshot of other important of the Audience Hall Complex (Herzfeld’s “Harem”) ap- ornamented surfaces in the Audience Hall Complex. pears to have been extensively decorated with glass fix- First, there is the matter of the shaped glass inlay tures as well as wall paintings above the level of the pieces mentioned in Herzfeld’s report above. Dozens of dado.84 these pieces were found in the rubble of the Audience Given the wide range of these finds, one can be sure Hall Complex and the surrounding areas, often along that the palace had a number of opulent, glossy surfaces with shaped pieces of mother-of-pearl, strongly suggest- employing innovative glass and ceramic techniques. It ing that they were used there in decorative composi- is far more difficult to reconstruct the original locations tions (fig. 21).85 The rounded manner in which the glass of these elements than it was for the stucco and marble pieces are formed recall the beveled surfaces that dom- dadoes because none were found in situ. In this case, inate the carved dadoes, as does the vocabulary of A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 175

F ig. 21. Shaped glass inlay pieces found in an area south of the Audience Hall Complex (Herzfeld IN 806). Dimensions of large rhombus: 10 cm (max. length) × 2 cm (max. depth). Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, acc. no. Sam I. 51. (Photo: courtesy of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) shapes represented, including roundels, rounded rect- with shaped glass pieces excavated from the Byzantine angles, diamonds, and tongue shapes. It is known from Church of St. Polyeuctus (Hagios Polyeuktos) in Istan- other examples at Samarra and elsewhere that mother- bul, constructed circa 525. In the church, the glass was of-pearl was used as part of mosaic wall decorations, but colored, and shapes included squares and rhombi.89 the shaped glass pieces are more difficult to under- This tradition of jewel-like, inlaid marble columns might stand.86 Herzfeld’s finds journal and sketchbooks record be a precedent for this intriguing form of decoration. examples of the shaped glass pieces still embedded in Both Herzfeld and Henri Viollet found fragments of detached pieces of stucco, however, supporting his ini- carved stucco with rounded undersides in the four col- tial conclusion that they were arranged in patterns as umned halls, suggesting that these halls had decorative wall decorations (fig. 22).87 These intriguing elements, arcades.90 Herzfeld reconstructed and illustrated the apparently unique to the Main Caliphal Palace of Sa- patterns, but the archaeological evidence for them marra, are discussed in Lamm’s Glas von Samarra (1928), should be clarified here.91 The flat, outward facing sides where the various possibilities of patterns are present- of the fragments excavated by Viollet and Herzfeld (the ed.88 Two points can be added to Lamm’s otherwise exterior face of the arch) had repeating pairs of winged detailed overview. That these elements were used high palmette leaves, while the curved, downward facing on the wall seems fairly certain as they were found in a sides (the soffits of the arches) had a more complex pat- fragmentary state, suggesting a fall from a height, and as tern consisting of a band of vase-shaped forms with tre- none were found on the many dadoes that did remain foil blossoms that sprout pairs of the same winged intact. Second, an interesting comparison can be made palmettes (fig. 23).92 Notably, their undersides were also between these pieces and the marble columns inlaid painted with blue pigment.93 176 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 22. Page 42 from Ernst Herzfeld’s Samarra Finds Sketchbook 8 with sketches of fragments of glass found in the Main Caliphal Palace of Samarra. In the center is a “stucco edge” (Gipsrand) with shaped glass inlay pieces still attached (Herzfeld IN 827). Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- ington, D.C., FSA A.6 07.19. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution)

Fig. 23. Ink drawing of carved stucco fragments from a collapsed arcade found by Ernst Herzfeld and Henri Viollet in the Audience Hall Complex, and a reconstruction of the pattern on the exterior face. Herzfeld’s caption reads: “B. al-Khalīfah. Arkaden d. basilikalen Säle. Bogenreihung von 2 Elemente.” Current locations of fragments unknown. Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Department of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, MMA eeh1383. (Photo: courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art) A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 177

Several door panel components and an intact wood- Two other decorative wooden pieces found in the en door were found in and around the Audience Hall Audience Hall Complex should be mentioned. One is a Complex, providing evidence for carved wooden doors flat panel carved with a version of the Samarra Frieze in this portion of the palace, though not necessarily in motif in the Beveled Style painted in blue and red (fig. the large halls themselves. The intact door was com- 27).110 At nearly a meter wide and more than half a me- posed of two leaves, each with four panels bearing knob ter high as is, this would have been a conspicuous piece. motifs (fig. 24).94 Similar knob motifs occur on other Its original use is difficult to determine, but given its examples of panels excavated at the site that may have shape, the presence of nail holes, and the lack of tongue- been used as part of doors, and on a door in the Benaki and-groove joins, it may have been part of a frieze. Sec- Museum, Athens, suggesting that this motif was popu- ond is a thick beam carved on two sides in the Beveled lar.95 Several intact leaves from wooden doors in Style (fig. 28).111 Creswell suggested that it was a tie ­museum collections bearing palmette-fans have tradi- beam,112 but the fact that it has a tenon on one side sug- tionally been attributed to the Main Caliphal Palace on gests otherwise. Herzfeld’s suggestion that it was part of the basis of this motif, although more research is re- an “anchor” for a column (part of an entablature?) is quired to justify that attribution.96 One door panel with more convincing.113 A lintel for a door might be another the palmette-fan motif was actually excavated on-site, possibility. As mentioned above, fragments of broken glass panes but its findspot is not recorded.97 found in the four columned halls suggested to Herzfeld A large number of fragments from other architec- that clerestory windows above the arcades illuminated tural surfaces or portable furnishings made of carved these spaces. The form of window for which Herzfeld and painted wood were found in the palace. The array found the most conclusive evidence is similar to the of morphological types is striking and speaks to the type known today as qamariyya or shamsiyya, that is, many uses to which this costly material was put, and the stucco grills carved in patterns into which pieces of col- assemblage deserves more attention than can be given orful glass were inserted. Herzfeld found part of a grill here. In addition to the door components mentioned with a row of small round apertures in the South Col- above, the types of ornamental wooden fixtures found umned Hall that still had glass panes inserted (fig. 29).114 in the palace include flat panels with carved and/or A similar piece was found during the Iraqi excavations painted decoration;98 composite “coffered” panels;99 of the 1930s, although no findspot was recorded. In this strips with slanted fronts and painted decoration;100 case, it is clear that the row of circular apertures bor- large ornamental bosses or knobs;101 stepped mer- dered a larger, central grill.115 Stucco window fragments lons;102 turned legs, possibly for furniture;103 sockets;104 found in the Abbasid “palaces” at Raqqa provide a close inlay pieces;105 and a large frame, possibly for a window parallel in both form and construction. There, large or door.106 stucco windows were composed of central grills carved In the four columned halls of the Audience Hall Com- with geometric patterns bordered by rows of small cir- plex there is specific evidence for the use of wooden cular apertures.116 Pieces of the panes of glass were ceilings, as a number fragments that clearly belonged to found in several colors at the site, ranging from amber ceilings were found in the rubble. These include frag- yellow to aquamarine blue (fig. 30).117 Thus the windows ments of the strips with slanted fronts mentioned above, in the clerestories of the four columned halls would whose shape suggests use as crown moldings (fig. 25),107 have admitted filtered, multicolored light through pat- and a number of long rectilinear panels carved with terned grills, bathing the marble and stucco decorations nondirectional patterns in the Beveled Style (fig. 26).108 in a layer of color. As Herzfeld noted, there are close comparisons to the form and decoration of this later type on several door Conclusions from Herzfeld’s documentation soffits in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun at Cairo, strongly sug- In conclusion, Herzfeld’s documentation suggests that gesting a similar use as ceiling elements at Samarra.109 the walls of the Audience Hall Complex were clad with 178 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 24. Carved wooden doors found in a corridor leading from what Ernst Herzfeld called the “Harem” (area south of the Audience Hall Complex) to the bath located to the west (Herzfeld IN 965). Current location of doors unknown. Ernst Herz­ feld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A.6 04.PF.22.036. (Photo: courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution) A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 179

F ig. 25. Strip with slanted front painted with a vegetal scroll motif found in or around the Audience Hall Complex (Herzfeld IN 889), 7 cm (height) × 41.5 cm (width) × 2 cm (max. depth). Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, no acc. no. (Photo: courtesy of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) dadoes decorated with a select number of repeat pat- program that included a set of dadoes rendered in two terns, marble replacing stucco in the columned halls and media placed according to a decisive pattern. Architec- in two of the corner rooms, and that the higher eleva- ture and architectural ornament were planned together tions of these rooms bore glass and wooden fixtures. The as a cohesive unit. previously unarticulated reasons for accepting these suggestions include extensive marble impressions found in situ and the relatively large amount of wood, marble, THE OFFICIAL AUDIENCE and glass fragments found in the rubble of the complex. It is possible that the marble panels were eventually The planning evident in the decorative program of the repurposed, and one can assume the same for the wood- Audience Hall Complex raises the question of who was en fixtures given their fragmentary state. Herzfeld’s intended to see the space and under what circumstanc- notes further demonstrate that these decorations are es. There is little reason to doubt the long-standing as- contemporaneous with the construction of this part of sumption that the complex of four columned halls and the palace, which he suggests fell under the reign of al- adjoining rooms served as an audience hall, but it is Muʿtasim, during the foundation period of the site. The worth examining the mechanics of official audiences precise date of the Audience Hall Complex’s construc- under the Abbasids in detail to ascertain what parts of tion is a question that requires more research and will the complex were in use during these events and what be left open for the moment, but the archaeological was visible to whom. Previous studies of the palace’s or- evidence strongly supports the conclusion that the nament have not addressed these questions, and yet carved marble and stucco panels represent this struc- they are vital to understanding its design. ture’s original decorations, whatever its date. Several scholars have pointed to the importance Cumulatively, these points reveal that the Audience of ceremonial at the Abbasid court and its potential Hall Complex was planned with an elaborate decorative ­relationship to the development of Abbasid palace 180 MATTHEW D. SABA sh- a 925).

W N I rzfeld e stitution, H n I chives, Smithsonian r A mplex, approximately 1 meter long ( o C ll a H thur M. Sackler Gallery r A dience u A t and r A stitution) n I eer Gallery of r F pers, a P rzfeld e H nst r oto: courtesy of the Smithsonian h E P 19.098. ( . F P 6 04. . A

A S F , . o C C rrent location of panel unknown. u i F g. 26. mposite ceiling panel with painted border decorations found in the C ington, D. A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 181 rlin) e B 925), 61 cm (height) × 92.4 cm (width) × 4.8 cm (max. depth).

N I lamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu s I rzfeld e H mplex ( o C ll a H dience u A oto: courtesy of the Museum für h P lamische Kunst, no acc. no. ( s I a C rlin, Museum für e i F g. 27. B rved and painted wooden panel found in the 182 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 28. Piece of a thick beam found in the Audience Hall Complex (Herzfeld IN 890), 13 cm (height) × 33.2 cm (width) × 9 cm (depth). Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, no acc. no. (Photo: courtesy of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

­architecture.118 I wish to explore this relationship fur- ­palace were thus an important opportunity for the ca- ther in the context of the official audience. Descriptions liphs to present themselves in a position of authority. of official audiences under the Abbasids make clear that The Rusūm Dār al-Khilāfa relates that ʿAdud al-Daw- these events were governed by a strict set of rules that la’s investiture took place in Baghdad during the reign informed where various parties stood, how they be- of Abbasid caliph al-Ta⁠ʾiʿ li-Amr Allah (r. 974–91), in a haved, and how much they were permitted to see. I will space called the Dār al-Salām (Abode of Peace): quote one description of an audience at length here, as it contains a great amount of detail and strongly echoes A- l Ta⁠ʾiʿ li-Amr Allah, God have mercy on him, sat on a raised other, less precise accounts of similar events. The de- seat [sarīr] in the center of the sidillā of the Dar al-Salam on a cushion made of black silk woven with gold. Some scription recounts the investiture ceremony of the com- hundred servants from his personal entourage surrounded mander in chief ʿAdud al-Dawla (d. 983) in 977 preserved him there…. A brocade curtain sent by ʿAdud al-Dawla to in the Rusūm Dār al-Khilāfa (Rules of the Dar al-Khila- screen al-Ta⁠ʾiʿ so that no soldier’s eye would fall upon the fa), a manual of court ceremonial penned by the secre- caliph before his did was hung on the middle columns [al- tary Hilal al-Sabiʾ (d. 1056).119 ʿAdud al-Dawla was a asāṭīn al-wusṭā]. In the Courtyard of Peace [Ṣaḥn al-Salām], member of the Buyid dynasty, a family of military com- ropes were tied to the columns [aʿmida]. The Daylamites manders originally from the Daylam region of Iran, just and the Turks were the first to enter, without so much as a south of the Caspian Sea, who rose to power as merce- piece of iron. The Daylamites stood on the left and the Turks on the right. The nobles, judges, and others of high rank naries in the Abbasid army. By this time the Buyids ef- were in the courtyard before the columns [dūna al-asāṭīn] fectively governed Baghdad and the adjoining provinces on either side, arranged according to rank, while the cham- of Iraq and Iran but depended on the Abbasid caliphs berlains of the Caliph, Muʾnis al-Fadli, Wasif and Ahmad for a sense of political legitimacy. The requisite investi- ibn Nasr al-ʿAbbasi, and their twenty-eight lieutenants … ture ceremonies that took place within the Abbasid stood before the ropes on both sides.120 A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 183 ll a H liphal a thur M. C r A lumned o C t and r A eer Gallery of r stitution) F n I pers, a P rzfeld e H nst r E oto: courtesy of Smithsonian h P itish Museum. r B 6 07.18. ( . A

A ndon, S o F L , . C shington, D. a W nds Sketchbook 7. Sketches depict various fragments of glass and wood found within the Main i F stitution, n I rzfeld’s Samarra e H nst r e sketch at far right depicts a fragment of a stucco window grill with glass panes still inserted, found near South E rrent location of fragment unknown, possibly h u T C chives, Smithsonian r A 893).

N I a P rzfeld e lace of Samarra. a i H Sackler Gallery ( F g. 29. P ge 16 from 184 MATTHEW D. SABA

F ig. 30. Fragment of a windowpane made of translucent blue glass found in the Audience Hall Complex (Herzfeld IN 970), 14.6 cm (length) × 0.2 cm (max. depth). Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, no acc. no. (Photo: courtesy of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

Al-Sabiʾ continues by describing how ʿAdud al-Dawla flanked by two side rooms. Either way, it was a covered was admitted to the courtyard and crossed it with his space.122 The hall behind the sidillā, described here as a arms held by the caliph’s chamberlains, kneeling every riwāq, must also have been a covered area: the term few steps to kiss the ground. When ʿAdud al-Dawla riwāq usually means a space supported by columns. It is reached the threshold of the sidillā, he kissed the ground of note that the distinction between interior and exte- again and then was admitted and sworn into office. rior space clearly corresponds to distinctions in rank Then he and the caliph proceeded into “the hall that and that much of the audience was stationed in an open followed the sidillā” (al-riwāq alladhī yalī al-sidillā), courtyard outside the covered audience hall. Access to where the caliph bestowed him with robes of honor.121 the interior was granted only to the guest of honor. Al-Sabiʾ’s account describes three distinct, hierarchi- Such hierarchical arrangements are attested to for cally coded spaces: the sidillā where the caliph and his other audiences held in the Abbasids’ palaces. The de- entourage sat, the Ṣaḥn al-Salām where the military and scription of a feast held by the caliph al-Mutawakkil ʿala officials stood in rows according to rank, and the hall ’llah (r. 847–61) on the occasion of his son’s circumcision beyond the sidillā where ʿAdud al-Dawla was robed. is a good example. The event is described in several Adud al-Dawla proceeded across a courtyard to the sources, the most detailed description coming in Kitāb sidillā and then to the hall behind it. The Sahn al-Salam al-Diyārāt (Book of Monasteries) by ʿAli ibn Muham- was certainly an open courtyard (ṣaḥn consistently mad al-Shabushti (d. ca. 990).123 According to al-Sha- means “courtyard” in medieval texts). The term sidillā bushti’s account, the feast took place in the Balkuwara refers to either a baldachin throne or possibly a room Palace at Samarra. Al-Mutawakkil was seated in the A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 185 heart of the palace’s main iwan (fī ṣadr al-īwān) sur- of a range of ceremonial spaces during the early Islamic rounded by one hundred members of his entourage.124 period.126 The idea is particularly prevalent in Abbasid A large carpet was chosen from the treasuries to cover ceremonies. In al-Sabiʾ’s account, for example, it is clear the interior of the iwan. In front of al-Mutawakkil’s that several elements of the investiture ceremony were throne, thousands of seats were arranged for the many designed to limit or otherwise control the audience’s guests invited to the event, who were seated in rows ac- ability to see what was in front of them. Hanging a cur- cording to rank. These place settings, al-Shabushti re- tain in front of the caliph’s throne was one strategy. This lates, “themselves formed an outstretched carpet.”125 device is documented under the Umayyads (661–750), The fact that hierarchical seating schemes were so where the caliph al-Walid II and the governor al-Hajjaj important to audiences at the Abbasid court has sig- are said to have had a ṣāḥib al-sitr, or “curtain master,” nificant implications for understanding Samarra’s Audi- in charge of opening and closing the curtain during of- ence Hall Complex and its decorative program. Al-Sabiʾ’s ficial ceremonies.127 The Umayyads, in turn, probably description dates much later than the foundation of Sa- adopted this practice from the Sasanians.128 Another marra’s Main Caliphal Palace, but it is striking that one strategy was the seating arrangement itself. Those who can apply the pathway he describes to the plan of this had lower rank were relegated to exterior spaces, while complex, which is composed of precisely the same ar- those of higher rank stood under a roof, protected from chitectural elements in the same configuration: visitors the glare of the sun and thus more able to see clearly. must first cross an open courtyard, then walk through a Similar ideas are expressed in rules concerning eye portico into a deep, covered hall. During official audi- contact developed at the Abbasid court. The ninth-cen- ences in Samarra’s Main Caliphal Palace, the caliph may tury Kitāb al-Tāj (Book of the Crown), for example, have sat in one of the four columned halls or in one of states that those in the presence of the ruler should the porticoes with his entourage, while the majority of lower their eyes, never looking at him directly, even if the palace officials and military stood outside in the ad- they are among his intimates or inner circle. This act, joining courtyard. Access to the covered halls would the author explains, should be done in consideration of have been restricted to most. Movements would have the ruler’s ḥurma, a word that could be translated as been carefully controlled, and gazes guided by the elab- “sacredness.”129 The caliph, on the other hand, should orate rules and regulations enforced within the space. never have to look upon a person’s back. The Rusūm Dār The analysis of the evidence cited above implies that al-Khilāfa specifies that when leaving an audience, the most guests would have had only a fleeting glimpse of vizier should walk backwards, facing the caliph, as long the complex’s surface decoration. In fact, most of the as he is in the caliph’s sight.130 In this concept of court rooms in the complex would have been completely in- protocol, the gaze of the caliph actually dictates the be- visible, even to those seated closest to the caliph within haviors of his inferiors whose sight is, in turn, restricted. the covered hall who, like those in the courtyard, were As a final example, I call attention to one of the most expected to maintain their position throughout the cer- famous descriptions of an Abbasid palace: the account emony. The intricate decorative program of the Audi- of a trip made to Baghdad by a Byzantine embassy in the ence Hall Complex, the elaborate design of which year 917 during the reign of al-Muqtadir bi’llah (r. 908– requires that one examine it in detail to fully appreciate 32).131 Several scholars have discussed the resonances it, would have in all probability gone largely unseen and between this description and other evidence for the de- would certainly not have been examined in detail. sign of Abbasid palace architecture,132 so I will only While this proposition may at first appear to under- briefly reiterate the highlights here. The narrative re- mine the effect of such a decorative program, further lates that the Byzantine embassy came to Baghdad to consideration suggests that the idea of restricted visibil- reclaim captives taken during battle. Upon arrival in ity may have been the very principle informing its de- Iraq, the envoys were not initially permitted into the city sign. Indeed, the experience of not seeing has been of Baghdad but were housed outside in a suburb. After identified by Avinoam Shalem as an aspect in the design being let into the city, they were then housed in a 186 MATTHEW D. SABA

­secluded mansion for weeks until an audience with the concept of restricted or controlled visibility that under- caliph was finally granted.133 The court created a theat- lies the design of official audiences at the Abbasid court. rical event out of this visit. The sources report that the This series of continuously decorated surfaces is de- envoys were taken through a series of gardens, pavil- signed to elicit the interest of viewers but is never fully ions, and audience halls in which they were shown dis- visible, especially if one assumes that the circumstances plays of rarities and treasures until they became of viewing were similar to those described in the ac- overwhelmed. Included in the list of items mentioned counts cited above. Like the rules and regulations gov- in accounts of the event are a stable of horses fitted with erning official events within the space, the decorative gold and silver saddles, a hall with four elephants and program itself shows the viewer the limits of his or her two giraffes, a hall with one hundred lions, a pool filled ability to see. with polished lead, a grove of four hundred palm trees, Consider once more the defining aspects of the pro- a palace filled with rare fabrics and coats of armor, and gram. Those who designed the complex’s walls and ceil- many courtyards and audience halls filled with eye- ings clustered together costly materials such as marble catching items from the treasuries.134 The actual audi- and decorative wood, further embellished by finishing ence with the caliph, who sat in a majlis (audience hall) techniques such as polishing, painting, and carving, in near the Tigris, was quite brief, only a matter of minutes. order to create a visually seductive space. Yet there The details of this account may well be exaggerated, seems to have been no single point of focus. While some but that is not important. The account serves as evi- of the dado patterns are more intricate than others, their dence of an idea that permeates many descriptions of distribution is kaleidoscopic rather than directional. Abbasid palaces—the idea that to restrict sensory expe- The only thing that distinguishes the columned audi- rience is to wield power. The design of the Byzantine ence halls from the surrounding chambers is the change embassy’s reception, at least as it is recorded for poster- from stucco to marble, but the two media echo each ity, is based on withholding access to the palace’s inte- other through the use of a standard set of patterns. rior and then granting it in a rushed, overwhelming There is clearly a scheme governing this layout, but to manner. It is a case of sensory deprivation followed by fully grasp it requires a bird’s-eye view like Herzfeld’s sensory inundation, an uneven but very much manipu- ornament map, or the ability to walk freely within the lated experience designed to impress a sense of the complex for an extended period of time. These vantage court’s power on the visitor by making it impossible for points and access privileges would not have been avail- him or her to grasp the profundity of wealth accumu- able to the vast majority of people in ninth-century Sa- lated within the palace walls. marra who saw the space. It is important to note that while the Byzantine en- In this way, the decorative program of the Audience voys were the main focus of this strategy, its effect also Hall Complex reflects the design of the palace as a applies to the hundreds of palace personnel who at- whole. The palace’s plan consists of a seemingly endless tended the audiences. Like the foreign envoys, the ser- web of rooms, courtyards, pools, gates, and pavilions. vants and members of the military attached to the These units are bound together by the logic of axial ar- Abbasid palace may have seen such a configuration of rangement and symmetry, and yet due to its massive objects and people only once in their lives. It is from the scale, the plan would be difficult to understand on the experience of this population that the tantalizing ac- ground without a map. In both cases, the design allows counts preserved in Arabic texts must have originated. the viewer only a fragmented experience of the whole. For the majority of Samarra’s and Baghdad’s population, such accounts were the only available form of access to the palace’s ornamented and lavishly furnished interi- CONCLUSION ors. The decorative program of the Audience Hall Com- This article has attempted to shift the scholarly gaze plex of Samarra’s Main Caliphal Palace reinforces the from the close analysis of individual fragments to the A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 187 perspective of a hypothetical viewer in ninth-century entourage. These guests were offered alluring glimpses Samarra. To imagine this perspective, I used the archae- of the palace’s interior spaces, but their experience was ological and related contextual evidence available to likely mediated through rules and regulations specifying speculate on the arrangement of the surface decorations when and where they were allowed. It is the experience in the Audience Hall Complex of Samarra’s Main Ca- of this latter category that I have attempted to imagine liphal Palace. Information from Herzfeld’s excavation in this article. archives proved useful for reconstructing the layout of the complex’s carved stucco and marble dadoes and al- Department of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art lowed for more tentative hypotheses regarding the New York, N.Y. other types of architectural ornament that enlivened the space. Herzfeld’s findings were important to present in detail because they confirm that the ornament of the NOTES complex’s many rooms was planned together as a pro- gram, with careful attention given to the choice of me- Author’s note: This article is based on research undertaken in London, Berlin, and New York as part of my doctoral disserta- dia and placement of patterns. tion. Travel to collections was made possible with support from A survey of some texts describing official audiences The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII), under the Abbasids sheds light on the possible positions the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, and the Metro- of audience members at such events, suggesting that in politan Museum of Art Fellowships Program. Many individuals facilitated access to objects and helped me form ideas along a space such as Samarra’s Audience Hall Complex, many the way. Special thanks go to Mariam Rosser-Owen at the Vic- would not have been able to catch more than a glimpse toria and Albert Museum, Ladan Akbarnia and Seth Priestman of the audience hall’s opulent decorations. These de- at the British Museum, Julia Gonnella, Jens Kröger, and Stefan scriptions make clear that other measures were taken Weber at the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, and Sheila Canby at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I also thank Xavier during these ceremonies to restrict visibility, an idea Courouble and David Hogge at the Archives of the Freer Gallery that previous research has shown was a key aspect in the of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, development of other audience halls in early Islamic for their efforts to make their portion of Ernst Herzfeld’s archive architecture. I argued that the design of the Audience available online and for alerting me to the existence of several documents that would become pivotal in my studies of the site. Hall Complex’s ornament program, which requires a I thank Alastair Northedge and Persis Berlekamp for reading and privileged view to fully comprehend, reinforces and in- commenting on drafts of this paper, and Richard Neer and Lamia tensifies the ideology of restriction that seems to have Balafrej for talking through ideas at various stages. Petra Rasch- pervaded the design of Abbasid architecture and cere- kewitz kindly checked the accuracy of my German transcrip- tions from Herzfeld’s Second Campaign Diary, but any remaining monial. inaccuracies are solely my own. Last but not least, thanks go Central to the idea of the “restricted gaze” proposed to Olga Bush and Avinoam Shalem for organizing the “Gazing here is the notion of a codified hierarchy. Depending on Otherwise” conference and for their comments and edits to my one’s status within the Abbasid court, more or less of the contribution in preparation for publication. 1. Early archaeological descriptions of Samarra include palace was made visible. At the top of the hierarchy was Ernst Herzfeld, Samarra: Aufnahmen und Untersuchungen the caliph himself. The caliph, one assumes, had the zur Islamischen Archäologie (Berlin, 1907); Henri Viollet, most privileged access to various parts of the palace and Description du Palais de Al-Moutasim fils d’Haroun al-Ras- had the most direct line of sight through the audience chid à Samara et quelques monuments arabes peu connus de la Mésopotamie, Mémoires présentés par divers savants hall and adjoining courtyard during official ceremonies. à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 12 (1909): At the other end of the scale was the majority of Sa- 567–94; Henri Viollet, Fouilles à Samara en Mésopotamie: marra’s civilian population, people who may have never Un palais musulman du IXe siècle, Mémoires présentés set foot within the palace’s interior and seen its grounds par divers savants à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres 12 (1911): 685–717; Ernst Herzfeld and Friedrich only from afar. Somewhere in the middle were palace Sarre, Archäologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris-Gebiet, guests: foreign dignitaries, princes such as ʿAdud al- 4 vols. (Berlin, 1911–20), 1:52–109; Gertrude Bell, Amurath to Dawla, court poets, and other members of the caliph’s Amurath (London, 1911), 231–46. 188 MATTHEW D. SABA

2. Ernst Herzfeld’s excavation of Samarra took place over 6.H erzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine two seasons. During the first (January–October 1911), he Ornamentik, 4–9. excavated parts of the Congregational Mosque of al-Mu­ 7. Most notably, Ernst Kühnel modified Herzfeld’s nomencla- tawakkil at Samarra, the Mosque of al-Mutawakkil at al- ture, renaming Herzfeld’s Third Style “Style A,” Herzfeld’s Mutawakkiliyya (Abu Dulaf), the Balkuwara Palace, the Second Style “Style B,” and Herzfeld’s First Style “Style C,” Qasr al-ʿAshiq, and Qubbat al-Sulaybiyya on the west bank insinuating a chronological development from A to C. See of the Tigris, and sixteen private houses and two baths. His Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Islamische Abteilung [Ernst findings from the first campaign are discussed in detail in Kühnel and Kurt Erdmann], Samarra (Berlin, 1939?), Thomas Leisten, Excavation of Samarra, vol. 1, Architec- 14–15, discussed in Kröger, “Chronik der Ausgrabungen ture: Final Report of the First Campaign (Mainz am Rhein, von Samarra,” 314. Kühnel’s system was later adopted by 2003). The second campaign (December 1912–July 1913) K. A. C. Creswell in the second part of his architectural sur- was mostly devoted to excavations in the Main Caliphal vey, Early Muslim Architecture: Umayyads, Early ʿAbbāsids Palace, but a topographical survey was also undertaken and Ṭūlūnids, pt. 2, Early ʿAbbāsids, Umayyads of Cordova, and supplementary excavations made at Abu Dulaf. A com- Aghlabids, Ṭūlūnids, and Samānids, a.d. 751–905 (Oxford, prehensive overview of Herzfeld’s excavations at Samarra 1940), 286–88. For critical views on the reception and is available in Jens Kröger, “Chronik der Ausgrabungen interpretation of Herzfeld’s stylistic typology, see Rudolf von Samarra, 1911–1913: Eine kulturhistorische Studie zur Schnyder, “Zur Frage der Stile von Samarra,” in Akten des Forschungs- und Förderungsgeschichte der Islamischen VII Internationalen Kongresses für Iranische Kunst und Archäologie im 20. Jahrhundert,” Beiträge zur islamischen Archäologie: München, 7.–10. September 1976, Archäolo- Kunst und Archäologie 4, ed. Julia Gonnella with Rania gische Mitteilungen aus Iran 6 (Berlin, 1979), 371–79; Terry Abdellatif and Simone Struth (Wiesbaden, 2014), 234–346. Allen, “The Arabesque, the Bevelled Style, and the Mirage of 3. Finds from Herzfeld’s excavations were published in a an Early Islamic Art,” in Terry Allen, Five Essays on Islamic series of six catalogues under the volume title Die Aus- Art (Sebastopol, Calif., 1988), 1–15. For a recent discussion of grabungen von Samarra. Volumes 1–6 are: Ernst Herzfeld, the debate over the origins of the Beveled Style (Herzfeld’s Der Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine First Style), see Claus-Peter Haase, “The Development of Ornamentik (Berlin, 1923); Friedrich Sarre, Die Keramik von Stucco Decoration in Northern Syria of the 8th and 9th Samarra (Berlin, 1925); Ernst Herzfeld, Die Malereien von Centuries and the Bevelled Style of Samarra,” in Facts and Samarra (Berlin, 1927); C. J. Lamm, Das Glas von Samarra Artifacts: Art in the Islamic World: Festschrift for Jens Kröger (Berlin, 1928); Ernst Herzfeld, Die vorgeschichtlichen Töp- on His 65th Birthday, ed. Annette Hagedorn and Avinoam fereien (Berlin, 1930); and Ernst Herzfeld, Geschichte der Shalem (Leiden and Boston, 2007), 439–60, esp. 440–42. Stadt Samarra (Hamburg, 1948). Elements of architectural 8. See, for example, Gülru Necipoğlu, The Topkapı Scroll: ornament are discussed in volumes 1–4 and 6. Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture (Santa 4. The division of finds from Samarra has been discussed in Monica, Calif., 1995), 93–96. detail elsewhere. Although originally intended to be split 9. Marcus Milwright, “Fixtures and Fittings: The Role of Deco- between Berlin and Istanbul, the finds packed in crates at ration in Abbasid Palace Design,” in A Medieval Islamic City the site were seized by the British during World War I and Reconsidered: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Samarra, ed. shipped to London in 1921. At this point, they were divided Chase F. Robinson (Oxford, 2001), 79–109, esp. 80–81. (unevenly) among the U.K. and Germany, and smaller por- 10. In Excavation of Samarra, Leisten uses notes and sketches tions known as “type-sets” were sold to a number of muse- of Herzfeld’s excavations to present a synthetic overview ums. A number of stucco panels packed at the site were of the architecture of the palaces, mosques, and private lost, as well as a number of crates containing small finds. houses excavated by Herzfeld at Samarra. Trudy S. Kawami See Sheila Canby, “Islamic Archaeology: By Accident or uses the archival records from Herzfeld’s excavations at Design?,” in Discovering Islamic Art: Scholars, Collectors and Kuh-i Khwaja to shed new light on the chronology and Collections, 1850–1950, ed. Stephen Vernoit (London, 2000), character of the wall paintings of the Gaga-Shahr Complex. 128–37; Magnus T. Bernhardsson, Reclaiming a Plundered See Trudy S. Kawami, “Kuh-e Khwaja, Iran, and Its Wall Past: Archaeology and Nation Building in Modern Iraq (Aus- Paintings: The Records of Ernst Herzfeld,” Metropolitan tin, Tex., 2005), 75–84; Christoph Konrad, “Die Funde der Museum Journal 22 (1987): 13–52. Grabung Ernst Herzfelds 1911–1913 aus Samarra,” Beiträge 11. Kröger, “Chronik der Ausgrabungen von Samarra,” 279. zur islamischen Kunst und Archäologie 1 (Wiesbaden, 2008), 12. Ernst Herzfeld, “Mitteilung über die Arbeiten der zweiten 51–54; Kröger, “Chronik der Ausgrabungen von Samarra,” Kampagne von Samarra,” Der Islam 5 (1914): 196–204. 288–309. 13. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, pt. 2, 232–42. 5. For a recent overview of scholarship on the Samarra 14. For a general assessment of the publications of Herzfeld stuccoes, see Julia Gonnella, “Three Stucco Panels from and Creswell on Samarra, see Alastair Northedge, “Cres­ Samarra,” in God Is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: The Object well, Herzfeld, and Samarra,” Muqarnas 8 (1991): 74–93. in Islamic Art and Culture, ed. Sheila Blair and Jonathan 15. It will be published as part of the Samarra Studies series Bloom (New Haven, 2013), 79–101. edited by Alastair Northedge. The first volume in this series A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 189

has been published: Alastair Northedge, The Historical ings of architectural ornament from the Main Caliphal Topography of Samarra, Samarra Studies 1 (London, 2005). Palace. Herzfeld’s Samarra Finds Journal is catalogued as 16. The Ernst Herzfeld Papers at the Smithsonian Institution FSA A.6 07.01. are housed in the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and 19. An overview of the architecture of Samarra is available the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (FSA). The FSA has circa in Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Func- 30,000 items spanning Herzfeld’s scholarly career, includ- tion and Meaning (New York, 1994), 398–408. For a general ing excavation diaries, photographs, and sketchbooks discussion of Samarra’s plan, see John Michael Rogers, from the Samarra campaigns. This material was originally “Samarra: A Study in Medieval Town-Planning,” in The catalogued by Joseph M. Upton and has recently been Islamic City, ed. Albert Habib Hourani and Samuel Miklos digitized and catalogued online by Xavier Courouble. All Stern (Oxford, 1970), 119–55. For an overview of the pal- documents cited in this article are available online through aces, see Alastair Northedge, “The Palaces of the Abbasids Ernst Herz­feld Papers, Smithsonian Institution, www.asia. at Samarra,” in A Medieval Islamic City Reconsidered, ed. si.edu/research/archives/HerzfeldTop.asp (accessed May Robinson, 29–67. 10, 2015). The Ernst Herzfeld Papers at the Metropolitan 20. The strategic construction of vistas and views in Abba- Museum of Art (MMA), New York, are divided between two sid palace architecture is lucidly presented in D. Fairchild curatorial departments, the Department of Ancient Near Ruggles, Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Eastern Art and the Department of Islamic Art. The archive Islamic Spain (University Park, Pa., 2000), 94–100. consists of several thousand documents altogether. The 21. Alastair Northedge, “An Interpretation of the Palace of the material in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art is Caliph at Samarra (Dar al-Khilafa or Jawsaq al-Khaqani),” mostly related to Herzfeld’s work on pre-Islamic subjects Ars Orientalis 23 (1993): 143–70. For instances of both but includes a photograph album from the Samarra exca- toponyms in medieval sources, see Northedge, Historical vations. For an inventory description, see Margaret Cool Topography, appendix C. Root, “The Herzfeld Archive of the Metropolitan Museum 22. Northedge, “Interpretation of the Palace of the Caliph,” 146. of Art,” Metropolitan Museum Bulletin 11 (1976): 119–24. The 23. Ibid., 150. For the excavation and rebuilding of the sardāb, documents housed in the Department of Islamic Art con- see Ḥāfiẓ Ḥusayn al-Ḥayānī, “Al-Ḥīr,” Sumer 44 (1985–86): tain additional material related to the Samarra excava- 139–57. tions, including three sketchbooks and a series of prepara- 24. Northedge, “Interpretation of the Palace of the Caliph,” 147. tory drawings and notes for Herzfeld’s Der Wandschmuck Herzfeld was at first convinced that this area contained der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamentik and Die a large gate but, after having made several unsuccessful Malereien von Samarra. These documents have been cata- soundings there, gave up the search. Herzfeld explained logued by the author and are in the process of being digi- his lack of success in finding a gate on the southern side of tized. For documents available online, see Ernst Herzfeld the complex in a letter to Friedrich Sarre, dated January 20, Papers, Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://libmma.con 1913, MIK: “2 Züge waren kurz am Südtor tätig, welches kein tentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16028coll11 Tor, jedenfalls nicht das Tor des Palastes war. Die Untersu­ (accessed July 24, 2014). The archive at the Museum für chung ist schon abgeschlossen. 2 Züge waren in 29 v/w Islamische Kunst (MIK), Berlin, includes correspondence tätig, wo ebenfalls kein Tor vorhanden ist.” The coordinates between Herzfeld and Friedrich Sarre, several sketchbooks, “29 v/w” to which Herzfeld refers are located on the south- and a number of glass plate negatives taken on-site. These ern side of the Great Courtyard, along the retaining wall. papers are discussed in Kröger, “Chronik der Ausgrabun- See Herz­feld’s gridded map of the palace, FSA A.6 05.1018. gen von Samarra.” In subsequent notes, I refer to archival 25. For a general description of these finds, see Herzfeld, Male­ materials by their collection abbreviation (FSA, MMA, and reien von Samarra, viii–ix. MIK) in the first citation, followed by their repository iden- 26. Herzfeld saw the Main Caliphal Palace’s Audience Hall tification number and page number. Herzfeld’s excavation Complex as part of a long evolution in the form of basili- inventory numbers assigned to small finds (important for can audience chambers that he traced from ancient Iran searching the online archives for specific artifacts) are pre- through to Mshatta. He expressed this theory in his Second ceded with the abbreviation “Herzfeld IN” here. Museum Campaign Diary, 79–80. accession numbers (acc. no.) later assigned to the Samarra 27. Column foundations are clearly visible in Herzfeld’s pho- finds are preceded by the name of the museum. tographs. See FSA A.6 04.22.039, for example. The purpose 17. Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, FSA A.6 07.09. of the rows of columns in the columned halls is discussed 18. Herzfeld’s Samarra sketchbooks referenced in this article in a letter from Ernst Herzfeld to Friedrich Sarre, June 22, include three main groups: the Samarra Finds Sketchbooks 1913, MIK. 1–9 (FSA A.6 07.12–FSA A.6 07.20), which contain drawings 28. That the Central Square Chamber was domed was clear to of finds from the excavations; the Samarra Architectural Herzfeld based on the architecture itself. The fact that there Studies Sketchbooks 1–9 (FSA A.6 07.21–FSA A.6 07.29), were no finds of plaster or brick vaulting led further to the which contain architectural plans; and the Samarra Orna- conclusion that the dome was constructed of wood. See ment Sketchbook (MMA eeh1500), which contains draw- Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 81: “Dass der centrale 190 MATTHEW D. SABA

Raum keine Kuppel gehabt hätte, ist nicht wohl denkbar. 37.T he column shafts are photographed in FSA A.6 Da der Schutt aber keine Kuppelwölbungsstücke aufwies, 04.PF.22.028, and the base in FSA A.6 04.PF.22.034. The während überall Bogenstücke sich fanden, so ist die Kup- column base is also photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.22.034 pel vielleicht—wie die der Qubbat al-Sakhrah, aus Holz and sketched in Herzfeld, Samarra Ornament Sketchbook, konstruiert gewesen.” Wooden domes were common in the 16. The current whereabouts of these column parts is neighboring regions of Syria and Palestine, especially. The unknown. A similar example is housed in the MIK (acc. vault of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is wooden, for no. Sam I. 484). Stone column capitals were also excavated example. See K. A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture: from the private houses at Samarra. Two examples are now Umayyads, ʿAbbāsids and Ṭūlūnids, pt. 1, Umayyads, a.d. housed in the MIK: acc. no. Sam. I. 485 (Herzfeld IN 185) 622–750, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1969), 1:116–21. and acc. no. Sam I. 492 (Herzfeld IN 186). 29. For Ukhaydir, see Gertrude Bell, Palace and Mosque at 38. Herzfeld, “Mitteilung über die Arbeiten der zweiten Kam- Ukhaiḍir: A Study in Early Mohammadan Architecture pagne von Samarra,” 202. (Oxford, 1914), 26; Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, pt. 39. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, pt. 2, 242. 2, 63–70. For Mshatta, see Creswell, Early Muslim Architec- 40. This attribution is evident in his descriptions of this impres- ture, pt. 1, 2:584–88. The connection between the Islamic sion in Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 70. audience hall and the Late Antique basilica (an elongated 41. Photographs FSA A.6 04.PF.22.043 and FSA A.6 04.PF.22.044 room with rows of columns on the long sides) is argued show impressions on the south wall. FSA A.6 04.PF.22.038 most thoroughly in Jean Sauvaget, La Mosquée omeyyade de shows a baseboard made of carved marble with bead Médine: Étude sur les origines architecturales de la mosquée motif at the threshold of what used to be an open passage et de la basilique (Paris, 1947), 124–29, 158–85. between the West Columned Hall and the Central Square 30. Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 88. The explanatory Chamber behind the columns. text accompanying figure 5 reads: “Hier fand sich zuerst 42. Fragments of a carved marble baseboard and impressions im Centrum eine Zusetzung eines ins Pflasterniveau verti- in the plaster above are visible in photograph FSA A.6 eften halbkugeligen Springbrunnenbeckens, also 2 Peri- 04.PF.22.046 and in the background of photograph FSA A.6 oden. Dazu kam, dass allerdings der centrale Saal zuerst 04.PF.22.050. See also Herzfeld’s detailed sketch of these folgende Bildung hatte: [my figure 5, left], jetzt aber [my impressions in his Samarra Ornament Sketchbook, 25. figure 5, right]. Außerdem an 2 Stellen eine 3te Periode 43. Photograph FSA A.6 04.PF.22.048. (sehr dichtig die zwei Durchbrüche wieder zusetzt).” This 44. I have seen such holes in two fragments of marble wall fac- last remark also indicates that two of these apertures were reclosed in a third phase of renovation. ings in the MIK (acc. nos. Sam I. 476 and Sam I. 489) and 31. The bricked-over basin is perhaps indicated in Herzfeld, in Herzfeld IN 966, current location unknown but docu- Samarra Architectural Studies Sketchbook 8, 40, where a mented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 8, 14. In sketch of a pavement is labeled “Mitte des Thronsaales terms of the holes, one can compare Samarra’s marble slabs zu­ge­setzter Springbrunnen” and is attributed to “III Perio- to the marble slabs used for a wall facing excavated from de.” Khirbet al-Minya, which also had small holes for clamps 32. Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 88: “Neu fand sich bored in their sides. Unlike Samarra, however, Khirbet al- das Merkwürdigste, 70 cm unter dem Pflaster ein älteres Minya’s marble revetments attached to a stone wall that Pflaster, wenigstens Reste davon, u. darüber[?] 70 cm bore no trace of plaster backing. Like other monuments Abschüttung (sicher).” in Syria-Palestine, the marble panels were attached solely 33. Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 97: “Die Untersuchung with clamps. This material is described in detail by Markus im Centralraum hat auch ein schnelles Resultat gehabt: Ritter in “Spätantike Kunst: Die Baudekoration des frühisla- die Fundamente der Türschwellen laufen hoch durch, ent- misch-umayyadischen Palastes Kirbat al-Minya bei Tiberias sprechend der Höhe des jetzigen Pflasters der T-Säle. Keine am See Genezareth” (master’s thesis, Bamberg Colloquium Spur von Treppenstufen. In den T-Sälen laufen die Fun- on Oriental Studies, 1994), 183–85. The detailed research on damentbänke der Säulenreihen hoch durch (10 cm unter the marble wall panels excavated at Ghazni in Afghanistan Pflaster) also lag das Pflaster von Anfang an unbedingt provides an interesting point of comparison. At Ghazni, hoch. Damit ist bewiesen, dass das untere Pflaster im Cen- such pin or clamp holes are not evident, as the panels seem tralsaal bedeutungslos ist. So lange der Raum benutzt war, to have been attached to the brick walls with plaster and lag niemals der Fußboden so tief wie das untere Pflaster. further secured by being partly submerged under the floor Irgendeine Marotte beim Bau oder eine Änderung während where they rested on a wooden foundation, as is suggested des Bauens.” by the blank registers at the bottom of the panels. Martina 34. Northedge, Historical Topography, appendix A, p. 267 (par. Rugiadi, personal communication, April 2013, and see also 2) and p. 268 (par. 8). Martina Rugiadi, Decorazione architettonica in marmo da 35. Northedge, “Interpretation of the Palace of the Caliph,” 146. Ġaznī (Afghanistan): Tesi Dottorale (Bologna, 2012), 1065. 36. Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 87: “Es hat sich Heute The fact that the Samarra marble, made for brick walls herausgestellt, daß die Basilikalen Säle (alle 4) Marmorsäu- and plaster, came with pin holes comparable to those used len hatten, keine Pfeiler, u. zwar je 2 × 4: also ganz Mshattā.” in the stone architecture of Syria-Palestine could be an A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 191

argument in support of the information given by the Arab 54.H erzfeld IN 984, documented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds historian and geographer Ahmad ibn Abi Yaʿqub al-Yaʿqubi Sketchbook 8, 17. (d. after 905) that the marble for Samarra was sourced from 55. Published as Orn. 133 in Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten a Syrian context or worked by Syrian craftsmen. For the von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, 90–91. Yaʿqubi reference, see Northedge, Historical Topography, 56. E.g., Herzfeld IN 913, photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.19.090 268. and published as Orn. 101 and Orn. 101a in Herzfeld, Wand- 45. Examples of metal clamps, possibly used for attaching mar- schmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, ble panels to walls, include Herzfeld IN 600, documented 71–72. in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 7, 5; Herzfeld IN 57. For example, Herzfeld IN 803 (photographed in FSA A.6 972, MIK, no acc. no., documented in Herzfeld, Samarra 04.PF.22.171) has a beaded border element attached above. Finds Sketchbook 7, 22; and Herzfeld IN 995, documented 58. Herzfeld IN 791, photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.19.092. See in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 7, 47. the panel pictured in Iraq Directorate-General of Antiqui- 46. The pieces found not carved in these four patterns are so ties, Excavations at Samarra, 2: pl. CXXXIII. few and so inconsistent that they might be interpreted as 59. Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine spolia recycled at Samarra for other structural elements. Ornamentik, 71–72. If they were employed as decorations, no more than one 60. A sketch made by Herzfeld of a marble fragment now in the frieze or an isolated panel could be reconstructed based MIK (acc. no. Sam I. 490, Herzfeld IN 80) is glossed “Spuren on the current evidence. For these, see Herzfeld, Wand- roter Farbe,” suggesting that he found traces of red pigment schmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, on its surface. The sketch is preserved in MMA eeh407. 224–25. 61. Martina Rugiadi, “‘As for the Colours, Look at a Garden in 47. E.g., Herzfeld IN 915, drawn in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Spring’: Polychrome Marble in the Ghaznavid Architec- Sketchbook 8, 8. Two pieces with this pattern are preserved tural Decoration,” in Proceedings of the 7th International in the collection of the MIK (acc. no. Sam. I. 101 and 102), Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 12 both with undocumented findspots. This pattern is pub- April–16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London, lished as Orn. 146 in Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten ed. Roger Matthews and John Curtis, 3 vols. (Wiesbaden, von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, 98. 2012), 2:425–42. 48. A large slab housed in the National Museum in Baghdad 62. See transcribed text from Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary has six rows of horseshoe motifs (the bottom row is barely in n. 66 below. visible) and a beaded border on its left side. I thank Martina Rugiadi for bringing this piece to my attention. See also a 63. Photographs taken in the Audience Hall Complex showing piece published in Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities, in situ dadoes that confirm the accuracy of Herzfeld’s labels Excavations at Samarra, 1936–1939, 2 vols. (Baghdad, 1940), include FSA A.6 04.PF.22.048, FSA A.6 04.22.PF.051, FSA A.6 2: pl. CXXXIII. 04.PF.19.119, FSA A.6 04.PF.22.039, FSA A.6 04.PF.19.250, 49. E.g., Herzfeld IN 966, documented in Herzfeld, Samarra FSA A.6 04.PF.19.065, FSA A.6 04.PF.19.086, and FSA A.6 Finds Sketchbook 8, 14. 04.PF.19.087. 50. E.g., Herzfeld IN 80 (MIK acc. no. Sam I. 490), IN 256 (MIK 64. In his diary, Herzfeld questioned whether both of these acc. no. Sam I. 477), IN 517 (MIK acc. no. Sam I. 476), and IN corner rooms had dadoes made of shaped marble slabs or 629, photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.22.117 and published as the room in the southeastern corner had ceramic tiles sub- Orn. 135 in Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra stituted for marble slabs. This question was based on the und seine Ornamentik, 91–92. fact that, in the southeastern corner room, the impressions 51. Herzfeld IN 966 (two fragments, one photographed in FSA were flat (rather than concave like those left by marble A.6 04.PF.19.047 and the other documented in Herzfeld, slabs) and were of a different size. See Herzfeld, Second Samarra Finds Sketchbook 8, p. 7), as well as two large Campaign Diary, 85: “Für das westliche Zimmer ist Mar- pieces found in the Iraqi excavations of the 1930s, have mor durch originale Stücke absolut sicher. Bei dem östli- beaded border elements attached along their sides. See chem dachte ich zuerst an Kashi. Und das ist immer noch Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities, Excavations at nicht ganz unmöglich, wenn auch fraglich (die Maße sind Samarra, 2: pl. CXXXIII. verschieden in beiden Zimmern, u. runde Abdrücke, d. h. 52. Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine von alten Säulenoberflächen giebt es nur im westlichen Ornamentik, 25–28. Zimmer).” The question of the use of ceramic tiles in lieu 53. Fragments of moldings can be distinguished from wall of shaped marble pieces is of great interest. If accurate, panel fragments (dadoes or door frames) by their shape. Herzfeld’s theory could explain one use for the shaped The surfaces of these fragments are usually rounded at the ceramic tiles painted in polychrome luster to resemble stip- bottom and canted outward at the top to form a ledge. pled stone found in what was possibly a storage area near Examples include Victoria and Albert Museum acc. no. the circular pool that Herzfeld called the “large sardāb,” A.65-1922 (Herzfeld IN 36), and MIK acc nos. I. 7741 (Herz­ examples of which are now housed in the Victoria and feld IN 38), Sam I. 487 (Herzfeld IN 59), and Sam I. 488 Albert Museum (acc. no. C.620-1922), the MIK (many frag- (Herzfeld IN 37). ments, e.g., acc. no. Sam I. 235), and the MMA (acc. no. 192 MATTHEW D. SABA

23.75.25). Sarre had reconstructed these tiles as hexagonal 72.H erzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 96: “In Bezug auf die in shape, likely after Herzfeld’s suggestion (Sarre, Keramik Ornamente der Thronsäle ist zu constatieren, dass in den von Samarra, 52 [cat. no. 200] and reconstruction on p. 51 Räumen der Kreuzwinkel alle Decorationen haarscharf zu [fig. 121]), but an arrow-shaped form is equally possible. den gut erhaltenen Pflastern stimmen. Da ist durchaus eine I have never seen a fully intact tile, and none of the frag- Änderung nicht zu bemerken. In dem nach S gerichteten ments preserved are actually hexagonal. These tiles are T-Saale [sic] könnte eine Erhöhung um 1 Ziegelschicht (4-6 discussed in Herzfeld, Second Campaign Diary, 34–37. cm) stattgefunden haben, da der Marmor etwas eingesenkt 65. The facing was not found still intact but rather its impres- ist [sketch of marble baseboard below level of floor]. Das sion was clearly visible in the plaster bed, as seen in pho- scheint mir zu beweisen, dass auf jeden Fall der Marmor tographs FSA A.6 04.PF.19.073, FSA A.6 04.PF.22.050, FSA in situ original ist. Dafür spricht auch unbedingt, dass die A.6 04.PF.22.052, and FSA A.6 04.PF.22.053. The pattern is Fundamente der breiten Südtür (Axe) u. der kleinen Türen, sketched in Herzfeld, Samarra Ornament Sketchbook, 24, die später z. T. zugesetzt sind (zwischen den Arkaden, am 26. Centralraum) ihr durchlaufendes Fundament so hoch wie 66. The key to the map is glossed in Herzfeld, Second Campaign die Unterkante der Marmorsockel haben.” Diary, 84–86: “f) Die 4 Kreuzsäle mit ihren T-Queren haben 73. Herzfeld, however, did find renovations to the stucco orna- sämtlich Sockel aus Marmorplatten, u. ich vermute mit ment of what he called the “Harem,” which he compared to Sicherheit, dass hier die Sockel sculptiert waren. Wir haben the situation in the Audience Hall Complex. See Herzfeld, en masse Fragmente 3er Muster: α) Palmettenmotiv β) Second Campaign Diary, 91, 95. Vasenmotiv δ) Hufeisenmotiv. Außer tulunid. Friesen [the 74. Herzfeld found large quantities of marble dado fragments Samarra Frieze] kommt sonst in Massen nichts vor, u. diese in the area just south of the Audience Hall Complex (the 3 Arten stammen sämtlich aus diesen 4 Zimmern…. g) Mar- “Harem”) and in the area just south of the wall surround- morsockel ohne Sculptur, oben u. unten Knopfreihen aus ing the Great Courtyard. More isolated examples were weißem, blaugeädertem Marmor. Die centralen Rauten aus found in what he called the “Rotundabau,” just north of schneeweißem Marmor. Die [^]-Stücke teils rosa muscheli- the Great Courtyard, and around the pavilion north of the gem Marmor, teils von schwarzgrauem…. h) Die 2 nördlich small sardāb complex, at the eastern end of the palace. See gegenüberliegenden Zimmern sind einfacher, es scheint Herzfeld’s Samarra Finds Journal, entries for IN 718, 729, als ob die zum Harem führende Seite üppiger geschmückt. 732, 738. Jene haben nur Türrahmen in der Form, die zu den mit 75. Evidence for renovations in what Herzfeld called the dem Palmettenmotiv geschmückten Sockeln gehört. i) 4 “Harem” are discussed in his Second Campaign Diary, an diese 4 Räume (g. u. h.) anschließende kleinere Zimmer, 90–92, 95–96. See also Northedge, “Interpretation of the u. 2 nach dem Harem zu gelegene (ohne strenge Symmet- Palace of the Caliph,” 146. rie[)] haben das schöne Palmetten-Motiv, dass in Marmor 76. Herzfeld, “Mitteilung über die Arbeiten der zweiten Kam- vorkommt, in Gips…. k) Nach dem Harem hin liegen noch pagne von Samarra,” 202. 3 kleinen Räume, von denen einer eine Moschee ist (mit 77. Sarre, Keramik von Samarra, 53–54. Inventoried fragments hübschem quadrat. Miḥrāb), die mit dem Vasenmotiv auf of monochrome luster tiles found in the Audience Hall ihren Sockeln decoriert sind.” Complex include Herzfeld IN 891 (two fragments, one in 67. Note that Herzfeld did not excavate the North Columned the Victoria and Albert Museum, acc. no. C.622-1922, and Hall and thus simply wrote “Marmor.” another photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.20.056) and IN 993 68. Khālid Khalīl Ḥammūdī, “Qaṣr al-Khalīfa al-Muʿtaṣim fī (MIK acc. nos. Sam. I. 246 and Sam. I. 248). Other examples Sāmarrāʾ,” Sumer 38 (1982): 178, plates on p. 186 and plan were found during the Iraqi excavations of the 1930s. See on p. 202. Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities, Excavations at 69. A comparison between a stucco panel with the palmette- Samarra, 2: pls. CIV, CV. fan motif housed in the MIK (acc. no. I. 3476) and Herz­ 78. Sarre, Keramik von Samarra, 50–52; Iraq Directorate-Gen- feld IN 913, a piece of a marble wall panel carved with the eral of Antiquities, Excavations at Samarra, 2: pl. CIII. Herz­ same motif, shows that the scale at which the motifs were feld found none of these tiles in Audience Hall Complex. rendered is nearly the same. The palmette motif (the five- 79. Sarre, Keramik von Samarra, 50. These tiles come in two lobed leaf at the bottom) in the MIK measured 25 cm in colors, green and amber yellow. Sarre refers to them as height, while Herzfeld’s sketches indicate that it measured “rectilinear,” but some were clearly shaped, as they come 27 cm on the marble slab. For the measured sketch, see to pointed edges, e.g., Herzfeld IN 956 (British Museum, Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 8, 6. London, acc. no. OA+.10843). There are approximately one 70. See, for example, Herzfeld’s statement in the concluding hundred fragments of these tiles in the British Museum. remarks to the excavation of the palace in Herzfeld, Second 80. Herzfeld found several pieces in the central domed cham- Campaign Diary, 97: “Alle Ornamente u. Marmorverkleid- ber and a piece in the southwest corner room with polished ungen in den Thronsälen sind also alt, erste Periode von marble wall facings, including fragments of what look to Muʿtasim.” be figural motifs. For example, Herzfeld IN 917 and 918 71. E.g., photograph FSA A.6 04.PF.22.042. (photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.22.059), IN 983 (drawn A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 193

in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 7, 42), and IN 916 93.H erzfeld IN 919 had traces of blue color. This piece is docu- (drawn in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 8, 10–11). mented in a colored pencil drawing (MMA eeh405). See Other pieces in pink, white, and black marble were picked also Viollet, Fouilles à Samarra, 26. up in the surrounding area, but findspot information is 94. The intact wooden door was found in the area just south vague and it is impossible to reconstruct their original loca- of the Audience Hall Complex: Herzfeld IN 965, photo- tion (e.g., Herzfeld IN 556 and IN 620-622, documented in graphed in FSA A.6 04.PF.22.036 and sketched in FSA A.6 Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 5). 07.11.27. The size of the door can be approximated through 81. Lamm, Glas von Samarra, 109–14. Examples of millefiori sketches with measurements that indicate that the frag- include Herzfeld IN 855 (MIK, no acc. no.). Examples of mentary leaves reach a maximum height of 130 cm, mean- opaque black tiles include Herzfeld IN 887 (MIK, no acc. ing that the original height of the door would be somewhat nos.) Lamm, Glas von Samarra, 113, cat. no. 313. taller. Two pieces that appear to be from hexagonal frames 82. Herzfeld IN 899, documented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds of the type used between rectangular panels in composite Sketchbook 8, 32; Lamm, Glas von Samarra, 118, cat. no. 338. wooden doors were found in the audience halls. One was For the finds from Raqqa, see Nassib Saliby, “Les fouilles carved in a deep-cut style (Herzfeld IN 923, MIK no acc. du Palais B,” in Raqqa III: Baudenkmäler und Paläste I, ed. no., documented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook Verena Daiber and Andrea Becker (Mainz am Rhein, 2004), 7, 18, and published as Orn. 278 in Herzfeld, Wandschmuck 77–103, esp. 78–79, pls. 26c, 26d. der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, 223), and 83. Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities, Excavations at the other had a simple bead motif (Herzfeld IN 924, docu- Samarra, 2: pl. CXXVII, bottom. mented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 7, 23). 84. All examples of the millefiori and opaque black glass tiles 95. From Herzfeld’s excavation: Herzfeld IN 963 (documented mentioned above were found in this area. Herzfeld also in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 7, 24) and Herzfeld uncovered an extensive amount of shaped glass inlay IN 924 (documented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketch- pieces there, e.g., Herzfeld IN 602, a large piece shaped book 7, 20). See also a sketch of several of these elements in the form of a vesica piscis, pictured in Lamm, Glas von in FSA A.6 07.11.36. The Iraqi excavations in the 1930s Samarra, pl. XII, cat. no. 355. uncovered two such panels. See Iraq Directorate-General 85. Herzfeld IN 951, documented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds of Antiquities, Excavations at Samarra, 2: pl. CXXXVI, top. A Sketchbook 8, 41, and IN 986 (British Museum, acc. nos. leaf from a double-leaved door with the same motif is in the OA+.11764, OA+.11765, OA+.11766, OA+.11768). Benaki Museum, Athens (acc. no. 9130). It is said to come 86. Several fragments of stucco with mosaic tesserae and from Tikrit. The door has recently been published in Helen mother-of-pearl inlay were found at Samarra, demonstrat- C. Evans and Brandie Ratliff, ed., Byzantium and Islam: Age ing the use of this type of wall ornament there, though not of Transition, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art (New in the Main Caliphal Palace itself. For examples, see Lamm, Haven, 2012), 231, cat. no. 164. Glas von Samarra, 115–18, esp. cat. nos. 324 (Herzfeld IN 5) 96. Single leaves from two such doors are housed in the Benaki and 325 (Herzfeld IN 45). Museum (acc. nos. 9128, 9129). The partner of one of these 87. Herzfeld IN 827 and 856, documented in Herzfeld, Samarra now resides in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (acc. no. AA Finds Sketchbook 8, 42–43. 267). See Elise Anglade, Catalogue des boiseries de la section 88. Lamm, Glas von Samarra, 119–23. islamique (Paris, 1988), 18–20, cat. no. 5; Sophie Makariou, 89. R. Martin Harrison and Nezih Firatlı, “Excavations at Saraç­ ed., Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, trans. Susan Wise hane in Istanbul: First Preliminary Report,” Dumbarton (Paris, 2012), 85–86. A separate door (two leaves) is now Oaks Papers 19 (1965): 231–36, esp. 234, figs. 12, 13. in the British Museum (acc. no. 1944 5-13 1). Also included 90. Fragments from these arcades were found by Henri Viollet in this group is a single door panel with the palmette-fan in his fouille 7, just south of the West Portico. See caption motif purchased by Herzfeld in Tikrit and now housed in in Viollet, Fouilles à Samara, pl. XVI, and compare to plan the MIK (no acc. no., published as Orn. 102 in Herzfeld, in pl. I. Herzfeld indicated in his notes that he found frag- Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamen- ments in the East Columned Hall near the East Portico and tik, 72–73, and Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, pt. 2, in the South Columned Hall. These findspots are recorded 238). Two pairs of doors with panels bearing other Beveled in Herzfeld, Samarra Ornament Sketchbook, 24–26. Style motifs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art are also 91. The reconstructed pattern is published as Orn. 53 and Orn. said to be from Tikrit (acc. nos. 31.119.1–2, and 31.119.3–4). 87 in Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und See Maryam Ekhtiar, Priscilla Soucek, Sheila Canby, and seine Ornamentik, 48, 61. See also Creswell, Early Muslim Navina Najat Haidar, ed., Masterpieces from the Department Architecture, pt. 2, 237–38. of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exh. cat., 92. For fragments of exterior faces, see Herzfeld, Samarra Orna- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New Haven, 2011), 45–46, cat. ment Sketchbook, 20; Viollet, Fouilles à Samara, pl. XVI, no. 23. For a recent discussion of this group of doors, see 1. For pieces of soffits, see Herzfeld, Samarra Ornament Evans and Ratliff, ed., Byzantium and Islam, 231–32, cat. Sketchbook, 16–17; Viollet, Fouilles à Samara, pl. XVI, 2. no. 165. 194 MATTHEW D. SABA

97. Shown in Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities, Excava- 116. Many fragments of these windows are housed in the MIK. tions at Samarra, 2: pl. CXXXIV. For an illustration, see Andrea Becker, “Das Glas von 98. Among many examples are Herzfeld IN 797 (MIK acc. no. Samarra: unter Berücksichtigung neuerer Glasfunde aus Sam I. 354), published as Orn. 74 in Herzfeld, Wandschmuck Syrien,” in Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie, der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, 55. ed. Gonnella et al., 4, 143–55, fig. 8. An article on the sub- 99. Herzfeld IN 874 (MIK no acc no.), published as Orn. 110 in ject is forthcoming by Barry Flood in Raqqa V, volume 5 of ibid., 76. the Raqqa excavation reports published by the Deutsches 100. Among many examples, see illustrations published in ibid., Archäologisches Institut (Mainz am Rhein, 1999–). I thank 139–42 (e.g., Orn. 197). Barry Flood and Andrea Becker for alerting me to these 101. Herzfeld IN 793 c and Herzfeld IN 809 (both MIK no acc. windows. nos., documented in Herzfeld’s sketch FSA A.6 07.11.26). 117. Herzfeld IN 889 and Herzfeld IN 970. Two aquamarine-blue 102. Herzfeld IN 793 b and Herzfeld IN 872 a (both MIK no acc. fragments are in MIK Berlin (no acc. nos.). See Lamm, Glas nos., drawn in Herzfeld’s sketch FSA A.6 07.11.34 and pho- von Samarra, 128, cat. nos. 375, 376. Other colors were found tographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.22.091b, respectively). here and elsewhere on-site, for example, those represented 103. Herzfeld IN 702 and Herzfeld IN 786 a (both MIK no acc. by MMA acc. no. 23.75.13a–g, which include red, yellow, nos., photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.23.124). and brown pieces. See ibid., 127–28, cat. nos. 372, 374. 104. Herzfeld IN 923 (Victoria and Albert Museum, acc. no. 118. For an excellent overview of the relationship among archi- A.133-1922). tecture, ceremonial, and ideology in early Islamic palace 105. Herzfeld IN 886 (British Museum, acc. no. OA+.13618) and architecture, see Gülru Necipoğlu, “An Outline of Shifting Herzfeld 796 (MIK acc. no. Sam I. 350). See also photograph Paradigms in the Palatial Architecture of the Pre-Modern FSA A.6 04.PF.22.147. Islamic World,” Ars Orientalis 23 (1993), 3–24, esp. 6–10. See 106. No Herzfeld inventory number, and current location also Milwright, “Fixtures and Fittings,” 107. For a detailed unknown. This is a large arch-shaped frame constructed discussion of Abbasid ceremonial in general, the classic of several panels of wood carved in the Beveled Style docu- study is still Dominique Sourdel, “Questions de cérémonial mented in sketches and photographs. See photograph FSA ‘Abbaside,” Revue des Études Islamiques 28 (1960): 121–48. A.6 04.PF.22.037 and Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 119. Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin al-Ṣābiʾ, Rusūm Dār al-Khilāfa, ed. 8, 46. Mīkhāʾīl ʿAwwād (Baghdad, 1964), published in English 107. Examples found in the Audience Hall Complex include as Rusūm Dār al-Khilāfa: The Rules and Regulations of the Herzfeld IN 889 (MIK no acc. no.), Herzfeld IN 922 (Victoria ʿAbbāsid Court, trans. Elie A. Salem (Beirut, 1977). This and Albert Museum, acc. nos. A.130-1922 and A.131-1922, passage is also analyzed in Necipoğlu, “Outline of Shifting and MIK no acc. no.), Herzfeld IN 964 (Victoria and Albert Paradigms,” 6–7. Museum, acc. no. A.129-1922, and MIK no acc. no.). 120. Al-Ṣābiʾ, Rusūm Dār al-Khilāfa, 81–82. My translation differs 108. Examples from the Audience Hall Complex include Herz­ slightly from Salem’s, Rules and Regulations, 65–66. feld IN 925 (photographed in FSA A.6 04.PF.19.098 and 121. Al-Ṣābiʾ, Rusūm Dār al-Khilāfa, 84; English translation in drawn in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Sketchbook 7, 30, pub- Rules and Regulations, trans. Salem, 68. lished as Orn. 109 in Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten 122. Sidillā is a curious word and merits discussion here. Herz­ von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, 76), and Herzfeld IN feld traced it to the Latin sedilia, meaning a “recessed chair” 979 (MIK no acc. no., published as Orn. 17 in ibid., 23). or “throne.” Herzfeld, Geschichte der Stadt Samarra, 122. 109. For the comparative soffit in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, see Others trace its roots to a Persian phrase sih dillah, which Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, pt. 2, pl. 113b. suggested to Dominique Sourdel a baldachin throne with 110. Herzfeld IN 925 (MIK no acc. no., published as Orn. 90 in three (sih) domes or some other tripartite division that Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine would be placed indoors. Sourdel, “Questions de cérémo- Ornamentik, 64, and Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, nial ‘Abbaside,” 129–30. It is significant that the Arabic pt. 2, pl. 55c). lexicographer Ismaʿil ibn Hammad al-Jawhari connects 111. Herzfeld IN 890 (MIK no acc. no.). Herzfeld classified the term sidillā to the architectural plan known as ḥīrī this piece as Second Style based on the leaf-shaped motif wa’l-kummayn, well known at Samarra, which is char- carved in the center. Herzfeld, Wandschmuck der Bauten acterized by a large hall flanked by two side rooms. See von Samarra und seine Ornamentik, 134. Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād al-Jawharī, Kitāb Tāj al-lūgha wa-siḥaḥ 112. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, pt. 2, pl. 55d. al-ʿarabiyya (Cairo, 1865–66), s.v. sidillā. A form of this con- 113. Herzfeld refers to it as “von den Ankern über den Säulen figuration defines the arms of the Audience Hall Complex der Thronsäle” in Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra of Samarra’s Main Caliphal Palace. Jawhari writes: “sidillā: und seine Ornamentik, 134. follows [the form] fiʿillā, an Arabized word whose root is 114. Herzfeld IN 893, documented in Herzfeld, Samarra Finds Persian sidillah, as if it was three rooms in a house like Sketchbook 7, 16; Lamm, Glas von Samarra, 128, cat. no. 377. the ḥārī bi-kummayn.” Such a close link suggests that the 115. Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities, Excavations at module of columned hall and portico opening onto the Samarra, 2: pl. CXXV, bottom. courtyard could be interpreted as a sidillā. A RESTRICTED GAZE: THE ORNAMENT OF THE MAIN CALIPHAL PALACE OF SAMARRA 195

123. ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Shābushtī, The Shabushti’s Book of 127. Oleg Grabar, “Ceremonial and Art at the Umayyad Court” Monasteries: Al-Diyarat, ed. George Awwad (Piscataway, (PhD diss., Princeton University, 1955), 57–58; Shalem, N.J., 2008). References to this event also appear in Abū Bakr “Manipulations of Seeing,” 219. Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṣūlī, Kitab al-Avrak = (“Kniga lis- 128. A Sasanian equivalent to the Umayyad ṣāḥib al-sitr may tov”), ed. V. I. Beliaeva and A. B. Khalidova (St. Petersburg, have been the khurrām bāsh. See Grabar, “Ceremonial and 1998), 532; Book of Gifts and Rarities = Kitāb al-Hadāyā wa Art,” 53. al-Tuḥaf: Selections Compiled in the Fifteenth Century from 129. Kitāb al-Tāj fī akhlāq al-mulūk li’l-Jāḥiẓ, ed. Fawzī ʿAṭawī an Eleventh Century Manuscript on Gifts and Treasuries, (Beirut, 1970), 84. ed. and trans. Ghāda al-Hijjāwī al-Qaddūmī (Cambridge, 130. Al-Ṣābiʾ, Rules and Regulations, trans. Salem, 32. Mass., 1996), 136–38. 131. The event is described in several sources, including ibid., 124. The plan of the Balkuwara, excavated by Herzfeld in 1911, 16–18; Book of Gifts and Rarities, ed. and trans. Qaddūmī, shows that its largest iwan measured approximately 26 148–55. × 13 meters and that it was extended approximately 5 132. Necipoğlu, “Outline of Shifting Paradigms,” 7; Shalem, meters in length with a wooden frame. Leisten, Excava- “Manipulations of Seeing,” 221–23. More recently, Eva Hoff- tion of Samarra, 96. The iwan, however, adjoined a much man has pointed to the connections between this event larger courtyard, which measured approximately 107 m. and broader traditions of representing rulership in the Near long. Ibid., 88. East and Mediterranean world. Eva Hoffman, “Between 125. Al-Shābushtī, Shabushti’s Book of Monasteries, 150–51. East and West: The Wall Paintings of Samarra and the Con- 126. Avinoam Shalem, “Manipulations of Seeing and Visual struction of Abbasid Princely Culture,” Muqarnas 25 (2008): Strategies in the Audience Halls of the Early Islamic Period: 107–32, esp. 123. Preliminary Notes,” in Visualisierungen von Herrschaft, 133. Book of Gifts and Rarities, ed. and trans. Qaddūmī, 148–49. Frühmittelalterliche Residenzen: Gestalt und Zeremoniell, 134. Ibid., 151–53. Internationales Kolloquium 3./4. Juni 2004 in Istanbul, ed. Franz Alto Bauer (Istanbul, 2006), 213–32. ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 197

Avino am Shalem

Expi er entia and Auctoritas: ʿAbd Al-Latif Al-Baghdadi’s Kitāb Al-Ifāda Wa’l-Iʿtibār and the Birth of the Critical Gaze

Knowledge conforms fully to the object known, because it This gaze of fascination is, generally speaking, the is the spiritual form of the object known. The difference subject of this article, which examines how a “strange” between the two is that the object known is a form whose and enigmatic object from the past history of another substratum is matter, whereas knowledge is a form whose culture, in this case Pharaonic, gave rise to a new and substratum is the soul. novel mode of aesthetic investigation or, more accu- —ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi* rately, a new mode of seeing. The object of the other—or really any exotic object—involves other aesthetic can- O n October 16, 2009, the Neues Museum in Berlin re- ons that challenge our conventional perceptions and as opened to the public after having been closed for sev- a result can foster new modalities of digesting knowl- enty years. As the German Chancellor Angela Merkel edge. My object of observation is the famous Sphinx of officially inaugurated the newly renovated exhibition Giza, an object that was, and still is, a source of fascina- space, she was photographed contemplating the high- tion. For centuries the Sphinx has attracted the eyes of light of the collection, the famous bust of Nefertiti. Im- its visitors and been an object of public viewing, as evi- ages of this moment flooded the news, internet sites, denced today by the millions of tourist photographs and other media, attracting the attention of the world.1 uploaded to the digital global network and, for the past, It was probably the resonant tête-à-tête of two strong by the numerous graffiti inscriptions that, according to women that made this image so attractive to the public, medieval Arab writers, were to be seen on the now lost calling to mind the history of female power and names marble panels that once covered the pyramids of Giza such as the Queen of Sheba, Cleopatra, Theodora, Elea- immediately adjacent to the Sphinx.4 The latter are the nor of Aquitaine, as well as, in the modern era, Indira best evidence of the medieval tourism that developed Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher. But apart from the de- around this site, even though it must be pointed out that liberate recontextualization of the bust of Nefertiti with- in the modern era no graffiti have been found on the in the framework of German history and the history of Sphinx. As Andreas Hartmann has recently suggested, the Berlin museum—a no less ideological issue readily this remarkable one-time presence of graffiti may be due and frequently advanced in Berlin in order to thwart the to the fact that the Sphinx was worshipped as a religious oft-repeated demand by the former head of the Egyptian deity associated with Helios Harmachis.5 antiquities, Zahi Hawass, to return the bust to Cairo—it A huge map—one could even say veduta—created by is worth reflecting on the particular fascination an ob- Matteo Pagano around 1549 and titled La vera descritio- ject from another culture can exert in its new cultural ne de la gran cita del Caiero (fig. 1) includes what is prob- environment.2 In fact, Merkel’s gaze may be seen as ably one of the earliest depictions of the Sphinx being epitomizing the long history of Europe gazing, with fas- observed or, rather, marveled at by travelers.6 The nu- cination, at the Orient. It emphasizes aesthetic amaze- merous extant images from the seventeenth to the early ment as a potential first step in a process leading to the twentieth centuries, especially up to the year 1925 when acquisition of knowledge.3 the excavation of the body of the lying Sphinx began,

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P10 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 197-212 198 AVINOAM SHALEM rlin) e B nice, ca. 1549. Print on paper, 102.0 × 192.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche e seums of V u M aly, t I . iero a C vera descritione de la gran cita del a L rlin P.K., inv. no. 924-1000. (Photo: courtesy of the State e B a M seen zu u i F g. 1. M tteo Pagano, ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 199

F ig. 2. Jean-Léon Gérôme, Bonaparte before the Sphinx. France, 1867–68. Oil on canvas, 61.6 × 102.9 cm. San Simeon, Cali- fornia, Hearst Castle, inv. no. 529-9-5092. (Photo: Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California)

clearly attest to the particular fascination this monu- ­narrative of the history of civilization, a narrative that mental sculpture exerted on humankind.7 Of course, we has had implications not only for the history of culture should keep in mind that the entire burial complex with and humanism but also for political chronicles of the its guardian Sphinx and the huge pyramids, indeed the Middle East.10 A huge project that took about three years thousands of years of Pharaonic civilization, remained (1798–1801) to establish, it resulted in a mammoth de- completely inscrutable until 1822, when the Egyptian scriptive and illustrated series of volumes covering most hieroglyph script was deciphered. Until then, these of the archaeological monuments of Egypt. In February monuments were endowed with a special, if not magical 1802, a commission began to prepare for this monumen- aura.8 tal publication, and the volumes published between It is tempting to speculate how Napoleon Bonaparte 1809 and 1822 were, and have been regarded ever since must have felt when he first encountered the Sphinx. as, memorial legacies of the history of civilization, a tes- Jean-Léon Gérôme (d. 1904) tried to convey this particu- timonial for centuries to come. The publication put lar pathos-filled moment in a painting he created almost Egypt, if not the “Orient,” on the large historical map of seventy years after Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt, in the world and gave it—mainly its Pharaonic era—a 1867–68. The painting, Bonaparte before the Sphinx (fig. place within the story of human civilization, a frame- 2), presents the monarch on a horse in front of the work that to this day dominates the concept of classify- Sphinx, in the large and wide desert, as if contemplating ing and displaying objects of art in most public museums the grand history of times past.9 In fact, this image of aiming to tell the story of civilization. Napoleon strongly recalls the mythological tale of the As history shows time and again, cultural exposure of young Oedipus encountering a Sphinx. Like Oedipus, the West to the East, an exposure usually mingled with Napoleon tried to solve the riddle of this sculpture and, fascination and mystery, propelled and inspired West- metaphorically speaking, that of the ancient civilization. ern academic investigations and intellectual reflection. Arguably, the inception of Napoleon’s comprehen- In the case of Western exposure to Egypt, and especially sive research project, the Description de l’Égypte, in May Western interactions with its Pharaonic art and culture, 1798, marked the beginning of a new chronological an additional factor played a role. Since this period 200 AVINOAM SHALEM

­remained completely unintelligible until Jean-François ­medi­cine, and philosophy. Moreover, he became par- Champollion broke the code of the hieroglyphs and de- ticularly interested in changing contemporary practices ciphered the Rosetta Stone in 1822, the ancient epoch as of learning and methodologies of teaching, which, in his a whole was endowed with an immensely powerful, au- day, were based primarily on memorization and repeti- ratic cultural value. It was an indecipherable culture tion. We are told, for instance, that his knowledge of that until then appeared to some extent to be alien to, tribal languages, dialects, and war maneuvers was ac- or placed outside of, world history. The fact that until quired in those early years through what we today would 1822 no historical date could be attached to it to position call fieldwork.14 One autobiographical anecdote about it in time made it seem to be outside of history, hence an early mentor and teacher in Baghdad, Kamal al-Din the mystery and enigma associated with ancient Egypt.11 al-Anbari (d. 1181), shows ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s critical stance toward the teaching methods of the time: “I couldn’t understand one bit of his [Kamal al-Din al- ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S INTELLECTUAL Anbari’s] continuous and considerable jabbering, even INTEGRITY though his students seemed pleased enough with it.”15 Nonetheless ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi was also inter- The present article focuses on ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, ested, as mentioned, in medicine, literature, and phi- a scholar and scientist of the Ayyubid period who wrote, losophy, and his interests were arguably focused in taught, and published extensively at the height of the particular on the acquisition of broad knowledge, as re- Crusades, in the days of Saladin (d. 1193), and whose fas- flected at the time in the writings of Abu ʿAli al-Husayn cination with the ancient Pharaonic monuments in b. ʿAbdullah Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1037), whom ʿAbd Egypt was reflected in his writings and ended up trans- al-Latif al-Baghdadi knew well, and especially, as I will forming, as I will argue, his views on how to encounter, argue later, on Ibn Sina’s novel ideas about human cog- learn, and understand the visible and tangible world of nition.16 the past.12 ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s full name is At the age of 28, in 1189–90, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi ­Muwaffaq al-Din Abu Muhammad ʿAbd al-Latif al-Bagh- began to travel. He visited Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, and dadi b. Yusuf b. Muhammad b. ʿAliʾ, also known as al- Syria. For an intellectual of his stature, especially one Labbad. He was a prolific writer, philosopher, and who recognized the value of learning outside the ma- scientist. The biographical information about him that drasa and the library, those travels could be defined as has come down to us is found mainly in an edition of his learning expeditions that served to gather experiences autobiography compiled and edited by his contempo- and transform them into cumulative knowledge. That rary fellow scholar Ibn Abi Usaybiʿah (d. 1270) in a book same year he also moved to Mosul and started to teach called ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ (Sources of in the “suspended” (muʿallaqa) college of Ibn Muhajir. Information on Classes of Physicians).13 According to There he was exposed to the works of Shihab al-Din this book, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi was born in Bagh- Yahya b. Habash b. Amirak al-Suhrawardi al-Maqtul (d. dad in 557 (1162) into a scholarly and learned Baghdadi 1191), which he viewed very critically and considered family and died there in 629 (1231–32) at the age of 69. flawed. During this period in Mosul he wrote a book on Wandering among and teaching in numerous learning the human body that brought him fame, as it became a centers of the Levant, he began his educational career definitive work for Arab scholars interested in the sub- in his native city of Baghdad, at the Zafariyya Mosque, ject. A year later he was in Damascus and subsequently mostly under the supervision of Wajih al-Din Wasiti (d. he joined Saladin on his way to Palestine. In 1191 he 1215). In those early years, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi be- spent some time with the forces of Saladin that were came a specialist in jurisprudence, grammar, and theol- camping outside the city of Acre and met with other ogy. However, from the very beginning, his interests famous scholars such as ʿImad al-Din al-Isfahani (d. 1201) went far beyond his particular education, extending to and Baha⁠ʾ al-Din Yusuf b. Rafi b. Shaddad (d. 1235). The other fields such as tribal languages, war methods, encounter with the Ayyubid forces of Saladin later ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 201

­motivated him to travel to Cairo, probably also in 1191. part of a longer journey, a pilgrimage to Mecca. But ʿAbd His studies in Cairo seem to have been a turning point al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s health deteriorated and on 12 Mu- in his intellectual career. In this city he was first intro- harram 629 (November 8, 1231) he died and was buried duced to the writings of Abu Nasr al-Farabi (d. 950), Al- in Baghdad. exander of Aphrodisias (b. ca. a.d. 200), and Themistius This short biographical account indicates that ʿAbd (d. 390), and he met with Cairene contemporary schol- al-Latif al-Baghdadi led a very active itinerant life. Of ars such as Moses Maimonides (d. 1204) and Abu’l-Qa- course, his many travels and relocations to different in- sim al-Sha⁠ʿiri (d. unknown). His encounter with the tellectual centers in the Levant were probably also due writings of these scholars, and especially with the ideas to the turbulent times and the associated dangers. He of al-Farabi, transformed his thought, as his scholarly witnessed the wars with the Frankish Crusader King- interest shifted from Ibn Sina’s school of alchemy and doms of the Levant; he witnessed the recapturing of medicine to a more philosophical and aesthetic way of Jerusalem and the Holy Land by Saladin; and at the end thinking. His encounter with Abu’l-Qasim al-Sha⁠ʾiri, of his short life he could have been aware of the alarm- moreover, seems to have been particularly crucial. ʿAbd ing rise in power of the Mongols on the eastern borders al-Latif al-Baghdadi apparently settled in Cairo but con- of the Islamic world. Yet academic mobility, whether in tinued to tour the Ayyubid domains, visiting Jerusalem, medieval times or today, leads to stimulating encoun- meeting with scholars in Damascus and Aleppo, and ters with various scholars and with written texts kept in even traveling as far as Anatolia. On his return to Cairo the major libraries of the various centers. ʿAbd al-Latif in 1197, he taught in the mosque of al-Azhar, the famous al-Baghdadi also had a private library, which, according intellectual center of the medieval Arab world. He de- to his autobiography, was partially transferred to Jeru- scribes his daily schedule as follows: “Teaching students salem in 1202.18 at Al-Azhar Mosque from daybreak until about the fourth hour; about midday medical students and others would come to me, and at the close of the day I used to THE OBJECTIVES OF THE BOOK return to Al-Azhar Mosque and teach other students. At night I used to work by myself.”17 Certain books and treatises by ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi Shortly after a major two-year famine (1200–1202) were likely the result of his encounter with other ideas that ruined Egypt’s economy (described in detail in his and thoughts expressed either in writing or orally, at writings) ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi left Egypt again and specific moments and particular locations in the schol- moved to Jerusalem, where he taught at the al-Aqsa arly zones of interaction he visited. It is beyond the Mosque. In 1207, or possibly one or two years earlier, he scope of this article (and of my field of specialization) to returned to Damascus and taught at the madrasa of the examine, contextualize, and comment in detail on ʿAbd al-Aziziyah Mosque and at the Great Mosque of Damas- al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s intellectual profile or to scrutinize cus. Later on, perhaps between 1212 and 1218, he taught his writings. In the present study I want to concentrate in Aleppo, and during 1220–28 he also traveled in east- on a particular, relatively short book of his, the Kitāb ern Anatolia and visited various Seljuk courts. He spent al-Ifāda wa’l-iʿtibār fi’l-umūr al-mushāhada wa’l- most of his time in the province of Erzinjan, at the ḥawadith al-muʿāyana bi-arḍ Miṣr (The Book of Instruc- princely court of ʿAla⁠ʾ al-Din Dawud b. Bahram (d. 1237). tion and Admonition on the Things Seen [mushāhada] In 1228–29 he moved from one court to another, visiting and Events Recorded [muʿāyana] in the Land of Egypt). Erzurum, Kemakh (Kamakh), Divrigi, and Malatya. He This short book discussing the wonders and customs of then returned to Aleppo, where he taught medicine for Egypt became one of the most popular books on Egypt some time. His last journey was to his hometown Bagh- in Arabic literature. The material for it was collected dad in 1231, most likely in order to present some of his during 1201–2, when ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi was in work to the caliph al-Mustansir biʾllah (r. 1226–42). It is Cairo, and revised and finalized in Damascus in 1207.19 also possible, however, that this visit to Baghdad was According to his introduction, the book was presented 202 AVINOAM SHALEM to the Abbasid caliph Abu’l-Abbas Ahmad al-Nasir in B­ aghdad, the Kitāb al-Ifāda wa’l-iʿtibār is, in fact, the (r. 1180–25).20 declaration of a new, progressive way of understanding In the early modern era, the book gained a wide inter- and interpreting nature and history through experience. est in Europe and was translated into German by Sam- ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s introduction, with its explan- uel Friedrich Günther Wahl in Halle in 1790 under the atory remarks on the character of his short book, clearly title Abdallatif’s eines arabischen Arztes Denkwürdig- indicates this change in the evolution of his thought and keiten Egyptens.21 A few years later, in 1800, a Latin trans- perception. lation by Joseph White appeared,22 and a decade later it When I finished my book on Egypt, which contains thirteen was translated into French by Antoine Isaac Silvester de chapters, I thought I would extract from it the events which Sacy.23 The translation of de Sacy, which also includes I had witnessed directly, as it is nearer to the truth, because excellent notes and annotations, was based on the fac- that part inspires most confidence and excites the most simile of the Pococke manuscript of ʿAbd al-Latif al- admiration; also, it is more wonderful in its effect upon Baghdadi kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. people who hear it. In fact, everything apart from what I For all its popularity, the book has commonly been witnessed personally is already to be found, or most of it, regarded as the “light” version of ʿAbd al-Latif al-Bagh- and in some cases all of it, in the books of my predecessors. I devoted two chapters of my book to the things I saw, and dadi’s major monograph on Egypt. This assumption was have separated these to form the relation which I publish based on his introduction to the Kitāb al-Ifāda wa’l- today, which is divided into two books of chapters.26 iʿtibār, in which he explains that when he finished writ- ing his book on Egypt, which contains thirteen chapters, In this introduction ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi presents he felt he should “extract from it the events which I had the individual gaze and the act of observing in general witnessed directly.”24 Moreover, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Bagh- as a scientific tool vis-à-vis the learned books of his pre- dadi himself defined the book as his “little compendi- decessors. In his opinion individual observations are um” (al-mukhtaṣar).25 It also seems that its popularity hierarchically more stimulating than those transmitted prompted scholars to regard it as a short guide to Cairo, through the long chain of tradition; their value is all the an impression not entirely unjustified considering the greater because those things he did not witness could book’s contents. already be found in books, that is, in the written tradi- The first book consists of six chapters, which are: (1) tion. Individual observations are new and personal and, General Characteristics of Egypt; (2) Plants Peculiar to more important, nearer to truth. He therefore challeng- Egypt; (3) Animals Characteristic of Egypt; (4) Descrip- es the written tradition, as it is repeated by memoriza- tion of Antique Monuments Seen in Egypt by the Author tion of the writings of former scholars, and suggests a (the focus of the present study); (5) The Remarkable learning process based on observation rather than rely- Things about Buildings and Ships Observed in Egypt; ing on older written scholarly texts. As mentioned ear- and (6) Foods Peculiar to Egypt (probably the main rea- lier, this notion can be traced to the earliest stages of his son for the book’s popularity). The second book is di- academic carrier and especially to his critical views of vided into three chapters: (1) The Nile, Its Rise, and the his early supervisors and teachers in Baghdad, especial- Laws Governing It; (2) The Events of the Year 597 [1200– ly al-Anbari and, later, to his challenging of the writings 1201]; (3) The Events of the Year 598 [1201–2]. of al-Maqtul in Mosul. And yet, I would like to argue that the book is a man- In his short yet innovative book, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Bagh- ifestation of a paradigm shift in ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghda- dadi presents the specific “Egypt” that he saw and wit- di’s thoughts on the concept of acquiring knowledge. It nessed. His eyes are the main tool to bring us, as he says, is important to note that this shift in his thinking and as close as possible to the truth. There are numerous writing seems to have occurred during his time in Egypt. examples in his book that illustrate this concept, and I In other words, although his aspiration and desire to will return to them toward the end of this article. It is bring change to the established methods of acquiring with this approach in mind that the following observa- knowledge had already been evident in his early years tions of ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi in front of the ancient ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 203 monuments of Pharaonic Egypt should be read and dis- a staircase of nearly three hundred steps…. As to those cussed. pyramids, the object of so many recitals, to which I shall Chapter 4 of the first book is dedicated to the antique now advert, pyramids distinguished above the rest, the su- perior size of which excites admiration: the number of them monuments of Cairo and titled “Description of the An- is three, and they stand in a line at Gizeh in front of Fostat, tique Monuments Seen in Egypt by the Author,” thus at a short distance apart, their angles pointing to each reassuring readers that he is including only the antique other and toward the east. Two of these pyramids are of monuments that he actually saw (mā shūhida min enormous dimensions, and the same size. The poets who athārihā al-qadīma).27 An additional explanation is of- have described them have given the rein to that enthusiasm fered: “Of all the countries I have visited or known by they are so well calculated to inspire. They compare them report of others, there are not any that can [be] to two immense breasts rising from the bosom of Egypt. They are very near to each other, and are built of white compare[d] with Egypt for its antiquities. I will say [re- stone. late] only about [discuss only] the wonders I saw [ʿalā The third one, a fourth part less than the others, is of red aʿjāb ma shāhadatuhum].”28 granite, marked with points and so extremely hard that iron Two issues should be emphasized. The first concerns takes a long time, with difficulty, to make an impression on the fact that the monuments of Egypt, notably its archi- it. The last one appears small compared with the other two, tecture, are regarded as identifiers similar to Egypt’s but viewed at a short distance and to the exclusion of these flora, fauna, and its specific foods, which are also dis- it excites in the imagination a singular oppression, and can- cussed in this book. Second, because ʿAbd al-Latif al- not be contemplated without painfully affecting the sight. The shape chosen for the pyramids and their solidity are Baghdadi is interested in its ancient Pharaonic alike admirable. To their form is owing the advantage of monuments, Egypt’s ancient (qadīma) history is explic- their having resisted the attack of centuries: they stayed itly viewed as part of its identity. His preference for a continuously against time, and time patiently waits on specific part of history that predates the “Muslim” era them. In fact, after mature reflection on the structure of the and lends a place its identity is intriguing and suggests pyramids one is forced to acknowledge the combination of a strong sense of time and periodization. efforts of the most intelligent men, an exhaustion of the genius of the most subtle [kind], that the most enlightened O n the Pyramids minds exercised with profusion in favour of these edifices The pyramids are one of the wonders. They have engaged all the talents they possessed, and that the most learned the attention of a multitude of writers who have given in theory of geometry called forth the whole of its resources their works the description and dimensions of these edi- to show in these wonders the utmost term of human abil- fices. They are numerous and all of them situated in the ity. We may likewise affirm that these structures hold dis- province of Gizeh on the same line as the ancient capital course with us even in the present day respecting those of Egypt, and are comprised within the space of two days’ who were their founders, teach us their history in a manner journey. At Bousir also there are many. Some of the pyra- intelligible to all, relate their progress in the sciences and mids are large, others small. Some are formed of earth and the excellence of their genius, and in short, effectually de- brick, but most of them of stone. Some of them are con- scribe their life and news [innovations?]. structed in the form of steps or stairs: mostly, however, they The most singularly remarkable fact presented by these are of an exact pyramidal shape, with smooth surfaces. edifices is the pyramidal form adopted in their structure, a Formerly there was a great number of pyramids, small in- form which commences with a square base, and finishes in deed, at Gizeh, but these were destroyed in the time of a point. Now one of the properties of this form is that the Salah-eddin Yūsuf ibn Ayyoub. Their ruin was effected by centre of gravity is the centre of the building itself, so that Karakoush, a Greek eunuch, one of the Amirs, and a man it leans on itself, itself supports the whole pressure of this of genius. To him was entrusted the superintendence of the mass, all its parts bear respectively one upon the other, and buildings of the capital, and he it was who built the stone it does not press on any external point. wall which surrounds Fostat and Cairo, the space between Another admirable peculiarity is the disposition of the the two towns, and the citadel on Mount Mukattam. He square of them in such a manner that each of their angles likewise constructed this citadel, and dug the two wells fronts one of the four winds. For the violence of the wind which are found today. These wells themselves are reck- is broken when cut by an angle, which would not be the oned among the wonders of Egypt. They are descended by case if it encountered a plane surface.29 204 AVINOAM SHALEM

ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s description of the pyramids yet ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi is not satisfied by any of is well structured. He starts with a brief introduction, these measurements, stating: “I think there must be discussing the tradition and providing information some error in these measurements, and the perpendicu- about other pyramids. Then he takes a typological ap- lar height must be 400 cubits, but if I have opportunity proach and distinguishes between large and small pyra- and God helps me, I will measure it myself.”34 mids and, based on the material used, between those made of bricks and earth and those made of stones and, based on their shape, between stepped and smooth IN FRONT OF THE SPHINX pyramids. A brief historical account is also provided, stating that several of the pyramids were destroyed in By far the most attractive structure of the ancient pha- the Ayyubid era, that is, in ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s raohs of Egypt was—and still is—the Sphinx. ʿAbd al- time, when the walls of Fustat and Cairo were rebuilt. Latif al-Baghdadi’s account of this sculptured monument His further description is no less interesting. Drawing on is remarkable. His gaze is at once scientific and aesthet- his knowledge of geometry, he discusses the character- ically sensitive. istics and architectural advantages of their specific A little more than a bowshot from these pyramids is a colos- structure. Aiming to reveal the pyramids’ quality of aʿjab sal figure of a head and neck projecting from the earth. The (wonder), he explains the logos behind their peculiar name of this is Abu’l haul [Sphinx] and the body to which form and the mysteries surrounding the issue of these the head pertains is said to be buried under the earth. To giant buildings’ gravity. His approach is enlightened and judge from the dimensions of the head of those of the body, its length must be more than 70 cubits. On the face is a rational, and he incorporates the pyramids in the his- reddish tint, and a red varnish as bright as if freshly put on. tory of sciences rather than in the history of the marvels The face is remarkably handsome, and the mouth express- of creation. As he puts it, the pyramids “relate their prog- es much grace and beauty: one might fancy it smiling grace- ress in the sciences.”30 fully. The following description of the various methods A sensible man enquiring of me as to what, of all I had used to measure the pyramids is no less important. ʿAbd seen in Egypt, had most excited my admiration, I answered: al-Latif al-Baghdadi regards measurement as a scientific “The nicety of proportion in the head of the Sphinx”. In fact, between the different parts of this head, the nose, for ex- tool. He first provides the accepted size of the pyra- ample, the eyes, and the ears, the same proportion is re- mids—400 cubits in width and height—but then tells marked as is observed by nature in her works. Thus, the of specific measuring experiments that he witnessed: nose of a child is suitable to its stature, and proportioned “Of the following fact I was myself an eye witness: when to the rest of its frame, while if it belonged to the face of a I visited them we had an archer in our company who full-grown man it would be reckoned a deformity. The nose shot an arrow in the direction of the perpendicular of a grown man on the visage of a child would equally be a height of one of these pyramids and another in that of disfigurement. The same holds good with respect to all the other members. There are none but should have a certain its breadth, as its base, and the arrow fell at about the form and dimension in order to bear relation to such and middle of this space.”31 such a face, and where these proportions are not observed, Yet another attempt at measuring was undertaken, the face is spoiled. Hence the wonder that in a face of such ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi continues, by a well-trained colossal size the sculptor should have been able to preserve person from one of the neighboring villages. This man the exact proportion of every part, seeing that nature pre- mounted the pyramid up to its top and measured it with sented him with no model of a similar colossus or any at all comparable.35 his turban.32 Another man skilled in the art of measur- ing, with whom ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi was person- L ike many other medieval scholars, ʿAbd al-Latif al- ally acquainted, provided him with the following Baghdadi mistakenly thought that the head of the measurements: “a perpendicular height of about 317 cu- Sphinx was part of a huge standing figure. But his obser- bits, and to each of the sides of the four triangular planes vation of the Sphinx’s head is very subtle and detailed. which incline to this perpendicular, 460 cubits.”33 And He detects the faint, barely perceptible smile in its face, ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 205 an indication of the sensitivity of ʿAbd al-Latif al-Bagh- ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s next description, of idols dadi’s gaze. Moreover, the handsome face of the Sphinx (aṣnām), is astonishing because of the objectivity with is explained based on an aesthetic theory of beauty that which he observes the “pagan” divinities from the Phar- is based on a harmony between the components and the aonic, pre-Islamic era. In no way do the words of this whole. ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi explains beauty in pious Muslim indicate rejection or disapproval of the terms of the exact human bodily proportions that exist idols. Rather, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi praises their veri- among parts and the whole and as related to age and similitude, suggesting that he regarded the mimetic ren- size. For his discussion of the well-proportioned face of dition of nature as an aesthetic quality. Apart from the Sphinx, he likely drew heavily on his knowledge of repeatedly emphasizing the ability of the sculptor to physiognomy (firāsa, knowledge of physical features maintain certain human proportions in shaping the [and their significance]) based mainly on the Arabic oversize massive sculptures, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi translation of the treatise of Polemon. This treatise ap- also draws on his knowledge as a physician in describing peared in Arabic sometime between the eighth and the idols’ physical features. This descriptive tactic lends tenth centuries and was incorporated into the canon of his writing additional scientific flavor. Islamic science by Ibn Sina in the tenth century, a work As for the idols found among these ruins, whether their with which ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi was familiar.36 number or extraordinary size be considered, they surpass description: nor can even a conception of them be formed; but most worthy of admiration is the nicety observed in their forms, their exact proportions, and their resemblance IN FRONT OF THE SCULPTURED HUMAN BODY to nature. I measured one of them which, without its ped- estal, was more than 30 cubits high. The breadth of it from We encounter a somewhat similar approach and use of the right to the left side was nearly 10 cubits: and in front anatomical knowledge of the human body in ʿAbd al- and behind it was broad in proportion. This statue was Latif al-Baghdadi’s description of the monumental formed of a single piece of red granite. It was covered over with a red varnish which appeared only to receive new sculptures of the Pharaonic kings. freshness from its great antiquity. Among the monuments of antiquity in Egypt, those must Assuredly, nothing can be more marvelous than the sight be comprised which are seen at Aïn-Schems, a small town of such minute proportions with respect to the different surrounded by a wall still visible, though demolished. It is parts of the body preserved in a statue of this colossal mag- readily seen that these ruins belong to a temple. Here are nitude. No-one is ignorant that all the members of the body, found frightful and colossal figures in hewn stone 30 cubits whether they be instrumental [probably the body parts long, the members of which all bear a just proportion. Of such as the hand or foot] or consimiles [analogous parts these, some are upright on pedestals, others seated in var- such as flesh, muscle, and skin], such as one buttock and ious singular postures, and in perfect order.37 the other one matching, have not only certain appropriate dimensions, but also certain proportions with respect to T he precise and careful description of the objects of each other. From these dimensions and these relative pro- ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s gaze is best illustrated in his portions result the beauty and elegance of the whole figure: account of the two obelisks of ʿAyn Shams, the so-called if any thing be faulty in these requisites, there follows a Needles of the Pharaoh, for he says: deformity, more or less great according to the extent of the defect. Now in these figures this congruity of all the parts I n this town are found the two obelisks so much celebrated, has been observed with a truth that cannot be sufficiently called the two Needles of Pharaoh. They consist of a square admired, firstly, in the precise dimensions of each member base 10 cubits every way of nearly an equal height, resting separately taken, and afterwards in the proportions which on a solid foundation in the earth. From this base arises a the members respectively bear to each other. square column of pyramidal form 100 cubits in height In these statues, if attention be paid, the chest is seen to which near the base is about 5 cubits in diameter, and ter- separate itself from the neck at the point of the clavicle, in minates in a point. The summit is covered with a kind of the truest manner. Thence the bosom shaped by the upper copper cap in the shape of a funnel which descends about ribs rises gradually to the two breasts which are protuberant 3 cubits from the apex.38 above the surrounding region, and detach themselves from 206 AVINOAM SHALEM

the remainder of the chest with a surprising exactness of ­different instruments and unremitting toil they exacted: proportion. The breasts have a progressive rise to the nip- the diligent attention which must previously have been ples which likewise are fashioned with the justest confor- paid to the members of animals and the shape of man, to mity to the size of these colossal statues. Then descending, their precise dimensions, their relative proportions, the you examine now the sunken region of the sternum or mode of their articulations, and their position, and the dis- breastbone, now the interstice formed by the false ribs at tance at which they should respectively be placed. In man, the point of the heart, and now the part where is noticed for example, the lower portion of the body is longer in a the alternate rise and fall of the ribs and their obliquity, all determinate degree than the upper, that is to say, the trunk; of which are given in the human frame. You next descend whereas in all other animals the proportion observed is the from where the ribs cease to the soft region formed by the reverse. A man of exact proportions should be 8 spans high, exterior integuments of the belly. You see the obliquity of the length from the hand to the bend of the elbow should the tendons and muscles of the belly on the right and the be 2 spans, the arm should measure a span and a quarter, left, their tension, and their form; the depression of the the extent of the span being that of the individual. All the parts in the umbilical region adjoining the hypochondria; other bones, whether great or small, the bones of the leg, the exact form of the navel, the tension of the surrounding the vertebrae, the bones of the fingers, are alike subject to muscle, the depression of the hypogastrium towards the certain rules as well for the dimensions whence their par- pubis, the groin, the arteries and inguinal veins, and final- ticular form results, as the proportions they bear to each ly the passage thence to the two bones of the haunches. In other. The same holds good in all the other parts of the a similar manner you observe the separation of the scapu- frame, whether external or internal, as the depression of la, its articulation with the os humeri and that of the hu- the sinciput below the summit of the head with elevation merus with the forearm, the torsion of the vena cephalica, above all that surrounds it, the extent of the forehead and the salient extremities of the cubitus and radius at the place of the two arches of the eyebrows, the sinking of the two of their articulation with the carpus, the point of the elbow, temples, the elevation of the cheekbones, the flat form of the two extruberances which form the articulation of the the cheeks, the blunt blade of the nose, the softness of the forearm with the os humeri and the muscles of the forearm. cartilage that forms the point of it, the opening of the nos- Lastly, the softness of the flesh, the tension of the tendons trils, the breadth of the isthmus by which they are sepa- and other matters which to detail would be tedious. rated, the thickness of the lips, the roundness of the chin, Some of these figures are represented holding in their the cutting and rounded form of the two jaws, and many hand a sort of cylinder, a span in diameter, which appears other particulars which it is almost impossible to describe, to be a volume, and the artist has not forgotten to express and which can only well be comprehended by the eye, by the lines and wrinkles formed on the skin of the hand when dissection, and diligent inspection of the parts.40 closed, at the part adjoining the little finger. The beauty of countenance of these statues and their just proportions are ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s scientific gaze leads him to the complete acme of excellence in the art of sculpture, and rethink the past and to correct any misleading interpre- as perfect as can be expressed in stone. They want but the tations that emerged from the noncritical approach of imitation of flesh and blood. The figure of the ear and its his forebears who tended to blindly marvel at these ar- sinuosities is likewise a counterpart of nature.39 tifacts and exclude them from the history of human In concluding his discussion of the subject ʿAbd al-Latif mortals. He points out that it is the aspiration for knowl- al-Baghdadi states: edge that provides us with the key to understanding the T he reflecting man, contemplating these vestiges of antiq- past and its marvels, even if for a moment it may seem uity, feels inclined to excuse the error of the vulgar who that “one is seized with a kind of stupor on picturing to believed that mortals in those distant ages in which they oneself the great resources of genius, the profound were constructed lived to a more advanced age than is knowledge of geometry, the resolution and patience usual in our days; that they were of gigantic stature, or that requisite for the completion of similar works.”41 The eye, by striking a stone with a wand they caused it to obey their he points out, is a tool, a device with which one can com- orders and to transport itself to wherever their will dic- tated. In fact, one is seized with a kind of stupor on pictur- prehend the phenomena. And yet ʿAbd al-Latif al-Bagh- ing to oneself the great resources of genius, the profound dadi is well aware that his discussions of the human knowledge of geometry, the resolution and patience requi- body and the proportions of animals’ bodies as related site for the completion of similar works; the numerous to the sculptures he views verge on blasphemy or hubris, ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 207 as they imply a desire on the part of the artists to emu- ­authors and in the work of that learned physician “On the late the creations of God. For this reason he argues quite uses of the parts”, the study of the smallest portion of these subtly and cleverly, introducing Aristotle’s concept of admirable works would be sufficient to make an artist de- spair of being able to portray them, and in vain would he the broad scope of human knowledge into his discus- seek around for one who might assist him or supply his sion in order to actually emphasize the limits of human defect of capacity. He must then acknowledge the truth of wisdom and thereby underscore his full acceptance of what God says in the Quran: “Man is created weak”. God’s unique and perfect wisdom. I say, moreover, that the admiration excited in us by works of art forms part of what we experience at those of Aristotle, in the eleventh article of his Book on Animals, nature. For the productions of art under a certain point of employs one chapter to indicate that although people have view are the works of nature, seeing they are the effect and displayed much cleverness and exactness in acquiring a offspring of natural faculties. Thus the engineer is worthy knowledge of the parts of animals and their respective pro- of our praise who succeeds in removing an enormous portions, the extent of their information on this head is very weight; but would he not have much greater claim on our limited and mean when compared with truth and nature; admiration could he form a model capable of itself to re- and if we place a value on this knowledge, imperfect as it move a weight of whatsoever value it might be? is, the cause is to be attributed to the conviction we feel of “It is God Who has created you, you and all that you do.”44 the weakness of our faculties and the comparisons we draw between the man conversant in these matters and he who is not. Hence we admire the ant employed in removing a grain of barley, but suffer the elephant to pass unregarded CONCLUSION: BEING EMPIRICAL IS BEING which carries a burden of many hundredweights. The fol- ­CRITICAL lowing is the substance of his [Aristotle’s] words, according to my interpretation: “It is a matter of astonishment that In sum, it seems likely that the specific chapters of ʿAbd we should feel such interest in acquiring the talent of rep- resenting things in paintings, or in imitating them by means al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s short book on Egypt should not be of the art of the sculptor or founder, and that we should regarded as anecdotal or less scientific than his major succeed in comprehending the process of these arts, yet at treatise on Egypt, as has been suggested by some schol- the same time feel no anxiety to fathom the works of nature, ars, but rather as a manifesto of his ideas on knowledge especially where the possibility exists of our discovering and its appropriate mode of acquisition. His decision to the causes of them. We ought therefore to have no repug- create an abridged version of his large book on Egypt to nance to the study of the nature of animals and those even focus on the things he actually saw is deliberate and which seem most vile, but should carefully guard against based on his credo as a scientist that the best tool for deeming it a toil, and thus imitating the conduct of chil- dren. For there are no works of nature but [that] contain understanding any given object is the eyes. Through subjects of admiration.42 Hence, we should seek informa- careful observation one can learn the phenomenology tion on the nature of all animals, and hold for certain that of the universe and thus appreciate and evaluate tradi- there is not one which is destitute of some natural wonder, tions. This principle explains why, at the very beginning for none of them was formed without some purpose, by of the chapter on the monuments of Egypt, ʿAbd al-Latif accident. On the contrary, whatever has received existence al-Baghdadi explicitly states he will speak only about from nature was produced for some purpose; I mean to say, the wonders that he saw (ʿalā aʿjāb ma shāhadatuhum). for the perfection of the whole: thus each has its station, its Moreover, it may also explain his specificity in the two rank, and distinguishing merit”. Blessed be God the most excellent Creator of all things!43 final chapters of the book, which are records of the events of the years 597 and 598, that is, the time he spent ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s criticism of artists who imi- in Cairo, between 1200 and 1202. tate nature and God’s shaping and making of the world ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s central concern, however, continues in the following paragraph. is how to read and examine the scholarly writings As for the interior of animals, the cavities of their bodies, (taqlīd) of his predecessors. This concern is evident and the wonders they unfold, the description of which is in his criticism of his teachers as well as colleagues and found in the anatomical treatises of Galen and other in his firm rejection of the educational method of 208 AVINOAM SHALEM

­memorizing by heart the writings of prominent, erudite plant al-Kolkasu (Colocasia),52 he provides information scholars. His early criticism of the teaching methods in clearly based on close observation: the al-Kolkasu plant Baghdad was quite explicit: “Most of my time was spent has “a root the size of a cucumber; some kinds are small, in learning traditions … and I gained diplomas from like the fingers. Its colour tends to a light red: they peel various sheikhs. During this time I learned writing: I it and split it like the turnip. This root is thick and com- memorized the Quran, the Fasih [a manual of gram- pact, its taste like that of a green unripe banana, its fla- mar], the Maqamat of Hariri, the poetry of al-Mutanab- vour slightly styptic, with a strong pungency, hot and bi, and other works of the sort, beside a compendium of dry.”53 ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi collected data on this law and another of grammar.”45 As a result, as we learn plant by using at least three senses: sight, taste, and, to from his autobiography, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi quick- some extent, touch. He even performed an experimen- ly lost interest in this sort of learning and “in the year tal procedure to learn more about the plant: “Boiled, it 585 [1189], when there no longer remained in Baghdad loses all its pungency, and then it joins to its slightly anyone to win my heart or to satisfy my desires, or to styptic taste a sort of gluey viscosity which was already help me resolve what was perplexing me, I went on to present but was not made apparent because of the Mosul.”46 But even there he was deeply disappointed.47 acridity which disguised it.”54 ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi In Damascus he criticized the renowned learning meth- also refers to a debate between Dioscorides (the famous ods and ideas of ʿAbd Allah Ibn Na⁠ʾili (d. unknown), say- first-century author on medicine) and another scholar ing: “I saw through him, though. He was not at all what called Israili (most likely a converted Jew) about the I had expected. I was thoroughly unimpressed by him flower of this plant. Drawing on his observations, ʿAbd and his methods.”48 And he reserves a rather malicious al-Latif al-Baghdadi goes on to decide this dispute: “I say remark for Maimonides: “When Maimonides came to Israili was mistaken, and what Dioscorides says is true see me, I found him to be tremendously learned, but … that which I say I have seen with my own eyes [wa- overcome with the love of leadership and of service to hadhā ruʾayātu ʿayānan].”55 This statement clearly puts worldly lords.”49 With regard to Maimonides’s attitude experience front and center in deciding the dispute over toward the canonical writings of his predecessors, and this plant. in particular of the ancient scholars, ʿAbd al-Latif al- ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s accurate, indeed hyper- Baghdadi expresses a categorical disapproval of Mai- realistic, descriptions of the famine in Cairo are proba- monides’s uncritical recycling of traditional knowledge: bly likewise attributable to his firm belief in detailed “One of his works was on medicine, based on the sixteen description. It is thus not surprising that readers are books of Galen and on five books by others. He took it shocked by his accounts of cannibalism, specifically sto- upon himself not to alter a single word unless it was an ries about hunting for human flesh in the streets and ‘and’ or a ‘so,’ and, in point of fact, copied sections in about cannibalistic “dinner parties.” He even passes their entirety.”50 along various recipes for preparing human flesh for con- It is interesting to see how ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi sumption.56 relies on his senses in assessing the writings of others. ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s reference to classical When describing the characteristics of the sycamore knowledge in combination with observations of the tree, for instance, he tells us only what he actually saw: contemporary visual world is astonishingly advanced “I have seen some of them at Askalon [ʿAsqalan, today and bold. He proposes a scientific process in which con- Ashkelon] and on the coast. This tree seems to be a wild cepts of knowledge are no longer part of an established fig, its fruit growing on the wood and not under the theoretical canon but, rather, part of an exercise of test- leaves.” He also tasted its fruits to be able to describe ing objects on the ground, mainly through the scrutiniz- their flavor: “There are those which are excessively ing examination of the scholarly eye. The result is, sweet, more so than the fig; but one always finds, when indeed, revolutionary: classical traditions and concepts one has finished chewing, a woody taste.”51 In another of geometry, beauty as well as nature and anatomy, are chapter of his book that includes a description of the introduced, along with the personal experience of the ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 209 beholder, into an interactive process vis-à-vis the par- the interesting discussion of perception—that of the ticular object of observation. This specific interaction of imagination. In fact, Ibn al-ʿArabi’s definition of knowl- text and experience may signal the emergence of a phe- edge almost seems conceived to refute the concept de- nomenological approach based on individual experi- veloped by ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi. Ibn al-ʿArabi ence. I suggest, then, that ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi used asserts: empiricism as a scientific methodological tool and thus Knowledge is not the perception [taṣawwur] of the object discovered the critical gaze. He then established new known, and it is not the concept [maʿanā] that perceives paradigms of sensorial approach to the world. Yet above the object known, for not every object known is perceived, all he genuinely and, for his time, boldly aspired to mar- and not every knower perceives. Perception comes to the ry tradition and individual experience. His updating of knower only from his being one who uses imagination [mu- writings from the classical past and his own tradition by takhayyil], and the form for the object known consists in subjecting them to criteria drawn from his knowledge- its being in a condition seized by the imagination [khayāl]. There are objects known not seized by the imagination at able eye may be regarded as foreshadowing the Renais- all. Consequently, they certainly have no form.60 sance, which two centuries later would profoundly change Europe. In fact, as other medievalists have sug- For all the difference between the two, ʿAbd al-Latif al- gested earlier, it seems that around the same time, in the Baghdadi’s progressive method of gazing at nature and second half of the eleventh century, a visual turn was reevaluating established knowledge of the past deserves occurring in Latin Europe. Selfhood and reinventing the to be reassessed and appraised. It should have become self as individual, or at least group-affiliated, were cen- clear that the time ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi spent in tral to this development, a prelude of sorts to the hu- Egypt in front of its ancient “wonders”61 was inspiring. manistic age of the Renaissance.57 ʿAbd al-Latif It exposed him not just to visual phenomena that stim- al-Baghdadi may be seen as part of this global—that ulated his eyes and mind but also to classical writings is, Mediterranean—change in the understanding of and scientific treatises that caused him to rethink and knowl­edge and its acquisition through vision.58 It is reorganize his knowledge.62 Perhaps his early encoun- worth going back to his definition of knowledge in the ter with Ibn Sina’s thoughts on the importance of esti- Mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa (a commentary on Aristotle’s Meta- mation and intuition in the process of arriving at physics) quoted at the beginning of this article: “Knowl- knowledge, and especially the linkage between intu- edge conforms fully (muṭābiq, musāwī) to the object ition and epistemology, strengthened his theory of the known, because it is the spiritual form of the object importance of the mushāhadāt (the “Things Seen,” that known. The difference between the two is that the ob- is, “the “sights”) and encouraged him to write an entire ject known is a form whose substratum is matter, where- book based on his sensorial experiences in Egypt. as knowledge is a form whose substratum is the soul.”59 ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s dialogue with the learned It is important to note that besides the well-estab- Sheikh Abu’l-Qasim al-Sha⁠ʾiri in Cairo was most likely lished medieval hierarchical distinction between no less important. This encounter forced ʿAbd al-Latif ­materia and spirit—which ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi ob- al-Baghdadi to refine his ideas and clearly define the viously follows, as he contrasts spiritually based knowl- scope of his novel scientific thesis. Let me conclude this edge with the material-based object—his one-to-one brief study with an astonishing, intense, and sharp-wit- juxtaposition of the known object and the acquisition ted description of the scholarly interaction between the of knowledge can be regarded as a clear-cut, positivistic two from ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s autobiography that approach, especially compared with the mystical offers us a glimpse into the clash of minds between the thought of Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 1240). Ibn al-ʿArabi, who vis- two Cairene scholars. ited Cairo on his way to Mecca the exact same year, 1202, When we engaged in debate, I would surpass him in dispu- that al-Baghdadi witnessed events in Cairo, developed tation and the use of language, and he would surpass me an entirely different approach to the phenomenological in producing proofs and in the strength of his arguments. world and brought another dimension of thought into I was inflexible in not submitting to his enticements and 210 AVINOAM SHALEM

did not abandon my stubborn and passionate resistance to ibn ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī’s text on the pyramids in his Khiṭaṭ, in his theorizing. But he began to present me with work after Das Pyramidenkapitel in al-Makrīzī’s “Ḫiṭaṭ,” ed. and trans. work by al-Farabi and by Alexander Themistius to tame my Erich Graefe (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, aversions and to soften the tenor of my intransigence, un- 1911), Arabic text on p. 30 and English translation on pp. til I began to incline toward him, hesitant, unsure which 74–75. 6. On this image, see Nicholas Warner, The True Description step to take next.63 of Cairo: A Sixteenth-Century Venetian View, 2 vols. (London ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s book on things he saw and and Oxford: Arcadian Library and Oxford University Press, 2006). events he recorded in Egypt appears then as the petition 7. For earlier “excavations” of the Sphinx, which usually of a progressive scholar who, similar to Walter Benja- involved clearing the masses of piled up sand, see Hart- min’s famous angel of history, is propelled into the fu- mann, Zwischen Relikt und Reliquie, 188–89. ture while his gaze is still fixed on the past.64 8. A sense of curiosity with regard to the “secret” past of the pharaohs existed in the early Abbasid period. It is related that the Abbasid caliph al-Ma⁠ʾmun (r. 813–33) assigned a Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia group of “excavators” the adventurous task of investigating University the pyramids’ interiors and that that they broke into largest New York, N.Y. pyramid near Fustat. Tombs and mummies were inspected, and several treasured objects were sent to the caliph’s pal- ace. See the account of al-Maqrīzī, Das Pyramidenkapitel in al-Makrīzī’s “Ḫiṭaṭ,” ed. and trans. Graefe, esp. 20–21 (Eng- NOTES lish translation, pp. 66–67); Jan F. M. van Reeth, “Caliph al-Ma⁠ʾmun and the Treasure of the Pyramids,” Orientalia *T he epigraph is from ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Mā baʿd Lovaniensia Periodica 25 (1994): 221–36. For the attitudes al-ṭabīʿa, fol. 163a, quoted in Franz Rosenthal, Knowledge of Ibn Tulun (d. 884), his son Khumarawayh (d. 896), and Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam Saladin’s son al-Malik al-ʿAziz ʿUthman (d. 1198) toward (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 60. the pyramids and Pharaonic past, see also the discussion 1. This image appeared in numerous newspapers and readily of Ulrich Haarmann, “Evliyā Čelebīs Bericht über die Alter- comes up in a Google image search for “Merkel and Nefer- tümer von Gize,” Turcica 8, 1 (1976): 157–230, esp. 182. titi.” See, for example, its publication in Al-Arabiya News, 9. This painting was first displayed in the Paris Salon of 1886 http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/01/25/134938.html (no. 1042). (accessed December 27, 2014). 10. Commission des sciences et arts d’Égypte, Description 2. For a recent study on the modern history of this bust in its de l’Égypte, ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches museum context, see Bénédicte Savoy, ed., Nofretete: Eine qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l’expédition de l'armée deutsch-französische Affäre, 1912–1931 (Cologne: Böhlau, française, publié par les ordres de Sa Majesté l’empereur 2011). Napoléon le Grand, 17 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie impérial, 3. For a critical discussion on the reception of this bust in 1809–22). For the Palestinian view of Napoleon’s interven- Berlin, see Horst Bredekamp, “Der Keil der Nofretete, oder: tion in the region as the very beginning of colonialism and 8 mm entscheiden die Welt,” in Synergies in Visual Cul- even Zionism, see Dan Ba-On and Sami Adwan, “Das His- ture: Bildkulturen im Dialog: Festschrift für Gerhard Wolf, ed. torische Narrativ des Anderen kennen lernen,” http://www. Mauela de Giorgi, Annette Hoffmann, and Nicola Suthor berghof-conflictresearch.org/documents/publications/ (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2013), 579–90. PrimeTextbuch.pdf (accessed December 19, 2010). See also 4. See Andreas Hartmann, Zwischen Relikt und Reliquie: Objek- Joseph Croitoru, “Schwierige Zeiten für ein Visionäres Pro- tbezogene Erinnerungspraktiken in antiken Gesellschaften jekt: Ein Geschichtsbuch wollte beiden Seiten des Nahost- (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010), 189n857. Still, it should be konflikts gerecht werden—und stösst auf wenig Echo,” noted that ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi’s account of the many Neue Zürcher Zeitung, November 3, 2010, http://www.nzz. inscriptions seen on the marble panels of the pyramids ch/aktuell/feuilleton/literatur/schwierige-zeiten-fuer- likely referred to hieroglyphs rather than to later inscrip- ein-visionaeres-projekt-1.8247968 (accessed December 28, tions from the post-Pharaonic period. In any case, Hart- 2014). mann also makes reference to a particular kind of graffiti 11. It is true that medieval and early modern accounts of associated with Trajan. the pyramids place them in particular moments in his- 5. Ibid., 188–89. See also Ulrich Haarmann, “Die Sphinx: tory and associate them with specific legendary figures, Synkretistische Volksreligiosität im spätmittelalterlichen such as Shaddad ibn al-ʿAd, biblical figures such as Noah, islamischen Ägypten,” Saeculum 29 (1978): 367–84. Al- Joseph, and even figures such as Aristotle and Alexander Maqrizi (d. 1442) also points to the ancient worship of the Great. But the mythic components embedded in these planets and stars associated with the Sphinx. See Aḥmad accounts imply that the moments chosen are usually times ʿABD AL-LATIF AL-BAGHDADI’S KITĀB AL-IFĀDA WA’L-IʿTIBĀR AND THE BIRTH OF THE CRITICAL GAZE 211

of rupture and that the figures involved were extremely Wisnovsky (Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener, 2001), 1–38. See idealized in the medieval collective memory. On the Arabic also Dimitri Gutas, Avicena and the Aristotelian Tradition sources on the pyramids, see mainly Else Reitermeyer, Bes- (Leiden: Brill, 1988), esp. 159–76. chreibung Ägyptens im Mittelalter aus den geographischen 17. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern Key, trans. Zand, Videan, Werken der Araber (Leipzig: Seele, 1903), esp. 80–144; and Videan, 6. al-Maqrīzī, Das Pyramidenenkapitel in al-Makrīzī’s “Ḫiṭaṭ,” 18. For the information gathered by Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa in his ed. and trans. Graefe, 49–95; ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Sira, partially translated into English, see Toorawa, “Auto- The Eastern Key: Kitāb al-Ifādah wa’l-iʿtibār of ʿAbd al-Latīf biography of ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi,” 162. al-Baghdādi, trans. Kamal Hafuth Zand, John A. Videan, 19. See Toorawa, “Travel in the Medieval Islamic World,” 64. and Ivy E. Videan (London: Allen and Unwin, 1964), esp. 20. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern Key, trans. Zand, Videan, 107–77; Alexander Fodor, “The Origins of the Arabic Leg- and Videan, 13. ends of the Pyramids,” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scien- 21. Abdallatif’s eines arabischen Arztes Denkwürdigkeiten Egyp- tiarum Hungaricae 23 (1970): 335–63; Christian Cannuyer, tens in Hinsicht auf Naturreich und physische Beschaffenheit “L’intérêt pour l’Égypte pharaonique à l’époque fatimide: des Landes und seiner Einwohner, Alterthumskunde, Bau- Étude sur l’Abrégé des merveilles (Mukhtaṣar al-ʿajāʾib),” in kunde und Oekonomie, mit vielen medicinischen Bemerkun- L’Égypte fatimide son art et son histoire, ed. Marianne Bar- gen und Beobachtungen, historischen, topographischen und rucand (Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, andern beiläufig eingestreuten Nachrichten auch vornehm- 1999), 483–96. For accounts referring to biblical figures as lich einer merkwürdigen Annale der Jahre 1200 und 1201, well as to Aristotle’s tomb in one of the pyramids, see Haar- trans. Samuel Friedrich Günter Wahl (Halle: Waisenhauses, mann, “Die Sphinx,” 370n11; see also Haarmann, “Evliyā 1790). Čelebīs Bericht über die Altertümer von Gize,” 157–230, esp. 22. Joseph White, trans., Abdollatiphi historiae Aegypti compen- 179–88; Ulrich Haarmann, “Regional Sentiment in Medieval dium, ar. Et lat. Partim ipse vertit, partim a Pocockes versum Islamic Egypt,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and Afri- edendum curavit notisque illustravit (Oxford, 1800). can Studies 43, 1 (1980): 55–60. The legend that claims the 23. Antoine Isaac Silvester de Sacy, trans., Relation de l’Egypte pyramids were built, like Noah’s Ark, to survive the Flood is par Abd al-Latif (Paris: De L’Imprimerie impériale, 1810). illustrated in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, 24. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern Key, trans. Zand, Videan, specifically in Paolo Uccello’s Fresco of the Flood (215 × 510 and Videan, 13. cm), which probably dates from 1446–48. For the descrip- 25. Ibid., 13–15. tion of these pyramids, see Rudolf Kuhn, Komposition und 26. Ibid. Rhythmus (Berlin: Gebrüder Mann, 1980), 21–26. 27. Ibid., 107. 12. See S. D. Goitein, Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition 28. Ibid. (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2002), s.v. “ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi”; 29. Ibid., 107–13. Claude Cahen, “Abdallatif al-Baghdadi, portraitiste et his- 30. Ibid., 113. torien de son temps: Extraits indédits de ses Mémoires,” 31. Ibid., 115. Bulletin d’Études Orientales 23 (1970): 101–28; Shawkat M. 32. Ibid. Toorawa, “The Autobiography of ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi,” 33. Ibid. in Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Liter- 34. Ibid. ary Tradition, ed. Dwight Fletcher Reynolds (Berkeley and 35. Ibid., 123–25. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001), 156–64; 36. On this topic, see Robert Hoyland, “The Islamic Background Shawkat M. Toorawa, “The Educational Background of to Polemon’s Treatise,” in Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul: ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi,” Muslim Education Quarterly 13, Polemon’s Physiognomy from Classical Antiquity to Medieval 3 (1996): 35–53. Islam, ed. Simon Swain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 13. See Aḥmad ibn al-Qasim Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ 2007), 227–80. See also Antonella Ghersetti, “The Semiotic fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1882). See also Shawkat Paradigm: Physiognomy and Medicine in Islamic Culture,” M. Toorawa, “Travel in the Medieval Islamic World: The in ibid., 281–308. Importance of Patronage as Illustrated by ʿAbd al-Latif al- 37. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern Key, trans. Zand, Videan, Baghdadi (d. 629/1231) and Other Littérateurs,” in Eastward and Videan, 125–27. Bound: Travel and Travellers, 1050–1550, ed. Rosamund Allen 38. Ibid., 127. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), 53–70. 39. Ibid., 141–47. 14. See ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi’s introduction in Eastern Key, 40. Ibid., 147–51. trans. Zand, Videan, and Videan, 5. 41. Ibid., 147. 15. Quoted in Toorawa, “Travel in the Medieval Islamic World,” 42. On this specific tendency of observing the world, see Persis 59. Berlekamp, Wonder, Image and Cosmos in Medieval Islam 16. On Ibn Sina’s epistemology, see mainly Dimitri Gutas, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011). “Intuition and Thinking: The Evolving Structure of Avi- 43. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern Key, trans. Zand, Videan, cenna’s Epistemology,” in Aspects of Avicenna, ed. Robert and Videan, 151–53. 212 AVINOAM SHALEM

44. Ibid., 153–55. this change in acquiring knowledge through vision in the 45. Ibid., 5 (cited from Uṣaybiʿa’s text on ʿAbd al-Latif al-Bagh- twelfth century in Seeing through the Veil: Optical Theory dadi, see n. 18 above). and Medieval Allegory (Toronto: University of Toronto 46. Quoted in Toorawa, “Autobiography of ʿAbd al-Latif al- Press, 2004), esp. 3–20. See also Martin Jay, Songs of Expe- Baghdadi,” 159. rience (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004). 47. Ibid. 59. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa [Istanbul Ms. 48. Ibid., 160. Carullah 1279], fol. 163a, quoted in Rosenthal, Knowledge 49. Ibid., 161. Triumphant, 60. 50. Ibid. 60. Quoted in Rosenthal, Knowledge Triumphant, 65. 51. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern Key, trans. Zand, Videan, 61. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern Key, trans. Zand, Videan, and Videan, 37. and Videan, 107. 52. Ibid., 47–55. 62. On the importance of Egypt as the land of science and 53. Ibid., 47. knowledge in the Arabic tradition, see Haarmann, 54. Ibid. “Regional Sentiment in Medieval Islamic Egypt,” 55–66. 55. Ibid., 53. 63. Quoted in Toorawa, “Autobiography of ʿAbd al-Latif al- 56. Ibid., esp. 223–69. Baghdadi,” 162. See also ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādi, Eastern 57. On this issue, see Caroline Walker Bynum, “Did the Twelfth Key, trans. Zand, Videan, and Videan, 6, where the transla- Century Discover the Individual?,” Journal of Ecclesiasti- tion is slightly different: “When we conversed together I cal History 31, 1 (1980): 1–17; Colin Morris, “Individualism used to outdistance him in dialectic and mastery of words, in Twelfth-Century Religion: Some Further Reflections,” but he [outdistanced] me in power of applying arguments Journal of Ecclesiastical History 31, 2 (1980): 195–206; Colin and making his point prevail, yet my spear would not bend Morris, The Discovery of the Individual, 1050–1200 (Toronto: in his vice, nor would I give up in spite of all his subtleties. University of Toronto Press, 1987); Caroline Walker Bynum, Then he cited one passage after another, taming thereby Metamorphosis and Identity (New York: Zone Books, 2001), my defiance, and wearing down my natural intractability, esp. the introductory chapter, “Change in the Middle Ages,” until finally I began to yield, like a man who puts one foot 15–36; Susan Kramer and Caroline Walker Bynum, “Revisit- forward and the other back.” On the relationship between ing the Twelfth-Century Individual: The Inner Self and the the two scholars, see Shawkat Toorawa, “Language and Christian Community,” in Das Eigene und das Ganze: Zum Male Homosocial Desire in the Autobiography of ʿAbd Individuellen in mittelalterlichen Religiosentum, ed. Gert al-Latīf al-Baghdādī,” special issue on Arabic autobiogra- Melville and Markus Schürer (Münster: LIT, 2002), 57–85; phy, Edebiyât, n.s., 7, 2 (1997): 251–65. Ittai Weinryb, “The Inscribed Image: Negotiating Sculpture 64. Walter Benjamin referred to Paul Klee’s famous 1920 print on the Coast of the Adriatic Sea,” Word and Image 27, 3 Angelus Novus, which he had bought in 1921. For Benjamin’s (2011): esp. 327. I would like to thank Ittai Weinryb for call- discussion of this image, see “On the Concept of History,” ing my attention to this debate. See also Hans Liebeschütz, in Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings (Cambridge, Mass.: “Das zwölfte Jahrhundert und die Antike,” Archiv für Kul- Belknap Press, 2003), 4:389–411. See also Nissim Man- turgeschichte 35, 3 (1953): 247–71. nathukkarem, The Rupture with Memory (Pondicherry: 58. See Suzanne Conklin Akbari’s excellent discussion of Navayana, 2006), esp. 58–74.

Abstract during the time he spent in Egypt and, perhaps even and more importantly, in front of the antiquities of Phara- This short study looks into the mind of the Ayyubid in- onic Egypt. His descriptions of the pyramids, Sphinx, tellectual Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, also known as al- and huge sculptures of ancient Egypt demonstrate al- Labbad, who was born in Baghdad in 1162 and died there Baghdadi’s progressive method of looking at and inter- in 1231–32 at the age of 69. The focus of this article is his preting nature and thus of rewriting history. famous book Kitāb al-Ifāda wa’l-iʿtibār fi’l-umūr al- mushāhada wa’l-ḥawadith al-muʿāyana bi-arḍ Miṣr (The Book of Instruction and Admonition on the Things Seen Key words [mushāhada] and Events Recorded [muʿāyana] in the Land of Egypt), which, as I argue, is al-Baghdadi’s clear Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Aristotle, Pharaonic Egypt, manifestation of his “change of mind” in the fields of Cairo, gaze, Sphinx, pyramids, Maimonides, Matteo Pa- scholarship and methods of learning. It seems that a gano, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Description de l’Égypte, al- turning point in al-Baghdadi’s academic career occurred Azhar Mosque ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 213

Eva-Maria Troelenberg

A rabesques, Unicorns, and Invisible Masters: The Art Historian’s Gaze as Symptomatic Action?

Is it still true that art history, traditionally understood as be to look at these objects. As Margaret Olin has argued, an explicitly object-based discipline, lacks a thorough “The term ‘gaze’ … leaves no room to comprehend the understanding of an “action tradition” that could be em- visual without reference to someone whose vision is un- ployed to explain and theorize, for example, artistic der discussion.”3 Although she refers generally to the agency? And that therefore art history, as opposed to gaze of all possible kinds of beholders, viewers, or spec- other disciplines such as sociology or linguistic studies, tators, she also stresses: “While most discourse about the has found it particularly difficult to look at its own his- gaze concerns pleasure and knowledge, however, it gen- toriography in terms of academic or scholarly action or erally places both of these in the service of issues of agency? Such explanations were employed until quite power, manipulation, and desire”; furthermore, “The recently when expounding the problem of a general de- choice of terms from this complex can offer a key to the lay in critical historiography concerning the discipline’s theoretical bent or the ideology of the theorist.”4 Ac- traditions and methods, particularly in relation to Ger- cordingly, an action-based theory of historiography man art history under National Socialism.1 must find its nexus in a critical history of the art histo- Today, however, in light of recent theories of Bildakt rian’s gaze.5 and agency, together with the rise of historiographical In this article I seek to investigate the potential of this metadiscourse, it is time for a positively agency-based nexus when applied to one of the most crucial periods approach in historiography that takes into account the for the formation of the historiography of the arts of Is- interdependence between the aesthetic eloquence of lam, a branch of art that was traditionally often under- particular images, artifacts, and artworks and the epis- stood as an “art of the object.”6 In addition, the very idea temological and political interests of those who produce of what Islamic art is was primarily filtered through the them, but especially of those who behold and interpret gaze of modern Western “agents” such as collectors, con- them.2 noisseurs, and art historians.7 This sense of filtering, as has so often been emphasized, pertains more particu- larly to Islamic art than to European art, with its canon- TOWARD A CRITICAL HISTORY OF ized discourse reaching back to Giorgio Vasari (d. 1574) THE ART HISTORIAN’S GAZE and beyond, always intertwining artistic and theoretical positions. Hence, I will look into the development of the Particularly when dealing with periods characterized by historiography of Islamic art as a global and yet notably problematic or drastically changing social, cultural, and Western phenomenon of mid-twentieth-century Mod- political paradigms, or when dealing with topics that ernism, epitomized in two standard works by the main seem to lie beyond an established canon, an agency- protagonists, Ernst Kühnel (1882–1964) and Richard Et- based approach has significant epistemological poten- tinghausen (1906–1979).8 tial. Even if art history remains an object-based Kühnel’s formalistic ornament study Die Arabeske9 discipline, then the basic action of the art historian must (1949) (fig. 1) and Ettinghausen’s iconographic work on

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P11 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 213-232 214 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

Fig. 1. Title page of Ernst Kühnel, Die Arabeske.(Published Fig. 2. Title page of Richard Ettinghausen, The Unicorn. by Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Wiesbaden, 1949). (Pub­lished by the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institu- (Photo: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck- tion, Washington, D.C., 1950). (Photo: Kunsthistorisches In- Institut, Library) stitut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, Library)

The Unicorn10 (1950) (fig. 2) represent different, yet as well as on the scholarly gazes and products, of art equally characteristic scholarly gazes on Islamic art, history’s agents.11 Consequently I will seek to look at the each responding to the key terms of ongoing intellec- art historian’s gaze as both method and symptomatic tual debates. Focusing mainly on these two scholars as action.12 they relate to each other and their contemporaries, this investigation aims to shed new light on the decades be- tween the late 1920s and early 1960s. During this period, BACKGROUND: A CRISIS IN THE HUMANITIES the first generations of professionally trained historians of Islamic art were in the most productive phases in Indeed, metaphors of gaze and vision, and vice versa their careers. At the same time, these decades witnessed also of blindness, often appear in methodological dis- dramatic scientific and political developments and con- courses of the period in consideration. One particularly flicts that left their imprint on the careers and thoughts, striking example can be found in Josef Strzygowski’s ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 215

which explains its blindness against everything that lacks written sources (especially Latin ones). Accordingly, it did not see European art as growing out of the soil where it originated, but has always deferred to the southern influ- ences of court, church, and humanism.13

This statement is central for Strzygowski’s argument for a more fact-based art history (Sachforschung) as a guide- line for historical disciplines in general. Typically, he phrases his argument in a very polemical manner. It must be seen in the context of Strzygowski’s aim to es- tablish the Ancient Orient as central to artistic develop- ment, arguing against the dominance of classical antiquity and its reception in European narratives of art. A number of recent studies have pointed to the cataclys- mic potential of this idea, as in the case of Strzygowski it coincided with a racist and nationalist worldview, ul- timately creating a dangerous shortcut between the An- cient Orient and Aryan ideology.14 As Suzanne Marchand has described, Strzygowski’s art history is symptomatic of the decline of humanistic paradigms in the German-speaking academic world since the 1880s,15 a process that can apparently be un- derstood in terms of both cultural canon and historio- graphic method. The shift away from classical antiquity leads to regions and cultures that are rarely accessible to the classical philologist, for written sources are often not available or only in languages that lie beyond the European canon of classical education and are outside Fig. 3. Title page of Josef Strzygowski, Die Krisis der Geistes­ the mainstream of the Western history of ideas. Also, wissenschaften. (Published by Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co.,Vienna, 1923). (Photo: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Flo- compared to the allegedly objective truths of science, renz – Max-Planck-Institut, Library) the humanities, including art history, were destined to be regarded as subjective unless they developed a new rational method in their own terms. For Strzygowski, ­Krisis der Geisteswissenschaften (1923) (fig. 3). This the way out of this dilemma seems to have been Sach- methodological manifesto, published in Vienna, must forschung, a strictly object-based approach, focusing on be considered as important background for understand- “the rhetoric of artifacts,” as Marchand phrased it.16 ing further developments. Thus before we consider Küh- Here the close connection between art history’s histori- nel and Ettinghausen, we must take a closer look at it. ography and its methodological biases becomes clear, In a characteristically categorical sequence, Strzygowski as indicated at the beginning of this article. states: Strzygowski’s claim for Sachforschung is of major im- portance because it is closely related to a larger intel- The birth defect of art history is that, like all historical re- search, it was originally based on written sources (not on lectual debate of the early twentieth century between artworks): it still believes that it can confuse opinions and opposing hermeneutic and phenomenological ap- facts. The sources, primarily the universal draft [Heerbann] proaches. Isaiah Berlin has traced the origins of this de- following Vasari, have struck it [art history] into chains, bate back to seventeenth-century rationalism and its 216 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG role in the discussion of humanist and enlightened par- varying conditions up to the decades after World War adigms for the generation and interpretation of knowl- II. edge.17 The methodological question of the 1920s is thus part of a long cycle in the history of ideas that influenced the professionalization of art history in the German- FROM ARABESQUES TO NORDISCHE KUNST AND speaking academic world after 1900. The idea of a “rigor- BACK ous study of art” (strenge Kunstwissenschaft) developed along with the rising importance of formalist categories, To look at this period for Islamic art history in Germany leading to a more and more “objective” and “scientific” means mainly to look at the work of Ernst Kühnel (fig. image and self-understanding of the discipline, culmi- 4).22 One generation younger than Strzygowski, he and nating in the terminology of Kunstwissenschaft versus his ideas were shaped during the first quarter of the Kunstgeschichte.18 twentieth century, before he became director of the Mu- In fact, Strzygowski’s phrasing is often reminiscent of seum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin in 1932. He had been Edmund Husserl’s Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft trained as an art historian and earned his doctorate in (1911),19 which is essential background for the arguments 1906 with a thesis on the Florentine painter Francesco found in the introduction of Krisis der Geisteswissen- Botticini.23 When Kühnel turned to Islamic art around schaften: “The reason why natural scientists often tend 1910, he remained true to his method of choice, an ob- to ask if the humanities can even be considered scien- ject-based Stilgeschichte (history of styles) in the vein of tific disciplines lies mainly in the fact that the subjects Alois Riegl (1858–1905), focused on form and style, the which the humanities deal with do not seem to be based qualities that can be discerned by primarily looking at on any strict objectivity [strenge Sachlichkeit], neither the artwork itself and establishing quasi-taxonomic pat- in contemporary research nor in the practice of the terns for comparison. In this view, the history of art is past.”20 described as a sequence of styles that is expressed not Considering the larger field of art history, at first this only in unique masterpieces in the sense of canonical negotiation of objectivity as a justification of the thor- sculpture and painting but also in products of the arts oughly “scientific” character of the discipline was rather more dialectic than controversial. A number of method- ological essays that appeared at about the same time as Krisis der Geisteswissenschaften tried to fathom both the possibilities and limits of “scientific objectivity.” The discussion became more heated and increasingly ideo- logical from the early 1930s on,21 as Strzygowski’s scath- ing tone anticipated. It also became explicitly linked to the ongoing methodological debate critiquing the es- tablished Eurocentric object-canon. The rejection of classical humanism and the establishment of scientific Sachforschung are, in this case, two sides of one coin and a crucial—as well as problematic—background for un- derstanding Islamic art studies in the twentieth century, their relation to the larger field of art history, and the implicit relation between the development of method and a political history of ideas. With this background, I will address questions of how a shifting focus between, or shifting definitions of, “humanistic” or “scientific” Fig. 4. Ernst Kühnel, ca. 1950. (Photo: courtesy SMB-ZA V/ methods literally affected the gaze of scholarship under Personendokumentation Ernst Kühnel) ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 217 and crafts. Developments and changes in style are un- was more a follower of Riegl. His formalist approach was derstood as motivated by a collective “artistic volition” also less politically charged. or “will to art” rather than by single artistic individuals.24 Throughout his wide range of publications on Islam- This formalist mode seemed most suitable for a Is- ic art, Kühnel frequently refers to the formalist mode, lamic art history, which deals with artifacts whose cre- explicitly naming Riegl as his source. A prime example ators are often unknown and the aesthetic of which was is Kühnel’s small monograph on Die Arabeske, published considered “ornamental.” Moreover, its sources were in Wiesbaden in 1949, apparently the culmination of not easily accessible for a scholar like Kühnel, who mas- forty years of scholarship on Islamic ornament.27 The tered Arabic but was not a philologist. Hence, this mode formalist attitude is implicit throughout the text and is must have been a particularly attractive epistemological even used to characterize the arabesque and Islamic art model, even more so as Islamic art history was fighting itself. Kühnel goes so far as to suggest parallels between to be considered on an equal footing with the more tra- the art historian’s and the historical artist’s “scientific” ditional, text-based disciplines of orientalism and gaze: ­Islamic studies (Islamwissenschaft).25 Accordingly, Küh- D oubtless, it was foremost the artist who carried in himself nel aligned himself with the formalist mode. By using the Islamic world view to plunge into linear speculations the formalist mode, scholars could achieve an indepen- of an abstract nature. He did not create from the memory dence from text- and source-based methods, as they of what he had seen or experienced but he transferred what we sense to be natural laws into unreal forms. It was es- claimed they were able to “read” the object as object by sential that this effort did not degenerate into reckless fan- looking at it directly. The gaze was thus, quite literally, tasies but that it led to inspirations which were restrained the most important instrument of this method. by deliberate concentration and a disciplined rhythm.28 This mode may be considered a forerunner to struc- The principles for judging the quality of arabesque orna- turalist approaches, especially as it was developed more ment are described as the harmonious filling of surfaces, or less contemporaneously with Ferdinand de Saus­ rhythmic continuity and abstinence from “plastic sure’s linguistique générale, which grew out of a series of [three-dimensional] effects.”29 The arabesque thus is lectures delivered between 1906 and 1911. Focusing on tamed through the analytic gaze, which turns it into an the structural interrelations and genealogical deriva- essential, timeless, bodyless, and impersonal form (fig. tions of various idioms, it is considered the basis for the 5).30 Kühnel also emphasizes repeatedly that the ara- structuralist turn in linguistics. This development cor- besque is completely devoid of symbolism31 or artistic responds to what Strzygowski described as Sachfor­ individuality. Instead, he detects the “basic worldview” schung. However, it has to be stressed that in terms of (weltanschauliche Grundhaltung)32 of Islam as the driv- cultural canon, Riegl’s Stilgeschichte was never so ideo- ing force, thus presupposing an impersonal notion of logically charged. Jaś Elsner has characterized the Vi- culture. Even though this approach has a very spiritual enna School of art history developing during these years essence, it is in line with the anti-individualistic, taxo- as promoting an empirical method, focusing on single nomic thinking described above as Sachforschung. objects, but with the clear and idealistic potential of Apart from its epistemological potential, standing in aiming “beyond the small questions.”26 Accordingly, the tradition of a formalist “art history without names,” while Riegl was primarily looking at the Mediterranean in the vein of Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945), this line of Late Antiquity, his approach provided the methodolog- argumentation also reveals an epistemological blind ical means for encompassing—through comparisons— spot. For Kühnel, the application of Western methods objects that were beyond the European geographical to a corpus of unfamiliar non-European objects failed to canon. He thus opened the way for an extension of the trigger any interest for or understanding of artistic indi- scholarly gaze but never aimed at a radical revision of viduality in Muslim culture. Indeed, the question of the canon altogether. Riegl’s method was less politically ­artistic agency is present only as a collective, not a per- charged than Strzygowski’s, and in this respect Kühnel sonal intellectual factor. In other words, to stay ­within 218 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

Fig. 5. Illustrations from Ernst Kühnel, Die Arabeske, 20–21, showing schematic renditions of arabesque ornament. (Published by Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Wiesbaden, 1949). (Photo: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck- Institut, Library) ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 219 the paradigm of the gaze, there seems to be no artistic individual, no master to meet the gaze of the scholar. In this mode of reception, it is the art historian who is privileged to see, and to understand rationally. As An- drew Zimmerman has explained for the case of Impe- rial German anthropology, such an antihumanist mode is directly related to the assumed alterity of the subject under consideration.33 There is a primitivist notion in this kind of art history, which appropriates something foreign for a Western negotiation of aesthetics. As much as Kühnel apparently strived for a canonization of Is- lamic arts on an equal footing with Western master- pieces, the agent was the contemporary art historian, not the historical artist. Moreover, in terms of art-historical agency, Kühnel’s line of argument is clearly more than just “pure” art his- tory. It should rather be considered an active symptom of contemporary history, particularly when placed into the larger context of his work during the preceding de- cades. Only a few years before he published Die Ara­ beske, he had demonstrated how his academic gaze could be charged to fit within the narratives of an overt- ly racist world order. In the 1930s and early 1940s, the antihumanistic gaze had become a political signal. Without much methodological trouble, Kühnel could use the collective and anti-individual paradigm to adapt the völkisch (racial) view for his art history, detecting formal parallels between “Nordic and Islamic art” (fig. 6).34 Always true to the principles of Sachforschung or formalism, he believed he did not need to search in writ- Fig. 6. First page of proofs for a version of Ernst Kühnel, ten sources for evidence of this connection; it is the for- “Nordische und Islamische Kunst.” (Published in Forschun- mal similarity itself that tells him how the “ancient gen und Fortschritte: Nachrichtenblatt der deutschen Wissen- schaft und Technik, Berlin, 1934). (Photo: courtesy of the Aryan worldviews”35 of Persia, which permeate Islamic Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, Library/Archive) art, relate to Nordic art. In these writings, he thus also moves away from accepting Late Antiquity and the Judeo-Christian tradition as the context for the genesis So far, the historiography of art history has not paid of Islamic arts, a view held by most art historians, in- much attention to this episode in Kühnel’s career,37 and cluding himself, before 1933. Rejecting the dominance indeed it must be stressed that, unlike Strzygowski, Küh- of what he calls “humanistic and historical instincts,”36 nel was personally never a convinced racist or a Nation- he apparently seeks to establish a distance from every- al Socialist. Without excusing any of his ideologically thing that could be labeled “semitic.” Here his art his- charged statements of the 1930s and 1940s, it must be tory comes closest to Strzygowski’s idea of antihumanism, considered that he certainly also acted strategically as a in this case not only in terms of method but also in terms museum curator, fundamentally motivated by a strong of ideology. Because visual comparison between certain responsibility for his collection and its position. He may styles confirms the worldview, the scholar’s gaze is the not have acted without inner conflicts as he balanced ultimate instrument in the process. certain curatorial and political interests for the sake of 220 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG his collection and Islamic art history as a subfield within art history, even as it became more and more consoli- dated according to racist worldviews.38 However, such an interpretation of Kühnel’s stance must be made with utmost caution. It is very close to the explanation the philosopher Martin Heidegger notoriously used to jus- tify his Mitläufertum, claiming that at least some intel- lectuals had to partake of the new National Socialist world order to prevent a complete decay of culture in Germany.39 Seen in this light, Kühnel’s writings from this period reveal how the seemingly objective scientific gaze could become a symptom of ideology. Precisely because the art historian looked at objects in a decontextualized and essentialist way, the objects were predisposed to being liable to a new political narrative-building. After 1945, Kühnel retracted overtly ideological terminologies, but even as late as 1951 he published on “art and folklore in Fig. 7. Richard Ettinghausen, ca. 1960. (Photo: courtesy of Islam” (Kunst und Volkstum im Islam),40 frequently re- Elisabeth S. Ettinghausen) ferring to his own writings of the 1930s and early 1940s. Focusing, for example, on Berber and Coptic art, his ar- gument culminates in a claim for thoroughgoing distinc- these academic communities were closely connected tions between court art and Volkskunst (folk art) and a and at the same time distinctly separated by the course plea for increased attention to the latter’s significant of history. While Ernst Kühnel’s career passed through contributions to art history. The connections between its most ominous period of antihumanism, Richard Et- this argument and the cultural climate of postwar Berlin tinghausen (fig. 7) experienced his formative years as a merit investigation, as during these years diverging def- scholar and was at the same time very personally af- initions of democracy and the role of the people were fected by the changing political tide.43 elements in the new cultural identity being negotiated Ettinghausen was born into a Jewish family in Frank- as the city was divided between two ideologies.41 furt in 1906. Around 1930, he became a museum assistant However, within the limits of this article, it remains at the Museum für Islamische Kunst, where Kühnel was important to note how Die Arabeske had already set the just about to be promoted to the position of director. In path for Kühnel’s return to an almost administrative and 1933, Ettinghausen left Germany, first for London and seemingly neutral, unideological kind of formalism, con- eventually for the United States, where he was able to solidating a German tradition of Islamic art history that pursue a successful career. In 1944, he became a curator Robert Hillenbrand once described as methodologically in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and was rather “pedestrian,” particularly when compared with later on the faculty of New York University and chair of further developments in the United States.42 the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Islamic Department. His academic training in Germany had focused not only on art history but to an even larger extent on Oriental HUMANISTIC HETEROGLOSSIA? languages and history.44 It is thus not surprising that the character of his writings differs quite strikingly from the A synchronic consideration of a German and an Ameri- formalist mode that went on to dominate the field of can postwar perspective is indeed illuminating for a fur- Islamic art history in Germany. In his monograph on The ther understanding of scholarly agencies, especially as Unicorn, published almost simultaneously with Die ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 221

Arabeske, Ettinghausen gathers a wide range of visual among men,”48 must have been considered a more im- material for his iconographic subject, mostly from il- portant center of cultivation and education than ever lustrated manuscripts but also other media, which he before, a cultural focal point of the enlightened Western classifies according to iconographic types (fig. 8). He world, with implications for moral and political claims then examines them through a text-based approach, to leadership. In this perspective, it may be more than looking into written sources such as the writings of the just a small point that, for example, for zoological ques- Central Asian polymath Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn tions that arose in his studies Ettinghausen turned to Ahmad al-Biruni (d. 1048). By combining visual and tex- curatorial colleagues in the National Museum of Natural tual evidence, he seeks insight into what he calls the History, also under the Smithsonian’s umbrella. He “mind of the medieval Muslim”:45 “The motif has to be mentions this fact in the preface,49 thus hinting at the studied and understood from the point of view of the truly encyclopedic potential of his working environ- medieval Muslim. Only then can it be properly inter- ment in Washington. preted.”46 Ettinghausen’s work shows how humanism under- Ettinghausen examines the relationship among icon- stood as a worldview and as a scientific method could ographic modes and types with reference to geography, leave space for an extension of canonical Western mythology, and even zoology, and he considers the ex- worldviews. This potential is quite literally exemplified tent to which medieval writers and artists would have when Ettinghausen subjects the word “unicorn”— been familiar with them. By this means, he seeks to es- which he apparently chose as a book title to appeal to a tablish the level of sophistication of medieval Muslim Western audience—to critical linguistic analysis. He cultures. Ettinghausen’s interest in Muslim art is an in- argues that the word “unicorn” is not only lacking his- terest in intellectual history. This method appears in torical authenticity but actually misleading for the sharp contrast to Kühnel’s almost atavistic concept of scholar or beholder, “since for a person steeped in the Islamic art as embodied in the arabesque. traditions of Western civilization the word has many Ettinghausen’s claim for a better understanding of connotations which have been nurtured by classical, the medieval Muslim “mind” is also symptomatic of the Biblical, early Christian, and medieval beliefs.”50 For the intellectual climate that characterized the postwar historian of Muslim art who is trained in philology, the years in North America. Some of Ettinghausen’s general appropriate approach to this problem is not to question premises correspond rather well to the principles of the validity of sources altogether but to look at non- democratic humanism that had been predominant in Western sources and find the authentic terms: “If one higher education and in conservative intellectual circles wants to establish the associations which were formed in the United States since the 1930s. It considered cul- in the Muslim mind in connection with this fantastic ture strictly as an achievement of the human mind and beast, one has first to establish its Arabic and Persian its individual agency, as opposed to collective systems, names.”51 Subsequently, Ettinghausen identifies the Per- laws of nature, or impersonal forces.47 This approach sian term for a winged quadruped, karkadann, and in- seems to be an almost direct counterpoint to the con- tegrates it into his text, very literally enlarging the cepts of formalism and kunstwollen (will-to-art). It also vocabulary of description to a multilingual dimension, reflects a more embracing, less taxonomically restricted creating a more differentiated image of the subject and concept of science. providing a more differentiated terminology. This ex- Indeed, this approach corresponds to the principles pansive move is directly linked to gaze and vision, since of the Smithsonian Institution, which anchors the U.S. the kardadann, which is more closely related to the rhi- capital’s museum landscape and is the umbrella orga­ noceros than to the horse, will in the Muslim mind in- nization for the Freer Gallery of Art, where Ettinghausen stantly conjure up an image very different from the worked and published. In the first postwar years, the image of a unicorn in the Western mind. Thus Etting- Smithsonian, famously founded in the mid-nineteenth hausen’s view seems to point in the direction of the dis- century “for the increasement & diffusion of knowledge cursive, communicative potential of the “gaze” as Olin 222 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

Fig. 8. Illustration from Ettinghausen, The Unicorn, pl. 7, showing “Kardunn from a Naʿt al-ḥayawān manuscript. Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.” (Published by the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1950). (Photo: Eva-Maria Troelenberg) ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 223 deduced it from concepts of the “gaze in the expanded Ettinghausen the scientific approach lies not in a taxo- field”: “These conceptions of the gaze are inspired by nomic formalist gaze. It is entirely different in nature, as Martin Buber’s attempt to supplant the I-it relation with it implies recourse to historical sources and to geo- the I-thou relation or by the heteroglossia (multiple, graphical and zoological facts. equally valid speaking voices)…. If you can look back, Moreover, Ettinghausen’s monograph on the mythi- you cannot be possessed by the gaze of the other.”52 For cal beast is also an exemplary act of demystification, a the historiography of the arts of Islam, Oleg Grabar de- test case for the universal quest for historical truth as a scribed the need to invent new terminologies and critical and deliberate act of coming to terms with a con- modes of vision to avoid or at least gradually overcome fusing reality: the Eurocentrism that permeated the field for decades. A fter all, the myth of a strange animal represents a chal- As late as 1976, he noticed that “there certainly was a lenge to human resources and imagination and the ap- whole vocabulary for visual forms which is as yet unde- proach to the problem reveals clearly the power of tected.”53 observation in explorers and the critical faculties in writers However, even if Ettinghausen’s obviously heter- of each given period…. When an author was confronted oglossic approach seems to be ahead of its time, there with the accounts of sailors and travellers, his first problem remains the question of who is Ettinghausen’s historical was to decide, and this far away from the habitat of the karkadann, whether this strange animal was just a human vis-à-vis: who speaks and who looks back? In this regard, fabrication or a reality…. Al-Biruni, too, had a scientific at- the last chapter of his book is particularly revealing. titude when he clearly distinguished between his own ob- Considering the unicorn as a “scientific and artistic servations and what he has been told by others. It is true, problem,” it opens with a metalevel explanation of the the reports of his informants are full of fantastic details interrelationship of written sources and artworks in his- which al-Biruni does not challenge, perhaps because he torical perspective, and he assesses their significance for lacked proper means of checking them, but he is at least intellectual history, which he seeks to describe: “In the fully reliable as to what he has seen. One has only to com- case of the karkadann writers set the pace for artists be- pare his observations with those of Ibn Battuta, whose preconceived notions of the rhinoceros obscured his per- cause the former were the first to deal with the problem ception of the animal on the several occasions that he saw and it is on them, as we have seen, that the artists heav- it.58 ily leaned.”54 This passage reveals how even Etting- hausen’s “humanistic” approach in the end stops short A gainst the background of the mid-twentieth-century of engaging with artistic individuality per se. The artist experience, Ettinghausen’s scholarly approach seems as an individual remains mostly invisible behind tradi- permeated by a quest for orientation. This orientation tion, literature, and historiography, or, to use a Warbur- can be achieved by sober and “scientific” intellectual gian term, behind a “social mneme.”55 practice, rooted in humanist ground, or, as Robert Hill- Furthermore, this particular chapter, which deals enbrand characterized the scholarly approach of a gen- with “the karkadann as a scientific and artistic prob- eration of art-historian émigrés: “The effect was that lem,”56 reveals how Ettinghausen’s choice of subject is now they thought not just intelligently but profoundly, not only an investigation into the mind of the medieval as it were from within. This was a victory for the human Muslim but also mirrors the mind of the contemporary spirit. It gave them insights into human nature denied American scholar, or even specifically the mind of the to those who had lived safer, softer lives, and had mere- émigré who has experienced distances, alterities, and ly their intelligence and their learning to offer. Personal uncertainties.57 Ettinghausen’s use of the word “scien- tragedy, in other words, transformed their scholarship tific” and his application of the concept of “science” to a and gave it heightened awareness.”59 This view also cor- humanistic context may be considered an allusion to responds closely to Erwin Panofsky’s famous “Defense the German tradition of the “Verwissenschaftlichung” of the Ivory Tower,” written only a few years later, in (“scientification,” quotation marks used deliberately) of which he defines his humanistic art-historical practice art history with its apparently cataclysmic potential. For as an implicit ethic responsibility, an intellectual 224 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

­counterreaction against the most recent experiences in ­realism he finds “disenchanting.”63 The underlying high- contemporary history.60 brow rejection of Modernism and mass culture testifies On the one hand, Ettinghausen’s very literal enlarge- to an academic attitude that could be considered the ment of an image-canon and of a terminology, with its antiprogressive and exclusive character targeted by the careful consideration of historical and cultural distanc- critique of the ivory tower worldview. This attitude must es, thus also seems ahead of its time in a very fundamen- have had a significant impact, considering the image of tal respect, reaching beyond questions of methodology. Islamic art, its canonization, and the social codification At first glance, it even appears quite in line with the new, of its reception in postwar America and beyond. The culturally inclusive and canonically open democratic fact that until quite recently Islamic art history seemed humanism of the postcolonial era, for which Edward to be a discipline without any modern or contemporary Said pleads in one of his last essays on Humanism and dimension may not be exclusively, but certainly is sig- Democratic Criticism (2004), even though several de- nificantly, linked to this attitude.64 cades lie between the two texts.61 But on the other side, Ettinghausen’s awareness of the larger intellectual while Said looks for the potentials of such humanistic and even educational implications of his methodology approaches from a decidedly post–9/11 perspective, he is confirmed by an essay on the state of research on Is- also hints categorically at the conservative, elitist, and lamic art and archaeology that he contributed to an ed- antimodernist tone manifested in many ways during the ited volume on Near Eastern Culture and Society, twentieth century. In this view, traditional American published by Princeton University Press in 1951.65 The democratic humanism associated everything popular, essay is a long recapitulation of the field’s development multicultural, and multilingual with a “decline in hu- in the first half of the twentieth century that concludes manistic and aesthetic, not to say also ethical, stan- with some methodological considerations. These can be dards.”62 read almost like an abstract claim deduced from his ap- Of course it would be going too far to read overtly proach in The Unicorn: political statements into The Unicorn from today’s posi- I f we are also trying to visualize the future trend in research tion. However, some of Said’s postcolonial objections it can be assumed that it will be one which increasingly against democratic humanist conservatism clearly do recognizes the fact that it is not enough to analyze the style apply to Ettinghausen. His writing thus seems to be at of a monument (or painting, or object), its techniques and inscriptions—in other words, that it is not enough to look least symptomatic of a certain zeitgeist in this respect at it as a practically isolated phenomenon, more or less as well: his sources come from the realm of educated divested of the conditions and ideas under which it was elites; his material evidence is more often than not court created…. Pleasing as may be the general impression and art. Miniature painting, the primary subject for his icon- the artful decorations of a building, painting, or implement, ographical enterprise, had always had the reputation of we should still go on to consider its wider aspects and cul- being a superior discipline, nearer to the categories and tural context if we want to know the true meaning and standards of European high art than any other branch significance of an object of the past.66 of Muslim art. Now it is once more put in the center, At this point it should be obvious that the comparison suggesting a certain hierarchy of artistic gravity. In ad- between these methods of Kühnel and Ettinghausen is dition, Ettinghausen adopts the familiar model of cul- not or at least not exclusively related to some kind of tural rise, golden age, and decline, thus following a art-historical Blockbildung between Europe and the traditionally Hegelian notion of liberal progress that United States. Rather, it must be considered part of a culminates in Western modernity and that finds its dia- larger general methodological negotiation within the lectical counterpart in the idea of a retarded East devoid discipline as practiced in the Western world, dating of progressive potential. Characteristically, Ettinghau- back at least to the 1930s, when iconographic and for- sen’s book ends with a critical note on “eighteenth cen- malist approaches had already competed with each tury, al-Qazwini manuscripts of inferior quality, … other within German-speaking academia. Moreover, destined for the simple and impecunious,” whose Strzygowski’s version of Sachforschung drew some ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 225

­serious interest in the United States during the interwar knowledge, or “understanding and enjoyment.”72 As two years.67 Karen Michels has shown how this methodo- qualitatively different, yet interdependent factors of logical negotiation became ever more permeated by perception, they appear throughout his 1951 essay on political and ideological narratives, and how it was re- “Islamic Art and Archaeology.” It culminates in a rather interpreted and rebalanced toward a more iconograph- explicitly political and educational statement for the ic focus by émigrés in the United States. According to present, directly referring to the affirmative action of the Michels, scholars who were driven from Germany and art historian in a humanistically defined idealistic Austria were particularly sensitive to the risks of formal- worldview: ist approaches. Focusing on a more interpretive method D oes such study represent just a fringe of the ever-growing such as iconology enabled them to “liberate art from quest for knowledge, a special form of curiosity for the past, ideological usurpation,” thus aiming to fulfill Panofsky’s or is there any further significance in it? In the Middle Ages affirmative function of the “ivory tower.”68 Michels also Muslim scientists and philosophers exerted a powerful in- stresses that Panofsky’s seminal Studies in Iconology, fluence on the Western mind through the work of men like published in 1939, had been a downright “revelation” for Rhazes, Avicenna, Averroes, and many others. In the eigh- an entire generation of young scholars69 at the very mo- teenth and nineteenth centuries Muslim literature and sentiment was widely admired…. In our own time there is ment when the experience of exile was ascendant in little doubt that Muslim art has by far the strongest appeal their lives. Ettinghausen belongs precisely to this gen- to the West and is indeed exercising it in many ways. It is eration, which went on to translate these methodologi- the task of the historian of Muslim art to deepen this aes- cal discourses into their chosen subjects. thetic appeal to an understanding of the whole civilization The American postwar version of democratic human- of a sizable part of mankind. Muslim art can also have a ism that is linked to this turn to iconology is not only a special significance for the Muslim world of today. Since reaction to the technoid jargon and method character- this is its one cultural achievement widely accepted and izing the German-speaking academia before and during admired by the West, a rededication to it can compensate the East to a certain degree for its scientific and techno- the Nazi era, as Panofsky points out in his 1954 essay logical retardation, something which neither the oil fields subtitled “Impressions of a Transplanted European.”70 nor strategic location can achieve. Be that as it may, there At the same time, it also has an anticollective, anti- has been and still is no better ambassador of good will than Marxist tendency, reflecting the climate of the early art. If these considerations are more widely understood, Cold War. How this tendency was connected to meth- Muslim art and its study will have an important role to play odology is prototypically demonstrated in an essay “On in the future.73 Marxism and the History of Art” (1951) by the Princeton In this perspective, the art historian’s gaze could at least art historian John R. Martin, in which he criticizes Marx- superficially be interpreted “as a socially positive act.”74 ist claims for “scientific objectivity” and the resulting However, it clearly reveals a rather self-confident and technoid character.71 Hence, the reactive interrelation asymmetrical idea of multiculturalism, the writer appar- between the “scientific” and the “humanistic” gaze can ently unaware of the problematic cultural hierarchy it certainly be read as parallel to conflicting world orders creates for a contemporary discourse. as well as in terms of an evolutionary historical process Accordingly, Ettinghausen’s approach also presents that must be understood in dialectical terms. itself in sharp contrast to structuralist and poststructur- alist criticism as represented by the Foucauldian nexus among gaze, knowledge, and power. This background “IN OUR OWN TIME”: THE CONTEMPORANEITY OF hints at a fundamental, inherent tension between the THE HISTORIAN’S GAZE conservative humanistic tradition in postwar writing on the arts of Islam and the rise of structuralist postcolonial In Ettinghausen’s writing, this fundamental interrela- discourse.75 On the other hand, as has been shown, tion between the “humanistic” and the “scientific” gaze there is also a very problematic background to transcul- is mirrored by the recurrent criteria of pleasure and tural structuralism in the formalist German tradition. 226 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

Both aspects deserve attention, as both together and in the critical mind who interprets a text or a work of art relation to each other are immediate precursors of pres- over the one who created it. ent methodologies for Islamic art history within the In any case, this connection also hints at some epis- larger field of “global” or “transcultural” art history. Avi- temological parallels stemming from the general con- noam Shalem has recently pointed to the interrelation temporaneity of postwar historiography and Modernist between “the Hegelian mode of thought and any other art, which in the liberal West meant mainly abstract art. theories that operate within the confines of indexical This connection seems particularly interesting in light order and taxonomy, including the concept of globaliza- of comparative approaches combining non-European tion today,” and to the fact that these theories must al- artifacts and Modernist works of art that have been in ways be considered as systems of authority and control, vogue at least since the 1970s and remain a recurrent exerting functions of inclusion and exclusion.76 exhibition topic into the present.82 Of course this trend Hence it may be particularly interesting to consider can and must be understood as another inflection in a both “humanistic” and “scientific” approaches to the long history of formalist parallelization and essentializa- historiography of the arts of Islam as represented by the tion.83 postwar writings of Kühnel and Ettinghausen against On the other hand, it might also be interesting to re- the background of—or contrasting with—a rising struc- gard this trend in relation to some heated debates about turalist debate that coincides with the renaissance of humanism and abstract art that were prominent in the world art studies in the West.77 During the later 1950s early 1950s: the establishment of nonfigurative, abstract and 1960s, the structuralist movement radiating from painting within the postwar canon of the democratic French intellectual circles was increasingly considered Western world was apparently a matter of canonization, as a new universal principle for the modern organiza- cultural codification, and conflict. Particularly during tion of knowledge, explicitly harking back to Edmund the repressive era associated with U.S. Senator Eugene Husserl’s phenomenology.78 McCarthy’s investigations, progressive institutions and In a critical essay dealing with these methodological scholars actively sought to assimilate abstract art into developments, the cultural historian Jost Hermand sug- the narrative of humanism, in spite of its seemingly gests that “what within the framework of this school is structuralist appearance. In early 1950, just after Kühnel termed ‘structure’ could just as well be called form, Ge- had published his formalist study on the arabesque and stalt, essence, system or relative totality,”79 explicitly Ettinghausen was concerned with iconographic ques- coined to relate to the tradition of German art history: tions related to the “Muslim mind,” the Museum of Mod- “Similar tendencies are evident in the realm of stylistic ern Art and a number of other avant-garde institutions analysis, where since 1900 the same neo-idealistic atti- issued a “Statement on Modern Art” as an explicit re- tude based on preconceived notions of structures came sponse to right-wing attacks against abstract painting.84 to the fore. This is demonstrated most clearly in the art From a transcultural point of view, this manifesto is of history of this era.”80 Referring to Alois Riegl’s “artistic indirect, yet categorical significance. It stands for an- volition” and Heinrich Wölfflin’s “art history without other variety of incorporating nonmimetic art into a names,” Hermand, himself writing in 1975, detects a traditional canon of high or fine arts: “We recognize the “close resemblance to Roland Barthes’s de-emphasis of humanistic value of abstract art, as an expression of the individual.”81 thought and emotion and the basic human aspirations In this respect, we could provocatively ask whether toward freedom and order. In these ways modern art the lack of attention to individual artistic agency, espe- contributes to the dignity of man.”85 The paradigm of cially growing out of the formalist tradition but also order and the idea of a nonmimetic expression of present in Ettinghausen’s approach, could even be con- “thought and emotion” seems an echo of formalism with sidered as preliminary to a very modern phenomenon, its Janus-headed idealistic potential, and it leads to anticipating what literary criticism was later to define addi­tional, almost moral categories of “freedom” and as the “death of the author,” privileging the position of the “dig­nity of man,” thus merging a formalist and a ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 227

­humanist worldview in another specific, now explicitly sonal form and intellectual mind as expressed by an democratic political order that aims to incorporate aes- artwork: “The criticism of abstract art as inhuman arises thetic differences into the Western mainstream dis- in part from a tendency to underestimate inner life and course. This interpretation is epitomized in Meyer the resources of the imagination. Those who ask of art a Schapiro’s monograph subtitled On the Humanity of Ab- reflection and justification of our very human narrow- stract Painting (1960).86 Its point of departure is one of ness are forced in time to accept, reluctantly at first, Piet Mondrian’s last works, Broadway Boogie-Woogie what the best of the new artists have achieved and to (fig. 9). Painted in 1942–43, it reflects the artist’s experi- regard it in the end as an obvious and necessary enrich- ence of exile, translating an unfamiliar, yet apparently ment of our lives.”89 fascinating urban landscape into a synesthetic system, alluding to jazz music with its unmelodic disruptions. According to the Museum of Modern Art, where the CONCLUSION: GAZES OF THE POSTMODERN painting is on display, the painting expresses an alterna- tive, interpretive relation to reality, corresponding di- What I have sought to sketch here are some important rectly to Mondrian’s antimimetic and antinaturalistic aspects of a larger political and cultural climate in the visiony.87 It thus represents a moment of departure from the mimetic principle, reaching far beyond mere ornament or decoration, or, as Schapiro explains, it shows us “that high accomplishment in art is possible where the imagination of colors and forms is divorced from the imaging of the visible world.”88 Schapiro con- cludes by dialectically opposing the notion of imper-

Fig. 10. Cover of Oleg Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament. (Published by Princeton University Press, 1992, © 1992 by the Fig. 9. Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie-Woogie. 1942–43, oil Trustees of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Re- on canvas, 127 × 127 cm. New York, Museum of Modern Art printed by permission of Princeton University Press). (Photo: (MoMA). Anonymous Donation. (Photo: DIGITAL IMAGE © Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, data, The Museum of Modern Art/Scala, Florence) Library) 228 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

“free Western world” that apparently absorbed, mir- historiography that I sought to describe here. On the rored, and reinterpreted a number of earlier develop- other hand, its dynamic movement also hints at open ments in the history of ideas, opening certain windows desiderata and ever-changing methodological require- for an aesthetics of difference,90 yet windows with very ments. It is against this principle that we have to con- particular political frames. This is the climate in which stantly reconsider the most contested questions of a literally modern perspective on the arts of Islam was postmodern and postcolonial intellectual perceptions. developed, with all its epistemological potentials and Bhabha summarizes: “What is the sign of ‘humanness’ challenges. in the category of the cosmopolitan? Where does the By way of a brief postscript, I shall just touch on how subject of global inquiry, or injury, speak from? To what Oleg Grabar, one long generation later, established his does it bear relation? From where does it claim respon- famous and often-quoted comparison between the very sibility?”93 same Mondrian painting and a painting on a fifteenth- As we have seen, during most of the twentieth cen- century Persian manuscript page that represents the tury, the agencies of Islamic art historiography were name of Ali to illustrate his ideas about The Mediation often defined through the instruments of either “sci- of Ornament (1992) (fig. 10). Hence he creates a com- ence” or “humanism,” rooted in a Western tradition of parative nexus between modern artistic agency and knowledge that established the basic epistemological aesthetic agencies in the traditional arts of Islam.91 Gra- keys and acts of perception. Accordingly—and inevita- bar’s concept of “mediation” is part of a development of bly—these instruments also defined the qualitative oth- historiography that considers Islamic art within a cul- erness of the subject, since in most cases there was no turalist framework. It points toward a new awareness for one to look back, thus no agency on the other side to be artistic agencies, but at the same time seems less overt- counted into the equation. The dichotomy between ly charged with political connotations. However, as subject and object was clearly also an asymmetrical Nasser Rabbat has recently shown for the field of archi- East-West dichotomy. However dramatically different tecture, the historiography of the last decades of the the political implications may have been, maybe this twentieth century must also be considered in close re- epistemological dichotomy can be considered a com- lationship to issues of identity, economy, and politics. mon denominator, a “cardinal symptom” that character- Describing developments in, for example, Iran or the ized much twentieth-century scholarship and also Persian Gulf region, Rabbat suggests that during the remains an important point of friction when thinking postmodern decades and into the present there is a about the role of the historiography of the arts of Islam growing presence and also awareness of polycentric, in the present and future. globalized agency.92 In his melancholy essay titled “Unpacking My Library Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck- Again” (1995), Homi Bhabha deals on a very fundamen- Institut tal level with the differences, the intentional and unin- Florence, Italy tentional agencies, that grow out of the academic and cultural cosmopolitanism of the postmodern age. Inter- estingly, he begins and ends with another important NOTES migrant of the twentieth century and a contemporary 1. Martin Papenbrock, “Geschichte und Methodik der wissen- of the protagonists of my investigation, Walter Benja- schaftsgeschichtlichen Forschung zur Kunstgeschichte,” min. Bhabha refers to Benjamin’s concept of the Ange- in Kunstgeschichte im “Dritten Reich”: Theorien, Methoden, lus Novus as the arch-symbol of renewal, its face turned Praktiken, ed. Ruth Heftrig, Olaf Peters, and Barbara M. toward the past, yet violently propelled into the future Schellewald (Berlin, 2008), 25–38, esp. 32–34. 2. The literature on theories of agency is too vast to be cited by the paradisiac storm of progress. This angel of here. Groundbreaking work that inspired further discus- history with its position “in-between” seems to be a sion up to the present is Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An ­kindred spirit of some of the humanistic agencies in art Anthropological Theory (Oxford, 2012). See also Horst ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 229

­Bredekamp, Theorie des Bildakts (Berlin, 2010). On the sig- tion and exile. At the same time, both scholars remained nificance of more recent agency-related approaches within in close contact with each other and—consciously or the field of Islamic art history, see, e.g., Gülru Necipoğlu, not—show striking parallels and interdependencies in the “The Concept of Islamic Art: Inherited Discourses and New sequence of their important publications. Thus their work Approaches,” Journal of Art Historiography 6 (2012): 1–27. is particularly conducive to comparison. Of course, in terms 3. Margaret Olin, “Gaze,” in Critical Terms for Art History, ed. of a larger picture, one could also consider other scholars Robert S. Nelson and Richard Schiff (Chicago and London, of Islamic art history, such as Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948), 1996), 209. whose career began in Germany and was later pursued in 4. Ibid. the United States. Yet Herzfeld’s approach was somewhat 5. Postcolonial art history in Germany as represented par- different, focusing less exclusively on Islamic arts than on ticularly by Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff has developed the Near East in general and strongly characterized by the some approaches toward such a critical historiography, methods of the archaeologist and Bauforscher. On his role operating with the functions of aesthetic difference. See, for Near Eastern studies, see the contributions in Ann C. e.g., Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff, Ästhetik der Differenz: Gunter and Stefan R. Hauser, eds., Ernst Herzfeld and the Postkoloniale Perspektiven vom 16. bis 21. Jahrhundert, 2 vols. Development of Near Eastern Studies, 1900–1950 (Leiden, (Marburg, 2010). 2005). 6. Oleg Grabar, “An Art of the Object,” Artforum 14 (1976): 13. Josef Strzygowski, Die Krisis der Geisteswissenschaften 36–43. On this aspect, see also Avinoam Shalem, “What (Vienna, 1923), 108: “Die Kunstgeschichte hat den Geburts- Do We Mean When We Say ‘Islamic Art’?,” Journal of fehler, daß sie wie alle Geschichtsforschung ursprünglich Art Historiography 6 (2012): 8, available online at http:// von den Quellen (nicht von den Kunstwerken) ausging: Sie arthistoriography.wordpress.com/number-6-june-2012-2/ glaubt noch immer Meinungen und Tatsachen durchein- (accessed July 15, 2014). anderbringen zu können…. Die Quellen, vor allem der an 7. As in many cases, Oleg Grabar has also set the path for this Vasari anschließende Heerbann, haben sie derart in Fesseln fundamental question. See, e.g., Oleg Grabar, “The Implica- geschlagen, daß sich daraus die Blindheit allem gegenüber tions of Collecting Islamic Art,” in Discovering Islamic Art: erklärt, worüber Quellen fehlen (besonders lateinische). Scholars, Collectors and Collections, 1850–1950, ed. Stephen Sie ließ infolgedessen die europäische Kunst nicht aus dem Vernoit (London and New York, 2000), 197–98. Boden herauswachsen, auf dem sie entstand, sondern hat 8. It is worth noting, yet beyond the scope of this article, that sich immer lieber um die Einschläge von Süden her, von theories of the gaze found their place in a particular branch Hof, Kirche und Humanismus gekümmert.” of Islamic art history theory about one generation later 14. See, e.g., Kishwar Rizvi, “Art History and the Nation: Arthur and in a rather esoteric context, when agents such as Titus Upham Pope and the Discourse on ‘Persian Art’ in the Early Burckhardt and Henry Corbin discovered the Sufi-mystical Twentieth Century,” Muqarnas 24 (2007): 45–65, esp. 53; approach. For a paradigmatic example, see Titus Burck- Talinn Grigor, “‘Orient oder Rom?’ Qayar ‘Aryan’ Archi- hardt, Art of Islam: Language and Meaning, first published tecture and Strzygowski’s Art History,” Art Bulletin 89, 3 in 1976 and recently reprinted: Art of Islam: Language and (2007): 562–90; Eva-Maria Troelenberg, “‘The Most Impor- Meaning / Titus Burckhardt, commemorative ed. (Bloom- tant Branch of Muhammadan Art’: Munich 1910 and the ington, Ind., 2009). Early 20th Century Image of Persian Art,” in The Shaping 9. Ernst Kühnel, Die Arabeske (Wiesbaden, 1949). of Persian Art, ed. Yuka Kadoi and Iván Szántó (Newcastle 10. Richard Ettinghausen, Studies in Muslim Iconography I: The upon Tyne, 2013), 237–53. Unicorn, Freer Gallery of Art Occasional Papers 1, 3 (Wash- 15. Suzanne Marchand, “The Rhetoric of Artifacts and the ington, D.C., 1950). Decline of Classical Humanism: The Case of Josef Strzy- 11. Christian Fuhrmeister recently undertook a similar inves- gowski,” History and Theory 4, 33 (1994): 106–30. tigation into the general methodological development 16. Ibid. of mainstream art history in Germany during and after 17. Isaiah Berlin, “The Divorce between the Sciences and the National Socialism. Christian Fuhrmeister, “Reine Wissen- Humanities,” Salmagundi 27 (1974): 9–39. schaft: Art History in Germany and the Notions of ‘Pure 18. Fuhrmeister, “Reine Wissenschaft,” 161–77. On strenge Science’ and ‘Objective Scholarship,’ 1920–1950,” in German Kunstwissenschaft, see esp. 166–68. I follow this brilliant Art History and Scientific Thought: Beyond Formalism, ed. study in my use of the term and its translation. For more Mitchell B. Frank and Daniel Adler (London, 2012), 161–77. general background for the history of science, see also 12. For the purpose of this essay, I focus primarily on the lives Loraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity (New York, and works of Kühnel and Ettinghausen because they in 2007). many ways represent the dichotomies shaping Islamic art 19. Edmund Husserl, Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft history during the first half of the twentieth century. While (Hamburg, 2009). This classic work was originally pub- Kühnel remained at the Museum für Islamisches Kunst in lished in Logos 1 (1910–11). Berlin throughout his career and during all the political 20. Strzygowski, Krisis der Geisteswissenschaften, 4: “Der changes in Germany, Ettinghausen experienced migra- Grund, aus dem heraus besonders Naturforscher gern die 230 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

Frage aufwerfen, ob die humanistischen Fächer eigentlich 32.I bid., 7. See also Gülru Necipoğlu, The Topkapı Scroll: Geom- überhaupt Wissenschaften seien, liegt vor allem darin, daß etry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture (Santa Monica, die Tatsachen, mit denen sich die humanistischen Forscher Calif., 1995), esp. 75. beschäftigen, im gegenwärtigen Forschen ebensowenig wie 33. Andrew Zimmerman, Anthropology and Antihumanism in im vergangenen in ihrer Verarbeitung irgendeiner strengen Imperial Germany (Chicago and London, 2001), 3. Sachlichkeit zu unterliegen scheinen.” 34. Ernst Kühnel, “Nordische und islamische Kunst,” Welt als 21. Fuhrmeister, “Reine Wissenschaft,” 167–68. Geschichte 1 (1935): 203–17. A version of the essay was also 22. On Ernst Kühnel’s biography, see, e.g., Jens Kröger, “Ernst published in Forschungen und Fortschritte: Nachrichten­ Kühnel and Scholarship on Islamic Ivories up to 1971,” Jour- blatt der deutschen Wissenschaft und Technik (Berlin, 1934). nal of the David Collection 2, 1 (2005): 269–93; Jens Kröger, On the term nordisch and its position as an art-historical “The 1910 Exhibition ‘Meisterwerke muhammedanischer category of the Third Reich, see Susen Krüger Saß, “‘Nor- Kunst’: Its Protagonists and Its Consequences for the Dis- dische Kunst’: Die Bedeutung des Begriffes während des play of Islamic Art in Berlin,” in After One Hundred Years, Nationalsozialismus,” in Kunstgeschichte im “Dritten Reich,” ed. Andrea Lermer and Avinoam Shalem (Leiden, 2010), ed. Heftrig, Peters, and Schellewald, 224–44. 65–116. 35. Kühnel, “Nordische und islamische Kunst,” 205. 23. Ernst Kühnel, Francesco Botticini (Strasbourg, 1906). 36. This statement is taken from a letter Kühnel wrote to the 24. The historiography on Alois Riegl is far too vast to be cited editor of Welt als Geschichte to explain his point of view. here in detail. Recent analyses include Alois Riegl Revis- Kühnel to Hans E. Stier, August 23, 1934, Kühnel-Archive, ited, ed. Peter Noever, Artur Rosenauer, and Georg Vasold Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin-Dahlem: “Ich (Vienna, 2010); Michael Hatt and Charlotte Klonk, “Formal- gebe zu, dass ich den Gegensatz zur Antike wohl zu schroff ism: Heinrich Wölfflin and Alois Riegl,” in Art History: A betone, indem ich notorische Zusammenhänge vernach- Critical Introduction into Its Methods (Manchester and New lässige, die mir für die Erkenntnis des eigentlichen Wesens York, 2006), 65–95. der islamischen wie der nordischen Geistesrichtung uner- 25. See also Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Eine Ausstellung wird heblich erscheinen. Ihre Feststellung liegt unserem huma­ besichtigt: Die Münchner ‘Ausstellung von Meisterwerken nistischen und historischen Instinkt besonders nahe, und Theologen, Orientalisten und Archäologen haben denn muhammedanischer Kunst’ 1910 in kultur- und wissenschaft- auch bezüglich des Islam unermüdlich hervorgehoben, geschichtlicher Perspektive (Frankfurt a.M., 2011), esp. 285– was er vom Judentum, vom Christentum, vom Hellenis- 90. mus … übernommen hat; darüber aber oft das vergessen, 26. Jaś Elsner, “The Birth of Late Antiquity: Riegl and Strzy- was ihn von diesen Bewegungen grundsätzlich trennt. Sie gowski in 1901,” Art History 25, 3 (2002): 358–79, esp. 359. sehen—ich habe das einmal mit Bezug auf C.H. Becker 27. Kühnel, Arabeske. gesagt—tatsächlich die Kluft vor lauter Brücken nicht. Die 28. Ibid., 5–6: “Zweifellos lag dem Künstler, der das islamische Folge ist, dass noch heute die grosse Menge der Gebilde- Weltbild in sich trug, die Versenkung in die lineare Spe- ten dem Islam, seinen religiösen, politischen, ästhetischen kulation mit abstrakter Tendenz besonders nahe. Er bil- Problemen ziemlich fassungslos gegenübersteht. Bezüglich det nicht aus der Erinnerung an Gesehenes oder Erlebtes, der nordischen Kultur lag es mutatis mutandis nicht viel sondern überträgt das, was wir als Naturgesetz empfin- anders, und konfuse Rassentheorien erschweren die Ver- den, auf unwirkliche Formen. Wesentlich war, daß es dabei ständigung.” nicht zu einem wilden Drauflosphantasieren kam, sondern 37. On the Department of Islamic Art in the Berlin Muse- zu Eingebungen, die durch bewußte Konzentration und ums, see Jens Kröger: “Ernst Kühnel und die Islamische rhythmische Zucht gebändigt waren.” The quotation here Abteilung, 1933–1945,” in Zwischen Politik und Kunst: Die is from the English version, The Arabesque: Meaning and Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin in der Zeit des Nationalsozial- Transformation of an Ornament, trans. Richard Ettinghau- ismus, ed. Jörn Grabowski and Petra Winter (Cologne and sen (Graz, 1977), 6–7; all other quotations from Die Ara- Weimar, 2013), 317–30. beske are from Kühnel’s original German text. It is worth 38. See also the related chapter in Eva-Maria Troelenberg, noting that it was Ettinghausen who translated Kühnel’s Mshatta in Berlin: Keystones of Islamic Art, Connecting Art Die Arabeske into English in the 1970s. This fact and both Histories in the Museum 2 (Dortmund, 2015), forthcoming. scholars’ lifelong general cooperation testifies most vividly 39. Otto Gerhard Oexle, “‘Wirklichkeit’—‘Krise der Wirklich- to a pluralism of methods and “gazes” rather than a com- keit’—‘Neue Wirklichkeit’: Deutungsmuster und Paradig- petition—perhaps an advantage of the scholarly realm as menkämpfe in der deutschen Wissenschaft vor und nach opposed to “real” politics. 1933,” in Die Rolle der Geisteswissenschaften im Dritten 29. Ibid., 11. Reich, 1933–1945, ed. Frank-Rutger Hausmann and Elisabeth 30. Ibid., 12. Isabelle Frank, “Das körperlose Ornament im Werk Müller-Luckner (Munich, 2002), 2. von Owen Jones und Alois Riegl,” in Die Rhetorik des Orna- 40. Ernst Kühnel, “Kunst und Volkstum im Islam,” Die Welt des ments, ed. Isabelle Frank and Freia Hartung (Munich, 2001), Islams 1, 4 (1951): 247–82. 77–99, is also illuminating with regard to Kühnel’s practice. 41. See Petra Winter, “‘Zwillingsmuseen’ im geteilten Ber- 31. Kühnel, Arabeske, 7. lin: Zur Nachkriegsgeschichte der Staatlichen Museen zu ARABESQUES, UNICORNS, AND INVISIBLE MASTERS 231

­Berlin, 1945–1958,” in Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, n.s., 50 58. Ettinghausen, Unicorn, 143–44. (2008), esp. 78–114. See also my chapter on the reorganiza- 59. Hillenbrand, “Richard Ettinghausen,” 175–76. tion of the Islamic Department on the Museum Island in 60. Erwin Panofsky, “In Defense of the Ivory Tower,” in Asso- Berlin during these years, in Troelenberg, Mshatta in Berlin. ciation of Princeton Graduate Alumni: Report of the Third 42. Robert Hillenbrand, “Richard Ettinghausen and the Iconog- Conference (Princeton, 1953), 77–84. See also Michels, raphy of Islamic Art,” in Discovering Islamic Art: Scholars, Transplantierte Kunstwissenschaft, 155. Collectors and Collections, 1850–1950, ed. Stephen Vernoit 61. Said, Humanism and Democratic Criticism, esp. 25. (London and New York, 2000), 171. 62. Ibid., esp. 16–19. 43. It is important to note that Kühnel’s and Ettinghausen’s 63. Ettinghausen, Unicorn, 162. personal relationship remained close and apparently unim- 64. Finbarr Barry Flood, “From the Prophet to Postmodern- paired through all the political ruptures of those years. A ism? New World Orders and the End of Islamic Art,” in particularly striking example of this can be found in a let- Making Art History: A Changing Discipline and Its Institu- ter Ettinghausen wrote to Kühnel in May 1933, recently tions, ed. Elizabeth Mansfield (New York, 2007), 31–53; Avi- published in Regina Freyberger and Elisabeth Rochau- noam Shalem, “Über die Notwendigkeit, zeitgenössisch zu Shalem, “Volontäre an den Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, sein: Die islamische Kunst im Schatten der europäischen 1933–1945: Ein Überblick,” in Zwischen Politik und Kunst, ed. Kunstgeschichte,” in Orient-Orientalistik-Orientalismus: Grabowski and Winter, 79–80. Geschichte und Aktualität einer Debatte, ed. Burkhard 44. For Ettinghausen’s biography, see Priscilla Soucek, Encyclo- ­Schnepel, Gunnar Brands, and Hanne Schönig (Bielefeld, pedia Iranica (New York, 2012), s.v. “Richard Ettinghausen 2011), 245–64. (1906–79),” online edition, http://www.iranicaonline.org/ 65. Richard Ettinghausen, “Islamic Art and Archaeology,” articles/ettinghausen (accessed July 15, 2014). in Near Eastern Culture and Society, ed. T. Cuyler Young 45. Ettinghausen, Unicorn, 2. (Princeton, 1951), 17–47. 46. Ibid., 5. This point is also singled out by D. S. Rice in his 66. Ibid., 45. review of Studies in Muslim Iconography I: The Unicorn, by 67. Christopher S. Wood, “Riegl und Strzygowski in den Ver- Richard Ettinghausen, Bulletin of the Oriental and African einigten Staaten,” Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 53 Studies 1, 17 (1955): 172–74. (2004, published 2005): 217–33. 47. On this idea of culture, see, e.g., Edward Said, Humanism 68. Michels, Transplantierte Kunstwissenschaft, 148. and Democratic Criticism (New York, 2004), esp. 15. 69. Ibid., 151. 48. On the history of the Smithsonian Institution, see America’s 70. Erwin Panofsky, “Three Decades of Art History in the Smithsonian: Celebrating 150 Years, exh. cat. (Washington, United States: Impressions of a Transplanted European,” D.C., and London, 1996), xii–xvii. College Art Journal 14, 1 (1954): 7–27, esp. 14. 49. Preface to Ettinghausen, Unicorn, iii. 71. John R. Martin, “On Marxism and the History of Art,” Art 50. Ibid., 5. Journal 11, 1 (1951): 9. 51. Ibid., 6. 72. Ettinghausen, “Islamic Art and Archaeology,” 46. 52. Olin, “Gaze,” 217. 73. Ibid., 46–47. Wendy Shaw also stresses the problematic 53. Oleg Grabar, “What Makes Islamic Art Islamic?,” in Art and significance of this very passage in the introduction to her Archaeology Research Papers 9 (1976), 1–3, reprinted in Oleg essay on secularism. Wendy Shaw, “The Islam in Islamic Art Grabar, Islamic Art and Beyond, vol. 3 of Constructing the History: Secularism and Public Discourse,” Journal of Art Study of Islamic Art (Aldershot, U.K., 2006), 248. Historiography 6 (2012): 1. In this essay she also addresses 54. Ettinghausen, Unicorn, 143. several issues related to the paradigm of the “golden age.” 55. See, e.g., Karen Michels, Transplantierte Kunstwissenschaft: 74. Olin, “Gaze,” 216. Deutschsprachige Kunstgeschichte im amerikanischen Exil 75. On the dichotomy between a “humanistic” West and a “bar- (Berlin, 1999), 153. baric” East as concepts of historiography in this context, see 56. Ettinghausen, Unicorn, 143–62. also Said, Humanism and Democratic Criticism, esp. 8–9. 57. On the experience of emigration and its repercussion for 76. Shalem, “What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Islamic Art’?,” art history in both Germany and the United States, see, e.g., 2–3, with a reference to Jan Blommaert’s sociolinguistics of Colin Eisler, “‘Kunstgeschichte’ American Style: A Study in globalization. Migration,” in The Intellectual Migration, ed. Donald Flem- 77. On the development of this branch of art history, also in ing (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), 544–629; Ulrike Wendland, historical perspective, see, e.g., the contributions in World Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthisto­ Art Studies: Exploring Concepts and Approaches, ed. Kitty riker im Exil, 2 vols. (Munich, 1999); Michels, Transplan- Zijlmans (Amsterdam, 2008). tierte Kunstwissenschaft; Karen Michels, “‘Pineapple and 78. See, e.g., François Dosse, Geschichte des Strukturalismus, Mayonnaise—Why Not?’: European Art Historians Meet vol. 1, Das Feld des Zeichens, 1945–1966 (Hamburg, 1996); Jost the New World,” in The Art Historian: National Traditions Hermand, “French Structuralism from a German Point of and Institutional Practices, ed. Michael F. Zimmermann, View,” Books Abroad 49, 2 (1975): 213–21. Clark Studies in the Visual Arts (Williamstown, Mass., 79. Hermand, “French Structuralism,” 215. 2003), 57–77. 80. Ibid., 216. 232 EVA-MARIA TROELENBERG

81. Ibid. 89.I bid., 17. 82. Oleg Grabar, “Islamic Ornament and Western Abstrac- 90. A number of case studies on the epistemological dimension tion,” in Islamic Art and Beyond, 81–84; Weltkulturen und of the concept of “aesthetics of difference” in a postcolonial Moderne Kunst, ed. Siegfried Wichmann, exh. cat., Haus context are exemplified in Schmidt-Linsenhoff, Ästhetik der der Kunst (Munich, 1972); Abstraktion und Ornament: Differenz. Kunst der Kulturen, Moderne und Gegenwart im Dialog, ed. 91. Oleg Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament (Princeton, 1992). Markus Brüderlin, exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler (Cologne, See also Oleg Grabar, “When Is a Bird a Bird?,” Proceedings 2001); Taswir: Islamische Bildwelten und Moderne, ed. Almut of the American Philosophical Society 153, 3 (2009): 147–253, Bruckstein Coruh and Hendrik Budde, exh. cat., Martin- esp. 252–53. See also Grabar’s explicit confession to his Gropius-Bau Berlin (Berlin, 2009). own art-historical lineage, though the focus lies more on 83. For the larger context of this historiography in the nine- medieval art in this context. Oleg Grabar, Constructing the teenth and twentieth centuries, see Necipoğlu, Topkapı Study of Islamic Arts, 2 (Aldershot, 2006), xxvi–xxvii: “Alois Scroll, 61–90. Riegl and Josef Strzygowski in Vienna were the torch-bear- 84. “A Statement on Modern Art,” issued by the Museum of ers for reflections and investigations that were picked up Modern Art, New York, and other museums, March 1950, in a more systematic scholarly form by Meyer Schapiro, copy in Museum of Modern Art Archives, reports and Rudi Wittkower, André Grabar, Kurt Weitzmann, Hugo pamphlets, folder 3.1, excerpt published in Peyton Boswell, ­Buchthal, E. Baldwin Smith, Ernst Kantorowitz and Jor- “Comments: ‘Modern Manifesto,’” Art Digest 24, 13 (April 1, gis Baltrusaitis, among others…. I was trained and formed 1950): 3. The essay was analyzed by Megan M. Fontanella, by this particular tradition, partly because several among “A Vital Force: Abstract Art and Cultural Politics at Mid- these men were my teachers, but mostly because they Century,” in Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction encouraged their students to enter into areas they had only and the Guggenheim, 1949–1960, ed. Tracey Bashkoff, exh. partly investigated and sometimes wished they knew bet- cat., Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2012), 49–57. ter.” On his equally close relationship to Ettinghausen, see 85. Quoted in Fontanella, “Vital Force,” 49. xxxii–xxxiix. 86. Meyer Schapiro, Mondrian: On the Humanity of Abstract 92. Nasser Rabbat, “What Is Islamic Architecture Anyway?,” Painting (1960) (New York, 1995). Journal of Art Historiography 6 (2012): 1–15. 87. Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights: 350 Works from 93. Homi Bhabha, “Unpacking My Library Again,” Journal of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2nd ed. (New York, the Midwest Modern Language Association 28, 1 (1995): 5–18, 2004), 187, available online, http://www.moma.org/collec- esp. 6. On the Angelus Novus, see Walter Benjamin, “Über tion/object.php?object_id=78682 (accessed July 15, 2014). den Begriff der Geschichte,” in Walter Benjamin: Illumina- 88. Schapiro, Mondrian, 10. tionen, ed. Siegfried Unseld (Frankfurt a.M., 1977), 133.

Abstract American humanities. Both examples together offer a comparative perspective on the agencies of art historical This essay takes two seminal texts of mid-twentieth- methods and their ideological and epistemological century Islamic art history as case studies for the meth- promises and pitfalls in dealing with aesthetic differ- odological development of the scholarly gaze in the ence. Consequently, this essay also seeks to contribute aftermath of the Second World War. Ernst Kühnel’s Die exemplary insights into the immediate prehistory of the Arabeske (Wiesbaden, 1949) testifies to the continuity of so-called “Global Turn” in art history. a taxonomic history of styles, rooted in phenomenolo- gist Sachforschung and apparently adaptable to shifting ideological paradigms. Richard Ettinghausen’s The Uni- Key words corn (Washington, 1950) stands for a neo-humanist ap- proach. Its negotiation of aesthetic and cultural Richard Ettinghausen, Ernst Kühnel, Josef Strzygowski, difference clearly is to be considered against the back- Washington, Berlin, arabesque, unicorn, methodology, ground of the experience of exile, but also of the rising history of styles, humanism, agency, historiography tide of democratic humanism characteristic for postwar FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 233

Holly Edwards

Glancin g Blows, Crossing Boundaries: From Local to Global in the Company of Afghan Women

T he contemporary Afghan artist Lida Abdul has said ­imbricated processes of seeing and being seen, theo- that Afghanistan works hard for the world, the site of rized as “the gaze,” advance the fashioning of self as well and metaphor for intractable problems—war, gender, as the recognition of the other, and, by extension, they religion—and the screen for myriad orientalist projec- are constitutive of individual identities, diverse groups, tions.1 Perhaps the most vexed arena of contestation in larger communities, and ultimately, transnational rela- which Afghanistan has figured (along with other play- tions. Such relational encounters—the terms of engage- ers) has been termed the image wars,2 wherein diverse ment implicating self and other in the “politics of vision”5 acts of iconoclasm have been committed: women were across wider fields—are exponentially complicated by veiled, Buddhas were bombed, museums were looted, modern technologies of image-making arising from the and Islam was invoked in efforts to claim and retain medium of photography. As Catherine Collins and Jane clout and credibility around the globe. That widespread Lutz have elaborated, photographs entail the intersec- and “deep uncertainty about the power, sanctity, and tion of multiple gazes, including that of the photogra- violence of images” (termed “iconoclash” by Bruno La- pher, the subject, and myriad viewers of different tour)3 is not the main focus of this article, but it is the persuasions.6 One gaze of ambiguous but undeniable conceptual backdrop against which to position some force is that which is encoded in a portrait photograph— photographs of Afghan women. Transgressive images in the fixed focus of the represented subject, looking back some contexts and compelling icons in others, these at diverse audiences. Such faces can be powerful proxies photographs entail power and risk in the cracks between in the self/other encounter, agents of both differentia- people, classes, cultures, and nations, and therefore they tion and homogenization.7 can drive change, foment instability, and even incite Portraits of Afghan women are a complex case in violence or destruction. Such processes, transpiring in point, given the risks as well as the powers that photog- those interstitial spaces, are both synchronically and raphy offers to anyone ordinarily excluded from the diachronically manifest, working to globalize visual cul- public realm. Operative deterrents to female visibility ture. By subjecting these processes to scrutiny, this proj- and agency can vary, but the quandaries that Afghan ect is, in effect, an exploration of the aesthetics of social women have regularly faced—whether to be seen and change across boundaries of time and space, among to look back or not—are fraught and situational, subject myriad agents operating in disparate centers of cultural to a tenuous balance of variables and institutions, gravity. among them tribe, state, and Islam.8 Sometimes women To explore the complexity of such interstices, one are victims of coercion; other times they have the power useful strategy is to situate images in what James Elkins to choose, opting for the security of the veil or the pub- has called “the weightless skein of vision,” that cat’s licity of the photograph.9 I will consider cases in which cradle of interlocking, overlapping, and otherwise tan- photographs of Afghan women were widely dissemi- gled sightlines first articulated by Jacques Lacan and nated, in the 1920s, at mid-century, and then at century’s subsequently elaborated by many others.4 These end. In these instances and for diverse reasons, Afghan

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P12 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 233-251 234 HOLLY EDWARDS women became visible, extricated from (presumptive) Abdur Rahman (r. 1880–1901), gradually coalesced as a socially mandated invisibility by means of the camera, bounded state, albeit in relative isolation from the out- a globally disseminated but locally deployed tool of side world.13 After Abdur Rahman, Habibullah took documentation and self-realization.10 My intention power as amir of Afghanistan (r. 1901–19), and the ruling here is not to belabor the familiar feminization of “the clan began to formalize and modernize the nation, Orient,” or to castigate abuse of Afghan women, or to molding the society from the top down, beginning in revisit reductive refrains about iconoclastic Islam, Kabul; the changes were manifest in architecture, insti- though my comments impinge on all these issues to tutions, dress, and other aspects of visual culture. varying degrees. This project is also not about the per- Photography was a significant part of this transforma- formance of power over subalterns or others, although tion, with images figuring diversely in private and public there are asymmetrical dynamics among players in the spaces. In general, it was a useful technology for those story as well. Rather, my goal is to track the helix of dis- in power, confirming rule with verisimilitude, extending crete or localized visual proprieties twining together to and reifying established social norms, and offering new generate broader networks of seeing, as people and their options for expression and communication. Deployed proxy pictures transgress sightlines and transcend initially from the top down and the center out, photo- boundaries between self/other, man/woman, public/ graphs were obedient agents in the larger campaigns of private, and ultimately between cultures and nations. modernization—until they were not. Doing so will entail ranging across the full spectrum of Images of women are indicative of this complex func- visuality, from production to reception. tionality. A formal portrait taken in the Arg harem serai On one level, then, this is an exercise in what W. J. T. around 1915–16, shows Amir Habibullah surrounded by Mitchell has called “showing seeing”—sorting out the fourteen consorts from the royal household (fig. 1).14 For visual construction of the social and the social construc- the ruler, it was clearly a desirable and even flattering tion of the visual11—as it transpires over time. On picture, posed to capture power, comfort, and privilege. ­another level, it is a case study of female beauty as nego­ It was also evidence of being “modern,” but it was not tiable currency in transnational consumer culture, man- intended for public distribution. Since the women, the ifest vividly in the entanglement between two quite photograph, the negative, and the photographer—that disparate political entities—Afghanistan and the is, all possible sightlines—were controlled by the patron U­ nited States. By throwing a spotlight on some univer- patriarch, the canons of visual propriety more broadly sally legible photographs operating in the interstices operative in early twentieth-century Afghanistan were between local and global, I hope to explore the imbri- not overtly violated with this act of image-making. cated processes of looking, of being seen and looking The situation was quite different when the next ruler, back, of exercising agency and being erased. Thus the King Amanullah (r. 1919–28) and Queen Soraya went project concerns images but also “image,” a ubiquitous abroad for the first time, in 1927–28, to introduce their anxiety in the contemporary public domain. fledgling republic to other countries.15 During the course of this diplomatic tour, Soraya chose to perform her role as a royal ambassador in “modern” terms and to capital- AFGHAN IMAGES IN TIME AND OVER TIME ize on “modern” technologies such as photography. Not surprisingly, to veil or not to veil was a critical question, By way of preface, it is necessary to acknowledge the and while she ultimately acquiesced to covered mod- relationships between image-making and self-fashion- esty in both Egypt and Iran,16 she charted an incremen- ing, between photography and nation-building, in Af- tal path to visibility as she traveled through Europe, thus ghanistan in the early decades of the twentieth century, effectively advancing her own (orientalist) exposure. because the modern polity took shape even as the tech- Described in the Illustrated London News as veiled and nology was being adopted.12 Over the course of a few retiring in Bombay on January 7, “unveiled in public for short decades, tribes under the hand of the “Iron Amir,” the first time” by January 14, lauded for her fashion sense FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 235 and skin tone by February 4, she appeared on the cover zeal and political upheaval within the nation-state of of that august publication on March 24. Exposed, Afghanistan. dressed, and launched appropriately in “civilized” soci- That the same photographs sustained three qualita- ety, Soraya thus became, in picture and person, an in- tively different gazes/perspectives, synchronically op- ternational celebrity.17 erative in discrete locales, is worth elaborating. At each Publicity shots of the queen traveled considerably site, individuals/societies made meaning, forged values, farther than she did, and the reception they garnered and confirmed identity with reference to the queen’s was mixed. For example, whereas English audiences portrait, although those processes entailed quite dispa- had applauded her sartorial panache, the Turkish press rate codes of honor, norms of behavior, and claims to published the same images, noting patronizingly that sophisticated civility. In the moment, a few images social proprieties in “far away Afghanistan” were com- bridged vast distances and convened heterogeneous parable to those operative in Turkey ten or fifteen years audiences around shared experience; such is the poten- previously.18 Thus cultural commonalities between the tial of photographs to activate the spaces between cul- two young republics were acknowledged even as Tur- tures in diverse and even seemingly contradictory ways key’s own more advanced modernity was asserted. Fi- simultaneously. But if such diversity is refracted in the nally, when such vagrant images found their way back localized reception of images in the moment, that very to Afghanistan from abroad, they were deemed incon- diversity is also subject to homogenization over time, as trovertible (visual) proof that traditional notions of peripatetic pictures summon unprecedented gather- proper behavior had been flaunted by the rulers.19 For ings, blurring and cross-fertilizing previously discrete some, it was a travesty of collective honor wrought in systems of representation and propriety. To substanti- and by mechanically reproduced images, an unfamiliar ate that claim, I will now operate diachronically in the technology. This, then, is the critical conflation of me- arena between two different political entities (Afghani- dium and message, wherein resistance to the making of stan and the United States) to track the genesis of a images is coterminus with resistance to the content of larger, transnational visuality. A pair of pictures can set images. What resulted was a moment of iconoclastic the stage.

Fig. 1. Anonymous, Amir Habibullah and Consorts, ca. 1915–16. (Photo: KES Archives, 158-H-69, courtesy of the Williams Afghan Media Project) 236 HOLLY EDWARDS

OF SELF OR OTHER? The medium in which these created worlds are ren- dered—photography—works to substantiate that cul- About the time that Amir Habibullah of Afghanistan tural imaginary and make it credible, in part and had his picture taken with fourteen of his consorts, Un- ironically, because the requisite verisimilitude entails cle Gus had his picture taken, too, posing as “Sultan for diverse fabrications, distortions, and even accidents.23 a Day” in Bennington, Vermont (fig. 2). The images are Some of these contrivances seem unremarkable or at twins in a sense, though not quite identical ones.20 Each least familiar, reflecting widely disseminated conven- shows a single male figure surrounded by women; both tions of studio photography. In the Afghan photograph, ensembles invoke issues of gender and sex, although for example, an outdoor garden is evoked by a pictorial with different codes and connotations. In both cases, backdrop combined, in turn, with an indoor carpet; thus the women wear clothing that departs from normative living, breathing people occupy a fake space bounded custom in their own societies but relates in some way to by the picture frame as determined by the photographer fashions elsewhere. Amir Habibullah’s women wear behind the camera. Another kind of artificiality occurs clothes ordered or copied from European catalogues, in the American photograph. There, a real interior and while the women in Uncle Gus’s photograph sport cos- costumed charade substantiate fantasy. Both images are tumes rather than fashions, each outfit suggesting pas- fabricated, then, but not exactly duplicitous. Both pho- tiche and charade. Both images document private tographs serve up mundanely mendacious “truth”— experiences, and, in a sense, both have a peepshow posed moments in which alternative selves or morphing quality because neither would have been intended for values are projected. public consumption when they were taken.21 In retro- There are differences, of course, between the sober spect however, both also betray the larger “cultural aspirations of modernizing Afghans and the cavalier as- imaginary” in which they were produced, a system of sumptions of modernizing Americans, but the general representation specific to time and place.22 similarity between these images points to social change

Fig. 2. Willis White, Uncle Gus Was Sultan for a Day, n.d. (Photo: courtesy of private collection) FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 237 under way in both societies in which diverse boundaries However, it would be a mistake to reduce National are breaking down—boundaries between man and Geographic’s coverage to hackneyed stereotype, for woman, public and private, self and other, but also doc- there is (grudging) nuance therein as well. For example, ument and wish. In order to isolate constituent strands it was noted that the Afghans “have found, to their dis- in these increasingly tangled patterns of seeing and be- may, that polygamy is nowadays more expensive than ing seen, it is useful to begin in one of the two centers of exciting…. The present Amir, Amanullah Khan, has but cultural gravity and then incorporate other storylines one wife … and the Amir loves pictures and is a good contrapuntally. First, I will consider American notions amateur photographer.”25 Such commentary sounds about Afghanistan after the demise of the polygamous condescending, but it also betrays recognition and self- Amir Habibullah, during the reign of King Amanullah. validation, wherein quandaries, fantasies, and enthusi- In 1921, newly enthroned and just a few years prior to his asms current in the United States were projected for own European tour described above, this young Afghan consideration at a comfortable distance on the most ruler sent a surrogate diplomatic entourage to Washing- exotic of screens. Imagine, for example, fireside conver- ton, D.C., led by Muhammad Wali. The visit prompted sations (or silent ruminations) prompted by this well- avid journalistic coverage, while ancillary information illustrated magazine: “Multiple wives?? Cough, snicker, also proliferated about a place that was even more ex- harumpf … I wonder what they look like … too bad there otic than the Ottoman empire for the American public, are no photos of them…. I wonder why … photography one that increasingly epitomized the ever-receding “Ori- is everywhere these days…. Clearly the Afghan king en- ent.” joys it, though I doubt he owns one of those new Ko- daks or has been to the movies!” Typical of this discourse of broadening horizons is a Obviously, my purpose is not to declare such con- story entitled “Every-Day Life in Afghanistan” which ap- jured responses factual, but simply to point to the peared in a respectable, even scholarly magazine, Na- ephemeral, seemingly inconsequential (but not!) mut- tional Geographic (January 1921). The content was terings and labelings that coalesce as personal opinion credited to one “Haji Mirza Hussein,” a European ob- and, when expressed, may eventually generate collec- server (Oscar von Niedermeyer) traveling incognito on tive convictions. Only incrementally are the partialities a mission of “political and military significance” in the of individual experience knit together into broader pat- disguise of a “Persian pilgrim.” His field notes had been terns of representation; only in retrospect is this incre- edited by a former United States consul in Baghdad for mental genesis of global visual culture legible. But publication and dissemination to American readers. setting aside conjured conversations, one does have the Thus the article had the imprimatur of governmental photographs themselves and the words that are intend- accuracy as well as the allure of exotic intrigue. So le- ed to explain them. Together they point to dual pro- gitimized, the “buffer state” was characterized by a cesses of othering and identification. On the American “Keep Out” sign at the border, its “splendid isolation,” side of the story, a resilient template of representation and its “brooding, suspicious” capital, Kabul. This “un- for Afghanistan gradually coalesced, in which the erotic friendly realm of fanatic tribes” was home to “the last of exotic and the seductions and perils of “image” consis- the despots, a sort of modern Oriental patriarch on a tently figured, often in gossipy tone. Newspaper cover- grand scale” who wielded “a far-reaching influence age of Muhammad Wali’s diplomatic mission to the throughout the Mohammedan world.” “Afghan women United States demonstrates, for example, that polyga- are not taught to read or write” and the deceased Amir my, jewels, and mystery were key variables in public Habibullah “had a harem of over 100 women and among perceptions of the nascent country. The New York these, strangely enough, were a few Europeans.”24 Such Times’s coverage of July 13, 1921, is relatively measured, rhetoric worked to consolidate familiar orientalist with headlines noting that “Two Royal Afghans are not tropes, linked to a particular and, ultimately, paradig- Acquainted … Prince Muhammad Wali Khan and Prin- matic place. cess Fatima exchange no visits here … Envoy off for 238 HOLLY EDWARDS

Washington … Seeks Recognition of his country’s Inde- ­multifaceted appeal in the American arena, but not pendence—Princess would sell Diamond for $500,000.” enough to dictate foreign policy. At stake here is the very legitimacy of the envoy; how (a If Americans viewed Afghanistan in self-serving bits staunchly monogamous reader might wonder) could and snippets, others viewed the diplomatic dance di- two members of Afghan royalty not know each other? versely around the globe. The transnational migration While journalistic sleuthing mapped out the extended of news and image consolidated familiar themes of po- family tree, determining that the prince was in fact a lygamy, jewels, and fashion, but varied audiences reputable envoy and the princess was actually a legiti- framed the encounter in localized perspectives. For ex- mate but distant relative resident in India, a section on ample, the “Mysterious Afghans” were newsworthy as “Afghan home life” remained the site of curiosity and far away as New Zealand, where an Ashburton Guardian further questions. The prince, “a swarthy smiling man of columnist noted that Princess Fatima had attracted about 40,” was asked if the amir had “the usual four “considerable attention by her wonderful native cos- wives” and was told that “the Ameer has but one wife tume. She wears a white sapphire embedded in the side and is not in favor of polygamy.” When asked if he was of her nose.” The prince professed “ignorance of her ex- “surprised at the skirts of American women when you istence,” while the princess returned the patronizing arrived in this country?” he replied, “We have been in castigation, pointing out that he was “related to the Paris … and his answer seemed final enough to end the Royal Family of Afghanistan and not of it.” The subse- subject.”26 So whose perspective is dominant here? If quent commentary is more regionally specific: “People American expectations revolved around harems and are inclined to suspect the machinations of an enterpris- mystery, the fashion world still revolved around Paris, ing cinema director, and take note that the princess’ and in the face of it all, Afghans were capable of cosmo- name is also that of a popular brand of cigarettes” (fig. 3).29 Here the snarky New Zealand journalist in- politan condescension.27 vokes the requisite gems, dress, and complicated family Meanwhile, as the official entourage proceeded to- trees, but the innuendos point not simply to “the Orient” ward Washington, diplomatic process unfolded at the but to a different erotic exotic place—the land of movie- top levels of government. Charged to establish an offi- making and cigarette-smoking flappers otherwise cial presence on American soil for the fledgling Afghan known as the United States. nation, the envoy duly submitted his request to Secre- Having acknowledged (however briefly) this multi- tary of State Charles Evans Hughes and ultimately en- centric arena of image and representation, let us return joyed a respectful audience with President Warren G. to the localized viewing dialect current in America. Harding on July 26, 1921, but the matter of a formal mis- There, information about the Afghan mission worked in sion, he was told, “must be reserved for further consid- transitive resonance with contemporaneous larger- eration.” This decision reflected careful respect for than-life individuals prominent in that particular cul- British interests in regard to the former protectorate: tural domain—one an enigmatic figure of the Great that Italy had formally recognized Afghanistan had gen- War, Lawrence of Arabia; the other a sex symbol of the erated some “sensitiveness … some feeling,” whereas “in silent screen, Rudolph Valentino (alias “The Sheik”).30 France, the Mission was received but no promises were Both heroes operated in “exotic” terrain, and the per- made.” It was also noted that Afghanistan had signed a sonal charisma of each one was projected beyond his treaty with the Soviet government guaranteeing Af- immediate surroundings by widely disseminated im- ghanistan a yearly monetary subsidy along with person- ages. Predictably, Hollywood was the key variable, and nel and technical expertise. State Department efforts to “The Sheik” was both deterministic and indexical of investigate the commercial potential of affiliations American attitudes. Arguably the first real movie “star,” ­concluded that “there is little or no opportunity for Valentino exercised his cat-like grace and complicated trade, aside from the products of the sapphire and of the sexual appeal in a distant ostensibly North African set- lapis lazuli mines.”28 Precious stones apparently held ting, offering audiences vicarious sex in the desert. He FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 239

STANDARDS OF BEAUTY, SITES OF CONSUMPTION

The same year in which The Sheik was released—1921— the first Miss America pageant was staged in Atlantic City. The winner, as yet unchallenged to be articulate, creative, or socially conscious, was chosen purely on ap- pearance: Margaret Gorman was 16 years old and mea- sured 30-25-32. In 1922 and 1923, Mary Campbell won and then won again because she scored the highest on a scale that awarded points for physical attributes: 15 for the construction of the head, 10 for eyes, 5 each for hair, nose, and mouth, and 10 each for facial expression, torso, legs, arms, hands, and something called “grace of bear- ing.”31 While the contest grew quickly in popularity, it was discontinued five years later amid moralist com- plaints about revealing bathing suits and the discovery that one contestant was married while another had an infant child. Apparently, wholesome (virginal) beauty was one thing, but sexually active contestants flaunting their appearance was quite another.32 Clearly there were limits to how visible and how sex- ual women could actually appear in polite American society, but for present purposes, it is most pertinent to Fig. 3. Fatima Cigarettes magazine advertisement, litho- graph, ca. 1910. (Photo: courtesy of private collection) flesh out the larger commercial context in which this recalibration of female “beauty” and visibility tran­ spired. The Fatima cited above offered cigarettes from became the center of an unprecedented media-fed cult behind a diaphanous veil, and the product sold, but the made up of carefully crafted images, the heartthrob of advertising business was mushrooming rapidly and it swooning women and the bane of mystified men. was doing so in lockstep with Hollywood. In a prece- The Sheik was compelling and even transformative dent-setting strategy of entrepreneurship, Valentino the viewing in the wake of world war and Lawrence of Ara- idol and impresario of sensual experience was deployed bia’s exploits, in large part because of its duplicitous in a thinly disguised promotional tour for a beauty aid realism—movie echoing news, familiar tropes embod- called Mineralava.33 This sequence of dance perfor- ied and performed with unimpeachable verisimilitude, mances around the country culminated in a beauty con- seductively disseminated with advanced technology. It test in Madison Square Garden judged personally by was timely and catalytic in the era of suffrage activism Valentino. A film produced by David Selznick, Rudolph and birth control controversies. Women were becoming Valentino and His 88 American Beauties, documents the increasingly independent, and their sexual appetites concluding program of the tour, a major public event; were acknowledged and even advanced thanks in part in it, the star is presented as a discriminating connois- to this infusion of orientalism. Despite these advances, seur of beautiful women, viewing and judging the however, they remained subject to demeaning terms of ­enviable contestants. Perhaps for some it was a perfor- visibility that were imbricated in and refracted through mance of that titillating exotic practice, polygamy; for the erotic exotic cult surrounding Valentino. What hap- others it offered a springboard for fantasy about that pened? more ­domesticated idol known as Rudy. Certainly, the 240 HOLLY EDWARDS

­entrepreneurial campaign advanced this general ethos by yoking the product with a charismatic movie star would become perennial strategy for the burgeoning advertising business. Obviously, these are but snapshots from a much larg- er process by which the United States came to be emble­ matized by Miss America, Hollywood, and consumerism. With this modest foil, however, I turn now to the pro- motional campaigns that were waged by Afghan icono- philes in which women also figured prominently. Efforts were made throughout the reign of King Zahir Shah (r. 1933–73) to project a national identity in the interna- tional arena by disseminating images. For example, a large format magazine entitled simply Afghanistan Ari- ana, published in English in 1961, is indicative of Afghan desire to be seen by the outside world.36 Picture and text document indigenous industry, education, and daily life, and women are prominent therein (fig. 4). While a close reading of this Soviet-tinged publication and its encoded political agendas is beyond the scope of this article, the entrepreneurial, propagandistic tenor of the magazine is inescapable. Clearly ratified by the Afghan government, it presents a nation in which work, women, and image are seen as the tools and evidence of social change and even revolutionary advance. Concomitantly, tourism and the culture industry Fig. 4. Feature story on “Women and Work” from Afghani- were actively sponsored, and the campaign to promote stan Ariana, June 1961. The magazine was designed and ed- the country in transnationally legible terms culminated ited by Mohammed Khalid Roashan and published by the in the 1970s. This campaign is evident in a series of glossy Royal Afghan Government, Department of Press and Infor- calendars produced collaboratively by Ariana Afghan mation. (Photo: courtesy of private collection) Airlines, Afghan Tourist Organization, and Bakhtar Af- ghan Airlines.37 Images of Afghan countryside, monu- ­participants were thrilled at the possibility of being es- ments, flora, and crafts complement each month’s page, corted to the throne by the screen idol himself. and women figure centrally in this advertising cam- Most important for present purposes, the beauty con- paign, representing different regions, dressed in colorful test was a paradigmatic mélange of controlled viewing, “native dress.” In one 1973 production, each month is performed desires, and promotional agendas. Selznick’s graced with a single female figure posed in distinctive film is all about the act, experience, and significance of dress before a recognizable landmark or landscape seeing and being seen; arguably, it anticipated and even (fig. 5). While some calendars are rendered in Pashto or insidiously inculcated what would become normative Dari for local consumption, others cater overtly to the behaviors in the marketplace of women’s beauty and tourist market and international audiences. In one sam- the products concocted to enhance it. “Just looking”34 ple dating to 1977, Afghanistan is dubbed (in English) and then buying the proliferating cosmetics and related “Haven of Peace and Tranquility” and it includes a care- commodities35 lie at the very core of American con­ fully posed shot of the “inflight service personnel” of sumer culture. That the movie and the associated Ariana Airlines, lined up on the tarmac next to a plane FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 241

Fig. 5. Page for Mizhan (September–October) from a calendar produced by Bakhtar Afghan Airlines and the Afghan Tour- ist Organization, 1973. (Photo: courtesy of private collection) 242 HOLLY EDWARDS

Fig. 6. Photograph for April from a calendar produced by Bakhtar Afghan Airlines and the Afghan Tourist Organization, 1977. (Photo: courtesy of private collection)

(fig. 6). Dressed in colorful local attire, these women clared the winner, having been judged for her academic would have been responsible for making airline passen- accomplishment and social comportment. Clearly, at gers comfortable en route, thus actively engaged in pro- that particular moment in time, enterprising Afghan fessional lives outside the normative privacy of women (and their image proxies) enjoyed respectabil- traditional Afghan home life, previously the focus of ity when they were seen playing respectful roles, rein- avid American armchair travelers. forcing the operative balance of powers among tribe, In general, such publications demonstrate the extent state, and Islam in the process of modernization and to which Afghanistan was engaging in the sites and engagement with other countries in the global arena. In modes of cross-cultural exhibition and promotion at effect, women and photography had been mobilized on mid-century, a campaign that entailed relaxed stan- acceptable terms, to serve local purposes and simulta- dards of gender construction. Even more telling, per- neously broaden horizons. Images offered passports to haps, is the crowning of Zohra Daoud as Miss Afghanistan the spaces between other localized visual cultures, and in 1973, the first such contest to transpire in echo of the photography remained licit for indigenous audiences then-well-established American equivalent; her story is and subservient to stable political processes. a revealing index of attitudes about the visibility and agency of women in a modernizing tribal, Muslim na- tion-state.38 It is not without irony, for example, that the MEN, WOMEN, AND WAR standards of evaluation in the Afghan contest differed considerably from the bluntly physical scrutiny of the Even after the Soviet invasion of 1979 and during the first Miss America contests. Chosen from a pool of hun- subsequent decades of civil war, photography contin- dreds of contestants nationwide, Zohra Daoud was de- ued to serve both militant and therapeutic purposes FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 243

Fig. 7. Followers of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar with a captured Soviet tank, May 1989. (Photo: Afghan Media Resource Center, courtesy of the Williams Afghan Media Project) among diverse internal constituencies resisting outside such a publication point to strongly held spiritual con- interference. The most obvious function was propagan- victions, visually rendered. da. This sort of visual exhortation, rendered in the gaze As the resistance to communism and Soviet en- of the portrait photograph, served to transmit the cha- croachment acquired a more charged and institutional- risma of group leaders from a distance, proclaiming ized religiosity,41 the instrumental relationship between party affiliation and galvanizing men under fire (fig. 7). looking at images and strengthening religious commu- More modest images operated not at the level of com- nity took other public forms as well. At once modest and manders, political parties, or battle zones, but rather at monumental, the poster in figure 9 commemorates the level of personal loss,39 sometimes in the context of ­Ghulam Muhammad Niazi,42 founder of Jamiat-i Islami, inexpensive magazines devoted to individuals slain in professor of theology at Kabul University, and mentor the struggle. Such faces “look back” across the boundar- of such important younger men as Burhannuddin Rab- ies between life and death with grinding force. Meeting bani and Abdul Rasul Sayaf. Imprisoned in 1974 by Mu- that gaze sustained private memories even as some pho- hammad Daoud Khan and executed in 1979 by the tographs were put to more public purpose. One such Khalqi, Niazi had argued for a modern, Muslim Afghan- magazine, called Sima-yi Shahid (The Visage of the Mar- istan even as the country was careening through its tyr), shows the face of a fallen student on the cover; in- short-lived experiment in socialism. Surrounding his side, other biographies and pictures are presented (fig. face are the portraits of students and followers during 8).40 Image and encomium combine to document the the tenure of the Russian-backed government in the resistance and legitimize grief and ongoing suffering. 1980s. On one level, the poster replicates the original The suggestive title and the nearly hagiographic tone of pedagogical relationships; on another level, hanging 244 HOLLY EDWARDS

Fig. 8. Cover of Sima-yi Shahid, early 1980s. The magazine Fig. 9. Poster commemorating Ghulam Muhammad Niazi, was published by Hizb-i Islami. (Photo: courtesy of private n.d. (Photo: Afghan Media Resource Center, courtesy of the collection) Williams Afghan Media Project) from a tree in an open-air classroom in a sunlit glade, honor, and exhortation. Just looking at pictures helped the poster defines a commemorative site, dedicated to to constellate and confirm the world around fighting important individuals, staking visualized claim to the men within the boundaries of the contested nation. Dis- land in their names. Here an image actually defines a seminating such images beyond the borders held the sacred space for the consolidation of the Muslim resis- promise of worldwide attention. Whereas King Amanul- tance. lah and Queen Soraya had welcomed photography as a means to project a “modern” Afghanistan, publicizing and documenting the war entailed a much wider array SEEING IS (NOT?) BELIEVING of vested interests. The resistance itself was atomized, and the superpowers were involved, and the story was Even this small selection of images demonstrates that not getting out to everyone’s liking. As armed conflict the Afghan nation-state in the 1980s and 1990s—tribal, and Soviet influence ground on, an American effort was Muslim, and still aspiring to independent integrity— launched to fund and train Afghans to document the was (as before) a nation fashioned and a terrain con- war from the inside. The Afghan Media Resource Center tested by men and their images, working as record, was established in 1987 and active up through 1992 FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 245 and beyond.43 The staff, recruited from political par­· image had no roots at all in her own culture; her picture ties based in Peshawar, Pakistan, was made up of edu- was “taken” and used elsewhere without permission. cated but unemployed Afghans who traveled in teams Both women were photographed so as to conform to throughout their homeland, gathering news for interna- canons of contemporary beauty or fashion in the coun- tional distribution. They were locals, but they were tries in which they gained their greatest fame. Soraya’s schooled by outsiders—professionals from Boston Uni- image (fig. 10) resonated with those of young British versity, funded by the Department of State—in photog- debutantes (fig. 11); Sharbat Gula’s echoed those of cut- raphy, video, and the principles of “objective journalism” ting-edge American fashion models.48 Thus both wom- congruent with American media.44 Periodically during en could be welcomed, trusted, and desired even as they their internships, the trainees were urged to operate retained a charged political affiliation. Furthermore, the tactfully against the grain of traditional Afghan culture celebrity of each of the women transpired initially in the in order to document indigenous struggles more effec- context of a publication (the Illustrated London News tively for the evening news abroad. Interviewing and and National Geographic, respectively) that represented photographing women were encouraged, and appropri- the highest standards of truth, accuracy, and reportage, ate strategies were coached and scripted. More specifi- a status deriving in large part from the aura and impact cally, Afghan journalists were advised to simply treat of the photographs disseminated therein. In a sense women as “sources,” nothing more.45 then, each had international backers and sponsors, and Perhaps not surprisingly, this was also the very time the benefits were reciprocal: images granted power and that a woman’s face personified the nation abroad. Just power legitimized image. as images of Queen Soraya figured in the earlier repre- Pictures of both women also returned to the region sentation of Afghanistan in the international arena, from which they came, but by the end of the twentieth “The Afghan Girl” (arguably, the green-eyed girl needs century, the stakes and implications differed radically. no introduction, but her name is actually Sharbat Gula) The green-eyed girl had become the poster child for hu- played a critical ambassadorial role for her country, al- manitarian philanthropy to refugees and Afghanistan beit in counterpoint to indigenous cultural norms.46 She more generally, with the result that considerable phil- did not choose this role. An American photographer, anthropic aid flowed from abroad. Even locally pro- Steve McCurry, saw her in a refugee camp and took her duced posters advertised the suffering that was picture. She was twelve at the time, and her face ap- endemic in the traumatized nation,49 and Sharbat Gu- peared on the cover of National Geographic (June 1985) la’s image was captioned to stand for the country and its although she was neither identified by name nor con- devastation more generally. While this use is arguably sulted about the use of her portrait. Indeed, she did not congruent with localized, collective need, there were see her own image until seventeen years later, when ironies as well. The same image that legitimately gener- ­National Geographic launched a search for the girl who ated aid money was sold illegally in the bazaar near the had become iconic and even ubiquitous in global visual camp where she had originally been photographed. culture. There, in bootlegged copy, it was displayed along with While I have dealt with the veritable metastasis of the images of Bollywood stars and other items of consumer Afghan Girl image elsewhere, for the present purposes culture.50 Such are the myriad powers of a versatile im- it is important to articulate the mechanics of represen- age in a globalized visuality. tation47 by which power and celebrity accrued to these Clearly, the boundaries of the Afghan nation were two women, unveiled and operating forcefully in the fragile and porous, perforated by people as well as by public domain, and to acknowledge the benefits that image proxies. Society was in radical flux as a result of ultimately resulted. Soraya was photographed both at armed invasion and civil war, and political power was home and abroad, and some of the images migrated, atomized and tenuous. Sightlines were very, very albeit slowly by modern standards, to varied audiences. ­tangled. But who was looking, and what boundaries Sharbat Gula was photographed by an outsider, and her were crossed? In the face of such chaos, and perhaps 246 HOLLY EDWARDS

Fig. 11. “Some Débutantes of the Season,” Illustrated London News, April 21, 1928, 696.

of war, founded on a well-tuned appreciation of the Fig. 10. Cover of the Illustrated London News, March 10, 1928, power of images, congruent with contemporary global showing Queen Soraya. practices.51 Here again is the arc of licitness noted earlier: images were collectively accepted, forcefully deployed, and inevitably, the terms of visual propriety inside Afghani- then summarily proscribed. This trajectory was the re- stan became protective indices of cultural identity rath- sult of a morphing balance of factors and forces, only er than accepted sites of social change. Women’s rights one of which was Islam. Similar stories abound in other and visibility were subject to standardization and cen- contexts; indeed, iconoclastic episodes punctuate many sure, and, by extension, the licitness of images became monotheistic traditions, although each one is inflected a variable in the conflict as political control eluded any in historically and culturally specific ways.52 Afghani- faction as well. At century’s end (from 1996–2001), the stan simply offers a prismatic case in point that might Taliban were faced with armed insurrection but also be diachronically summarized as follows: In the 1920s, with visual artillery—images in the service of individu- the medium and the message were conflated and al memories of the past and contested aspirations for ­condemned in certain sectors of Afghan society for the future. The edict to ban photography, rhetorically ­reasons arising out of normative tribal, religious, and camouflaged as a return to pure Islam, should not be political practices. Eventually, new canons of visual reduced to a performance of piety, although that was ­propriety emerged as processes of globalization and ­ the dominant explanation at the time. It was also an act modernization escalated. Over time, women operated FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 247 more independently and images proliferated, serving an ­segregated isolation, only to be sought out again by Na- ever wider range of purposes without censure. By cen- tional Geographic and rephotographed for the cover to tury’s end, however, a global crossfire of image-making the April 2002 magazine. Thus Sharbat Gula was found was under way, and visible women and rampant pic- and reexposed as a mature woman, holding the original tures were incendiary agents in the spaces between and picture of her virginal self. With such freighted narra- among Afghans, and between the Taliban and outside tives paraded in modest guise, these pictures offer im- interests. plicit titillation to countless viewers—lifting the Portrait photographs, in particular, were able to oper- localized veil from distance to reveal what is hidden. But ate across boundaries and transcend differences be- they also encode responsibility for that action. Such is cause of their gendered and generic appeal, sustaining the covert potential, the glancing blow, of an unruly im- myriad meanings in diverse cultural imaginaries. Ar- age transgressing homegrown stricture in favor of for- ticulating the versatility of these portraits is, on some eign freedoms. In effect, such images feed appetites, levels, to state the obvious—pictures of beautiful wom- demand attention, and instigate change all at once. en are endlessly capable of eliciting desires and inspir- Soraya’s celebrity, of course, transpired early in the ing projections. In contemporary entreprenurial twentieth century, and her fame was relatively circum- parlance, this might be termed their brandable charac- scribed; hers was a campaign of collusion and self-fash- ter,53 but such agency between local and global con- ioning, and photojournalism worked on her behalf in stituencies is not just a matter of a pretty face; that the diplomatic arena. There were perks and costs to her agency is advanced and complicated by applied cap- choice for such exposure, all of which redounded to her tions, encoded narratives, and viewing contexts, all of personally. The Afghan Girl, by contrast, still works hard which are generated and even forced by the broad dis- in a globalized marketplace, irrespective of boundaries, semination of compelling pictures. Once encountered, subject to the advertising industry, humanitarian zeal, those faces demand engagement and elicit explanation, and digitized communications. Indeed, she is a useful over and over again. “type,” and she has held many jobs, not all of which ben- Viewed close to home, such photographs often do not efit Afghan women directly, if at all.54 While her iconic generate unanimous response, precisely because they status has undeniably metastasized worldwide with manifest indigenous social and cultural norms and pro- considerable ramifications, that is not my present point. voke corollary conflicts with maximum nuance and in- Rather, it is important to reframe Queen Soraya and tensity. As they migrate across the boundaries between Sharbat Gula in a different local-to-global narrative, one diverse communities or cultures, however, universally that concerns an increasingly institutionalized gaze, legible photographs also wield power, but they carry less manifest as the commodification and consumption of baggage, enjoying diplomatic immunity from censure as “beauty” in the spaces between cultures.55 A few bench- they erase, break down, or simply disregard social dif- marks in the history of beauty contests tell the tale. ferences. Glib and cosmopolitan, they oversail and un- American modes of viewing women were incremen- derplay cultural norms, functioning as compelling if tally globalized and the corollary terms of spectatorship somewhat duplicitous diplomats. Liberated from their were increasingly politicized in the transnational arena: own worlds, they seem to perform the agendas and val- Miss America was captivating viewers in the 1920s, and ues of their various host countries more than their own. Zohra Daoud was crowned Miss Afghanistan in 1973. Afghan elites, English imperialists, Turkish republicans, There were no subsequent contests inside Afghanistan and American humanitarians have all found women due to political unrest and unremitting upheaval, but like Queen Soraya and Sharbat Gula gratifying com­ that competitive arena attracted a displaced Afghan liv- pany, their beauty enhanced by the corollary stories of ing in Los Angeles for its activist potential. In 2003, Vida power—erasure and exposure. Soraya emerged from Samadzai entered the Miss Earth competition as the gendered seclusion to public acclaim, while Sharbat Miss Afghanistan contestant, generating censure in her Gula became famous and then disappeared into troubled homeland but acclaim elsewhere. Indeed, she 248 HOLLY EDWARDS

Such is contemporary reality: that female beauty is political ammunition and negotiable currency in the world market and rendering female beauty visible is a site and strategy of complicated power in the spaces be- tween local and global. But who wields the real power: the maker of the photograph? the viewer of the photo- graph? the publisher of the photograph? or, the viewer in the photograph? With regard to pictures of Afghan women, answers must be carefully contextualized. Scholars have argued that in a beauty-obsessed, image- conscious world, women are victims of dictatorial fash- ion trends and endless scrutiny, even as they are active agents of self-fashioning.56 Such ambivalence may be amply evident in the United States, but echoes of it may now undergird the choices open to Afghan women as well, albeit in different ways. How, for example, shall we think about the relational aesthetics encoded in a cover photograph of Time magazine for August 16, 2010? The headline reads “What Happens If We Leave Afghani- stan?” but the photograph (taken by South African pho- tographer Jodi Bieber and awarded the World Press Photo Award for that year) is a portrait of Bibi Aisha, a woman brutally deprived of her nose by Taliban disci- plinarians.57 So disfigured, Aisha is no longer “beautiful,” but she looks right at us and we gaze at her, stunned. Consider her choice and her celebrity. Like Queen Sora- Fig. 12. DVD cover for The Beauty Academy of Kabul, a docu- mentary film directed by Liz Mermin, film release date 2004. ya decades earlier, Aisha opted to go public and reveal (Photo: courtesy of Ken Eisen) herself, a courageous act that went against the grain of her own culture. Admittedly, she was not acting alone. She was prompted by opinionated activists, her sponsor was a high-profile news organization, and it is certainly clear whose photograph and iconic beauty her portrait was granted a special award for her actions—“Beauty was referencing as she traded local humiliation for glob- with a Cause”—and she was not alone in her choice to al honor. Her pose and her expression clearly mimic deploy this particular weapon in a larger war. Around those of the more famous girl from Afghanistan. Like the same time, the beauty industry was being harnessed Soraya and Sharbat Gula, Aisha deployed cover-girl cha- to humanitarian zeal as an NGO dubbed “Beauty with- risma, but not as a pretty face deserving acclaim; rather out Borders.” Sponsored by Laura Bush, the program she was a victim demanding witness. was intended to enable modest beauty shops to employ Not unlike the Taliban destruction of the Bamiyan impoverished Afghan women in sequestered and so- Buddhas, this choice was a pointed act of image-making cially unimpeachable settings. Ultimately, the campaign in global visual culture, a radical, transgressive one. was a site of sustained controversy, the focus of consid- Even in retrospect, it is deeply shocking viewing pre- erable media attention, and the subject of a documen- cisely because it violates widely accepted canons of tary film (fig. 12), all issues that are beyond the scope of beauty and visual propriety, obliging us to look at some- this article. thing we would otherwise avoid. Indeed, this agonizing FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 249 photograph might be termed iconoclastic. Disseminat- simply global consumption? Or, should we instead be ing Aisha’s disfigurement, unveiled and effectively en- wondering, do we control our images, or is it actually the shrined, is a provocative, even destabilizing campaign other way around? of advocacy, undertaken by a major news organization across political boundaries. But that is the nature of the Department of Art, Williams College image wars that embroil us. In this face-off, she is not Williamstown, Mass. the only victim; we are all implicated. Welcome to trau- ma culture. NOTES

LOOKING BACK AND GOING FORWARD 1.L ida Abdul, interview by Hong-An Truong, Artslant, 2007, http://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/7567 The multivalent photographs considered here operate (accessed July 3, 2014); Lida Abdul, interview with Renata among tangled sightlines, occupy spaces between Caragliano and Stella Cervasio, in Lida Abdul, ed. Renata ­disparate cultures, and transcend boundaries with di- Caragliano and Stella Cervasio, exh. cat., Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development (Torino, 2007), 161. verse consequences. Their impact is not confined to 2. W. J. T. Mitchell, Cloning Terror: The War of Images, 9/11 to Afghanistan or the United States, nor is the unifying nar- the Present, paperback ed. (Chicago and London, 2011). On rative propounded here simply about two discrete cen- July 23, 2012, the Bergen Center of Visual Culture convened ters of cultural gravity. Considered in the moment, an array of scholars to consider the idea of “image war” as individual images may generate divergent and even articulated by Mitchell in Cloning Terror. See the online dis- cussion, “Image Wars,” in Nomadikon, http://www.noma- contradictory meanings among disparate audiences. dikon.net/contentitem.aspx?ci=320 (accessed July 3, 2014). Over time, those same images may be agents of change, 3. Bruno Latour, “What Is Iconoclash? Or Is There a World homogenization, and collective understanding. How- Beyond the Image Wars?” in Iconoclash Beyond the Image ever, the speed of their production and the palimpsest Wars in Science, Religion, and Art, ed. Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel (Cambridge and Karlsruhe, 2002), 14–37. of their afterlives may simply foster a benumbed, ­chaotic 4. James Elkins elaborating on Jacques Lacan in The Object glut. As images cascade endlessly around us, only a few Stares Back (New York, 1996), 70–73. come to anchor broad patterns of representation and 5. Norman Bryson, “The Gaze in the Expanded Field,” in prompt informed action; the Afghan Girl is such a one. Vision and Visuality, ed. Hal Foster (Seattle, 1988), 107. For She is a formidable presence to whom others defer and still wider fields and issues, see Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Right to Look: A Counterhistory of Visuality (Durham and London, aspire. She is not powerful because of what she repre- 2011). sents, for that is not fixed. Rather, her peculiar force 6. Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins, “The Photograph as arises from seeing and being seen. She is a ubiquitous an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geo- but silent witness, surfacing and resurfacing as other graphic,” in The Photography Reader, ed. Liz Wells (New York and London, 2003), 354–74. images come and go. She looks back relentlessly, and we 7. Cf. W. T. J. Mitchell’s “go-between” in his What Do Pictures are respectful when she does, for she is ageless and un- Want? The Lives and Loves of Images (Chicago and London, flinching. She is the projection of our own desires and 2005), 351. needs, and now, like any good icon, she has us in thrall. 8. These variables are operative parameters in Afghan soci- ety more generally, but they impinge on canons of visual Held and humbled in her gaze, we face ourselves and all propriety in complex ways. See Holly Edwards, “Unruly our appetites, looking, buying, judging, gaping, enshrin- Images: Photography in and of Afghanistan” Artibus Asiae ing, even as we continue to point at others, sometimes 66, 2 (2006): 114. in judgment and sometimes in recognition. Clearly, 9. For a selection of voices and experiences, see Harriet Logan, much can be learned in the company of Afghan women, Unveiled: Voices of Women in Afghanistan (New York, 2002). 10. Cf. Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson, eds., Photo­ but having traced the helix of visuality between Queen graphy’s Other Histories (Durham and London, 2003). Soraya’s diplomacy and Aisha’s challenge, questions lin- 11. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want?, 352–56. ger. Is this story about global culture, global civility, or 12. See Edwards, “Unruly Images.” 250 HOLLY EDWARDS

13. For a general overview of this era, see Vartan Gregorian, 25.S impich and “Haji Mirza Hussein,” “Every-Day Life in The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan (Stanford, 1969). Afghanistan,” 92, 97. 14. For further contextualization, see Edwards, “Unruly 26. Headlines and articles in the New York Times, July 13, 1921. Images,” 131. 27. Regarding the triangulation operative among the United 15. The political and religious dynamics surrounding this tour States, France, and “the Orient,” see Edwards, Noble have been analyzed in detail by Senzil K. Nawid, Religious Dreams, Wicked Pleasures, 12–14. Response to Social Change in Afghanistan, 1919–29: King 28. “Exchange of Letters between President Harding and Aman-Allah and the Afghan Ulama (Costa Mesa, Calif., Amir Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan,” United States 1999), 136–70. I have addressed the role of photography Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Rela- on this tour in detail in Holly Edwards, “Photography and tions of the United States, 1921, Afghanistan, 258–62, avail- Afghan Diplomacy,” Ars Orientalis 43 (2013): 47–65. able online at http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/ 16. These charged decisions were made in the context of sus- FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=turn&entity=FRUS.FRUS1921v01. tained contestation of women’s rights inside Afghanistan. p0385&id=FRUS.FRUS1921v01&isize=text (accessed July 3, Nawid, Religious Response, 125–27. 2014). 17. The images from the Illustrated London News are repro- 29. Ashburton Guardian, October 29, 1921, 6. On the Ameri- duced in Edwards, “Photography and Afghan Diplomacy,” can cigarette industry and Fatima brand in particular, see figs. 6–10. Edwards, Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures, 203–4, cat. nos. 18. These images are reproduced in ibid., figs. 8, 11. 53, 54. 19. On the religious and political context of this response, see 30. Edwards, Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures, 49–51. See also Nawid, Religious Response, 158–61. Steve Caton, “The Sheik: Instabilities of Race and Gender in 20. I have situated each of these images in their own viewing Transatlantic Popular Culture of the Early 1920’s,” in ibid., contexts elsewhere. For the Afghan image, see Edwards, 99–117. “Photography and Afghan Diplomacy”; for the American 31. On diverse criteria of judgment, see Sarah Banet-Weiser, photograph, see Holly Edwards, Noble Dreams, Wicked The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and Pleasures: American Orientalism, 1870–1930, exh. cat., Ster- National Identity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1999), 53–57. ling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Princeton, N.J., 2000), 32. Ibid., 35–42. 49, fig. 24. 33. It is a testament to Valentino’s appeal that the cult still 21. Cf. the discussion of the transnational ramifications of exists, manifest in extensive online collections of material peepshows in Iran in Staci Gem Scheiwiller, “Cartographic evidence and fan scholarship; for example, boudoir dolls Desires: Some Reflections on the Shahr-Farang (Peepshow) from the Mineralava tours are collectibles. See Inherited and Modern Iran,” in Performing the Iranian State: Visual Values: Antiques and Vintage Collectibles, http://www. Culture and Representations of Iranian Identity, ed. Staci inherited-values.com/2012/02/of-valentino-mineralava- Gem Scheiwiller (London and New York, 2013), 33–54. beauty-pageants-pink-powder-puffs/ (accessed July 3, 22. The “cultural imaginary” deriving from fictive/real/ephem- 2014). On the tour more generally, see Falcon Lair: The eral partakes of Lacan and Benedict Anderson on imagined Rudolph Valentino Homepage, the Mineralava Tour, http:// communities. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: www.rudolph-valentino.com/mineralava.htm (accessed Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London July 3, 2014). and New York, 2006). 34. “Just looking” is not simple. See James Elkins, The Object 23. The vast bibliography on the “truth” of photography, often Stares Back (New York, 1996), 17–45. addressed in conjunction with issues of documentation 35. Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty and photojournalism, is beyond the scope of this project. Culture (New York, 1998); Julie A. Willett, Permanent Waves: A canonical point of reference is John Tagg, The Burden The Making of the American Beauty Shop (New York and of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories London, 2000). (Minneapolis, 1988). Two provocative recent additions to 36. Information provided on the inside cover of the magazine the discourse are Errol Morris, Believing Is Seeing: Obser- credits Mohammed Khalid Roashan with the design and vations on the Mysteries of Photography (New York, 2011); editing and describes the publication thus: “A pictorial rep- Mia Fineman, Taking It: Manipulated Photography before resentation of Afghanistan’s developments in educational, Photoshop (New Haven and London, 2012). technical industrial and social fields published once every 24. Frederick Simpich and “Haji Mirza Hussein,” “Every-Day two months by the Publicity Section of the Royal Afghan Life in Afghanistan,” National Geographic, January 1921, Government Department of Press and Information.” I have 85–110. It is not without significance that this article was not located subsequent issues to date. chosen for excerpt in a 2001 compilation of the magazine’s 37. Bakhtar Afghan Airlines was formed in 1967 to cover articles in which the writers and photographers were domestic routes, complementing Ariana Airlines. In 1988, described as “literally the eyes of the Western world.” Don the airline reverted to Ariana and the name of Bakhtar Belt, ed., The World of Islam (Washington, D.C., 2001), 14, disappeared. 50–59. FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IN THE COMPANY OF AFGHAN WOMEN 251

38. Zohra Yusuf Daoud, “Miss Afghanistan: A Story of a Nation,” wards, “Cover to Cover: The Life Cycle of an Image in in Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claim- Con­temporary Visual Culture,” in Beautiful Suffering: ing the Future, ed. Sunita Mehta (New York, 2002), 102–11. ­Photography and the Traffic in Pain, ed. Mark Reinhardt, 39. For a selection of such photographs, see Fazal Sheikh, The Holly Edwards, and Erina Duganne (Chicago, 2007), 75–92. Victor Weeps: Afghanistan (Zurich and Berlin, 1998). 47. This argument is indebted in many ways to Robert Hariman 40. On this and related publications, see David Edwards, “Print and John Louis Lucaites, No Caption Needed: Iconic Photo- Islam: Media and Religious Revolution in Afghanistan,” graphs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy (Chicago, Anthropological Quarterly 68, 3 (1995): 171–84, esp. 179–81. 2007). 41. The morphing role of Islam in Afghanistan during the last 48. See Holly Edwards, “Cover to Cover,” 82, figs. 5–6. decade of the twentieth century is complex. See Olivier 49. Steve McCurry’s image is reproduced and fully credited Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan (Cambridge: on a poster produced by Breshna Cards Company, Kabul. Cambridge University Press, 1986); David Edwards, “Sum- The caption beneath the bold title “Afghanistan” reads as moning Muslims: Print, Politics, and Religious Ideology in follows: “Tattered clothing and fear-filled eyes of an Afghan Afghanistan,” Journal of Asian Studies 52, 3 (August 1993): reveal war zone truma [sic].” 609–28. 50. Further details are available in Holly Edwards, “Cover to 42. On Niazi’s influence on Muslim students in the 1960s, see Cover,” 90–91. David Edwards, “Summoning Muslims,” 612–13. 51. The text of the edict is included along with other perspec- 43. The Afghan Media Resource Center (AMRC) was founded tives on these events in Finbarr Barry Flood, “Between in 1987 with the assistance of the College of Communica- Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm and the tion at Boston University. The goal of the collaboration Museum,” Art Bulletin 84, 4 (December 2002): 1–47. was to train Afghan journalists to cover the war inside 52. There is a vast discourse on idolatry, iconoclasm, and their country. At the time, few Western reporters or film monotheism. One new assemblage of perspectives is Josh crews were willing to risk the hazards and travails of work- Ellenbogen and Aaron Tugendhaft, eds., Idol Anxiety (Stan- ing in Afghanistan. In 1980, world attention was focused ford, 2011). That attitudes to image in the Islamic sphere are on the Soviet invasion, and for several years thereafter, complex and variegated is increasingly the focus of schol- reporters made the trek into Afghanistan to cover guer- arship. See Jamal J. Elias, Aisha’s Cushion: Religious Art, rilla operations against the Soviets. But by the mid- to late Perception, and Practice in Islam (Cambridge and London, 1980s, reportage on Afghanistan had become increasingly 2012). dangerous and therefore scarce. AMRC was established to 53. Douglas B. Holt, How Brands Become Icons: The Principles rectify this situation, providing in-depth coverage on the of Cultural Branding (Boston, 2004). war and its consequences for the people of Afghanistan. 54. Most obviously, the image has been used to advertise From 1987 until 1992, AMRC dispatched video cameramen, Sharbat Gula’s institutional sponsor, National Geographic, photographers, and print reporters throughout Afghani- and she continues to be a flattering attribute of the pho- stan, including to regions in the far north of the country tographer, but other iterations are too numerous to list. that took a month or longer to reach and had never before Along the way, she has become a critical benchmark in been visited by journalists. Videos produced by AMRC were scholarship. See, e.g., Stephanie L. Hawkins, American broadcast by the BBC, CNN, and other major media outlets Iconographic: National Geographic, Global Culture, and the and syndicated internationally for broadcast in more than Visual Imagination (Charlottesville, Va., and London, 2010), 120 countries around the world, while its photographs were 1–7. Most recently, the image graces the cover of National published by Time and other magazines and newspapers. Geographic again, in “The Photo Issue” (October 2013). In the course of the war, AMRC accumulated an archive 55. Other cases parallel this one. Cf. Shoma Munshi, “Mar- of approximately 3,000 hours of videotape, 100,000 nega- vellous Me: The Beauty Industry and the Construction of tives and slides, and 1,600 hours of audio tape. Williams the ‘Modern Indian Woman,’” in Images of the “Modern College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, currently hosts the Woman” in Asia: Global Media, Local Meanings, ed. Shoma archive as a website, The Williams Afghan Media Project, Munshi (Surrey, U.K., 2001), 78–93. http://contentdm.williams.edu/wamp/web/information. 56. Peiss, Hope in a Jar, 268. htm (accessed October 26, 2014). 57. Time, August 16, 2010. After the cover story ran, Aisha was 44. Obviously notions of objectivity are time- and culture- brought to the United States for reconstructive surgery. specific. That process and the case more generally elicited consider- 45. In the wake of 9/11, I was part of a curatorial team that able media attention. See Jessica Ravitz (story) and Edythe mounted an exhibition, titled Through Afghan Eyes, at the McNamee (photography and video) “Saving Aesha,” CNN, Asia Society in New York, drawn from AMRC archive. One http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/05/world/saving. video clip displayed therein recorded a class under way. aesha/?hpt=hp_c2 (accessed July 3, 2014). 46. I have studied this image in detail elsewhere. Holly Ed- THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 253

Laura U. Marks

The Taming of the Haptic Space, from Málaga to Valencia to Florence

A n Islamic aesthetics, and the modes of visuality to ­political and economic conditions on the Iberian Penin- which they appeal, can be characterized by the use of sula. haptic space and abstract line, terms that Gilles Deleuze In addition to the travels of forms, this essay deals and Félix Guattari derived from the work of late nine- with the travels of concepts: in this case, between art teenth-century art historians including Alois Riegl, Wil- history and cinema studies. The conference “Gazing helm Worringer, and Heinrich Wölfflin.1 Haptic space Otherwise” and this resulting volume have expanded on and abstract line deploy form fluidly in a way that, even a growing body of scholarship of Islamic art that uses a when figurative, privileges movement over figure and concept very well developed in my home discipline of invites a relatively embodied response from the behold- cinema studies: gaze theory. In turn, I borrowed into er. These aesthetics markedly counter the more preva- cinema studies a concept from art history, namely Alois lent aesthetics of optical vision that lends itself to Riegl’s concept of the haptic image (as adapted by De- depictive representation and a disembodied point of leuze and Guattari). In both cases, the concept in ques- view. The contrast between these two modes, haptic- tion had been thoroughly worked over and finally more abstract versus optical, is not between nonfigurative and or less abandoned in its discipline of origin before it was figurative but lies in different ways of treating figure and transformed and taken up in another discipline. Thus line in space: one relatively mobile and abstract, one we have a case of what Mieke Bal calls “traveling con- relatively static and representational. European artists cepts.”2 I will begin by discussing this. adopted an aesthetics of haptic space and abstract line from Islamic objects at numerous historical points, in- TRAVELING THEORY: CONCEPTS OF VISUALITY cluding the Italian Renaissance, eighteenth-century Ro- BETWEEN ART HISTORY AND CINEMA STUDIES coco, and late nineteenth-century painting. This essay examines how abstract line and haptic space traveled in Bal argues that a concept is a useful third partner in the ceramics on the Iberian Peninsula and in the western dialogue between a critic and an object “when the critic Mediterranean basin. I examine how Andalusian ceram- has no disciplinary tradition to fall back on and the ob- ics engage haptic space and abstract line, how Christian ject no canonical or historical status.”3 Yet she cautions clients took up these designs, and how, in Spanish and that a concept is useful only to the degree that it illumi- Italian adaptations, haptic space and abstract line grad- nates an object of study on the object’s own terms. Im- ually deepened out and thickened up into optical repre- plying an impossible hermeneutic, this caution suggests sentations. Again, this is not a shift from nonfigurative we need to have a hunch of what our object of study is to figurative but a shift in the way figure, line, and space trying to tell us—what we might learn from it—in order are deployed. These changes occur not slowly but in sac- to select the appropriate concept. cades, in negotiations between the ceramists and their When concepts travel between disciplines, Bal writes, markets in the course of several centuries of shifting “their meaning, reach, and operational value differ.

An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P13 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 32-1 (2015) 253-278 254 LAURA U. MARKS

These processes of differing need to be assessed before spectators could be fooled into the pleasurable belief and after each ‘trip.’”4 A concept’s itinerary enriches it. that they possessed the gaze (which, by definition, can The pressing question is, when a concept ceases to be belong to no one).7 The cinematic apparatus—that is, useful in one discipline, need that undermine its rele- the complex of camera, projector, and point of view— vance when it travels to another? Following Isabelle allowed spectators to align themselves not only with the Stengers, Bal points out that the role of concepts in the look of characters (secondary identification) but also sciences is not to represent the facts truthfully but to with the unattributed, God’s-eye view of the camera it- organize phenomena in a relevant manner that allows self (primary identification). However, according to observations of the phenomena to be interpreted (con- Lacanian psychoanalytic film theory, only male specta- cepts’ de facto role) and to do so in a way the field rec- tors could enjoy this fiction. Male spectators could enjoy ognizes as adequate (concepts’ de jure role). In both the fiction that they were not, in fact, castrated—as fe- cases concepts are not disinterested but act to focus in- male spectators knew themselves to be—and could terest. Concepts function similarly in the humanities: identify (mistakenly) with the capacity for desire that they can innovatively reorganize a field of study focused the gaze alone possesses. Yet according to apparatus around certain objects in response to certain interests. theory, the spectator is interpellated willy-nilly by the Let us apply these ideas in the context of the subject of ideology of the film—an ideology assumed to be regres- this volume and consider the reasons why theories that sive, which indeed often is the case of Hollywood film. fell out of use in one field made their reappearance in The spectator thus privileged becomes the dupe of ide- another. ology. Another important characterization of the fic- What is called “gaze theory” developed from a selec- tional gaze of mastery is that it is necessarily disembod- tive reading of particular concepts in Lacanian psycho- ied. analysis. Central among these, for the purposes of image Yet let us not forget that individual looks are studies, was Jacques Lacan’s concept of the mirror stage. “propped” on the gaze.8 The young child, who feels uncoordinated and disuni- Part of the difficulty of Lacanian psychoanalytic film fied, identifies with its flat, unified image in the mirror theory, of course, lay in the fact that you had to embrace with a flutter of jubilation. The mirror stage, Lacan the entire ball of wax in order to deploy it. If you did not wrote, has an orthopedic effect; it “situates the agency believe that human subjects lose their individual pow- of the ego in a fictional direction.”5 This concept in turn ers upon the entry into language, at which time they relied on Lacan’s refinement of Sigmund Freud’s conclu- became “castrated”; that this lack was necessarily gen- sion that the ego itself is based on an illusion, a funda- dered because patriarchy functioned as the very most mental lack. According to Lacan, we identify with, or are fundamental ground of culture; that the ego is a fiction constituted by, a gaze upon us from outside, like the eye created to shelter the Imaginary from both the Sym- of God. Like the jubilant misrecognition that occurs in bolic and the Real; and, again, that that fiction is sold to the mirror stage, this identification with an outside men alone—then you could not deploy the valuable power is an attempt to cover our own powerlessness. currency of film theory. Even the simplest concept, such Cinema studies quickly adopted some of these con- as identification, relied on this entire theoretical edifice. cepts in order to characterize the cinema as a set of Another reason film scholars started to turn away from figurative representations that give rise to (largely sub- Lacanian psychoanalysis is that it is so damnably diffi- conscious) psychic responses. Christian Metz, Jean- cult and complex. Louis Baudry, and others, writing in French in the 1960s, But in the 1970s and 1980s psychoanalytic film theory described cinema as a machine that mimics the psychi- was the only game in town in my home field of cinema cal apparatus.6 In this model, cinema reproduces deep- studies. This meant, of course, that people made mis- ly desired psychic pleasures. The combination of takes in applying it. The most notorious mistake was to Lacanian psychoanalysis and apparatus theory gave film forget that the apparent power some spectators gain scholars in the 1970s powerful tools to argue that certain from primary identification was a fiction. Hence the THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 255 term “male gaze” was born. The term was identified with the illusion that they are sovereign subjects in a way that Laura Mulvey’s landmark article of 1975, even though “sutures” them ideologically, or simply makes them will- Mulvey herself clearly stated that she wished to destroy ing consumers. the source of male pleasure that lay in occupying that So how might the concept of the gaze usefully inform fictional position.9 People started to confuse the indi- studies of Islamic art? Moreover, how might its itinerary vidual look with the inaccessible gaze and to think that through one field, cinema studies, and visual culture men actually possess the gaze. This development con- studies more broadly, heighten its relevance to studies stituted a film-theoretical disaster, as students started of Islamic art? Theories of the gaze that attribute it to an writing about films that were bad because they “gave” outside power, rather than to the viewer, do seem to men the gaze, or good because they “gave” the gaze to help think about certain aspects of Islamic art and ar- women or other people excluded from power, when chitecture. Combined with Michel Foucault’s concept strictly speaking, these were looks (or glances),10 not of panopticism, gaze theory does convincingly account gazes. for the way people are constituted as objects of the gaze, Uneasiness began to rumble in the discipline in the not subjects. Spectacular art and architecture render the late 1980s. Scholars became uncomfortable with the viewer a fragmentary and embodied object of a Subject ideological rigidity of gaze theory; plenty of male schol- who is elsewhere. They may attribute a gaze of mastery ars complained that they preferred to have an individu- to the state or the ruler. And, of course, religious art that al look, even if it meant relinquishing the fictional points to a deity beyond comprehension, whose gaze power of the gaze. The concept of an oppositional look upon mortals constitutes or annihilates them, and reli- arose, to account for individual looks that did not align gious architecture that seeks to seduce and terrify by ideologically with the gaze.11 Queer theory grappled in reminding worshippers of their utter dependency on a most refined way with psychoanalytic film theory be- God—these bring the Lacanian theory of the gaze back fore abandoning it altogether: Douglas Crimp’s resigna- to its cult origins. Thus gaze theory can shed light on the tion from the editorial board of October in 1990 turned power relations of looking in religious, courtly, and state on this rift. At the same time, film historians and schol- architecture in the Muslim world. Some of these ideas ars of popular culture began to pay attention to actual are examined in other contributions to this volume. In audiences rather than to the reified psychoanalytic addition, a theory of the gaze could account for Islamic “spectator.” Audiences vary greatly. Scholars of African practices of protecting things from vision: if to be visible American moviegoing, Indian audiences, queer film fes- is to be subject (whether in fact or fictitiously) to the tivals, and all kinds of nonmainstream cinematic experi- power of the beholder, then to be hidden deflects the ences discovered a proliferation of looks, each with its power of the gaze. own history, and nary a gaze. Also at this time, some In short, although gaze theory became less useful in critiques of Lacanian psychoanalysis began to ask, what cinema studies, the lessons learned in that field may is so wrong with not having a coherent ego? Psychoana- have shaped it in a way that makes it relevant to other lytic feminism, existential phenomenology, and the fields. Furthermore, new approaches to gaze theory un- work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari all pursued tried by cinema studies may be developed in other this direction fruitfully.12 So gaze theory dwindled in my fields, including the study of Islamic art. home field of cinema studies, to be replaced by a diver- sity of other approaches. Yet some aspects of gaze theory remain generally rel- TRAVELING THEORY: FROM ART HISTORY TO evant and useful. In cinema studies, gaze theory has CINE­ MA STUDIES retained explanatory power—if one is willing to accept its psychoanalytic premises—for certain objects of Now let us consider the concepts traveling in the other study. Hollywood movies, web browsers, and social- direction. At the founding of art history as a systematic media sites, for example, work skillfully to give viewers discipline in the late nineteenth century, scholars were 256 LAURA U. MARKS very much influenced by the new psychology of percep- adapting Worringer, Deleuze and Guattari called a line tion and wanted to suggest that art-historical periods that is not tamed into a contour an abstract line, or “no- could be characterized by the ways they perceptually mad line.” Unconstrained by the need to depict a form, evoked space. Robert Vischer, Wilhelm Worringer, and the abstract line travels freely, “precisely because it has others proposed theories of empathy whereby a per- a multiple orientation and passes between points, fig- ceiver experiences an embodied similarity to the forms ures, and contours: it is positively motivated by the she or he perceives.13 Adolf Hildebrand distinguished smooth space it draws, not by any striation it might per- the fashion in which distant and near vision apprehend- form to ward off anxiety and subordinate the smooth.”19 ed their objects.14 Heinrich Wölfflin characterized Ba- Haptic space and abstract line became subsets of De- roque art according to a set of terms, including leuze and Guattari’s category of smooth space, a space painterliness, open form, and multiplicity, that privilege that is contingent, close-up, short-term, and inhabited a relatively subjective and embodied form of percep- intensively, free of an immobile outside point of refer- tion.15 ence. They opposed it to striated space, which is consti- Alois Riegl occupies a contradictory place in this tuted extensively in reference to fixed coordinates: emergent discourse. On the one hand, as a curator of striated space is thus the space of representation. Haptic textiles and scholar of the history of ornament, Riegl was space and abstract line established a kind of visuality very sensitive to the perceptual qualities of nonfigura- that corresponded to the open, nonunified, and non- tive art, including much Islamic art. On the other hand, mastering subject Deleuze and Guattari privileged. he insisted that figurative art was the highest form of art. The theory traveled again when the 1990s film theo- Riegl argued that the history of art consisted of a gradu- rists were looking for ways to argue that vision need not al shift from a haptic mode, appealing to close vision, in occupy the distance and mastery ascribed to it by the which figures clung to a nonillusionistic, material Lacanian-influenced “gaze theory.” The concept of hap- ground, to an optical mode, appealing to distant vision, tic space, both Riegl’s original and Deleuze and Guat- in which the ground is abstract and figures populate illu­ tari’s adaptation, contributed to this revision. Noël sionistic space.16 Influenced by G. W. F. Hegel’s aesthet- Burch and Antonia Lant adapted Riegl to describe the ics, Riegl interpreted this historical shift teleologically. haptic look of shallow relief in early and experimental Yet Riegl made this argument against the current of the painting of his time, which was seeking alternatives to cinema.20 I argued that haptic images in cinema close illusionistic figuration and drawing inspiration from the the distance between image and viewer and encourage art practices of other cultures. These, including Islamic an embodied and multisensory relationship to the im- art, provided Western artists with attractive models for age.21 I developed a theory of cinematic spectatorship in abstraction.17 which the viewer, rather than seeking a distant mastery Contemporary art history has largely rejected these over the thing viewed, merges with it, pressing too close early approaches, laden as they are with teleological and to the screen to even notice the film’s narrative and ethnocentric assumptions. Yet the psychology of per- ideological meanings. The theory of haptic visuality was ceptual form that early art historians developed proved welcomed with interest in cinema studies and traveled attractive to thinkers working in other domains. As to other fields as well. Riegl’s concept, adapted by De- these concepts departed from art history, they traveled leuze and Guattari and imported to cinema, innova- into philosophy. Deleuze and Guattari appropriated art- tively reorganized cinema studies and gave us a fresh set historical concepts for a theory of antirepresentational of perspectives on our objects. By this time, in fact, the “nomad art.” Haptic space, a term Deleuze and Guattari terms have been taken up with such enthusiasm in cin- derive (and redefine) from Riegl, consists of a visual ema studies that new caveats are in order to prevent a space that invites a close look, the eyes moving over the new orthodoxy from settling in to the field. For example, surface as though touching it rather than the distant and Grant Kester offers a pointed critique of Deleuze and disembodied look solicited by optical space.18 Similarly, Guattari’s (as well as other poststructuralists’) radical THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 257 bias against representation, pointing out that represen- alternating figures serve as the ground for the figures tation is necessary for practical political engagement.22 that border them. Olin notes that Riegl wrote an 1892 In Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of article on counterchange patterns in sixteenth-century New Media Art (2010) I argued further that haptic space Spanish appliqué.26 Counterchange patterns, such as and abstract line characterize many works of Islamic art the reciprocal trefoil in a border, are a common motif in and that Islamic art provides one of the sources whereby Islamic art, as Ernst Gombrich notes: “The supreme these forms came to inspire Western art.23 My theoriz- masters of counterchange were no doubt the Islamic ing drew on formalism and perceptual psychology, ap- designers who modified their grid patterns till figure and proaches from the beginnings of art history. To apply void corresponded in the most surprising way.”27 But in them to Islamic art hearkens back to the now-question- Riegl’s thinking, a pattern that confounds figure-ground able regional and ethnic formalisms that characterize relations cannot produce a meaningful representation. the work of Worringer, Riegl, and their colleagues. So for This privileging of discrete form, and its service to me to introduce these concepts to Islamic art is to bring representation, is precisely what Deleuze and Guattari a seemingly outmoded—though, I would argue, allur- wanted to overturn. They argued that ideology pene- ingly reinvented—set of art-historical concepts to an trates to the most fundamental levels of perception, so art-historical culture that has long since abandoned that the recognition of form as signifying something is them. Furthermore, it is a speculative, theoretical ap- already vulnerable to ideology and control. Hence De- proach at odds with the empirical, social art history cur- leuze and Guattari valued the way haptic space and ab- rently favored by most historians of Islamic art. stract line refuse to be subordinated to meaning by These gloomy portents in mind, let me suggest in the delineating forms; they refuse to represent. Instead, they rest of this essay that haptic space and abstract line elicit perceptual and rhythmic embodied responses that might nonetheless be useful concepts with which to ap- occur prior to or in excess of meaning, for these are mo- proach Islamic art. ments of freedom.28 Abstract line engenders haptic space. In the beveled pattern of ninth-century Samarra and other kinds of HAPTIC SPACE AND ABSTRACT LINE IN overall ornament, line multiplies, branches, and dou- ISLAMIC ART bles back on itself until it takes on an additional dimen- sion, fractal style, suggesting the possibility of infinite Significantly, Deleuze and Guattari turned Riegl’s value growth. And when space has multiple access points, vi- system upside down. While Riegl is rare in his attention sion has a great deal of choice, as Gülru Necipoğlu has to craft and ornament, he nonetheless maintained, in argued;29 the eye itself draws abstract lines. Problems of Style (1893) that art with narrative content I suggest that these qualities of abstract line and hap- is superior to ornament. The depiction of illusionistic tic space solicit a tactile gaze. This understanding cor- space is necessary for representation, that is, to promote responds with the extromission theory of vision, a cognitive response to form that will give rise to mean- circulating in the intellectual world of Islam during the ing. Thus he argued that artworks need to have a proper formative period of Islamic nonfigurative aesthetics, balance of “argument” and “ornament”—which might wherein the eye sends out rays that touch the object of be as simple a pairing as a pictured scene, the argument, vision. But we can also consider that abstract line and and its frame, the ornament.24 Ornament lacks the fig- haptic space align well with the later optics of Ibn al- ure-ground distinctions necessary for representation. As Haytham (Alhazen, d. ca. 1040), in which the intromis- Margaret Olin notes, Riegl held that in Islamic art and sion theory of vision combined with the nonfocusing other abstracted motifs, “to rid the motif of its signifi- lens to place a great deal of visual freedom and respon- cance is to veil the relation between pattern and sibility with the viewer. Nonfigurative form, seen in ground.”25 Yet Riegl maintained an interest in visually terms of the faculties of judgment and imagination pos- ambiguous patterns, such as counterchange, in which ited by Ibn al-Haytham, gives rise to a visuality in which 258 LAURA U. MARKS form and meaning are not imposed on the beholder but, space ­intensively, for example by multiplying abstract rather, discovered and invented by the beholder in sub- lines to engender a haptic space. jective acts of looking.30 Ibn al-Haytham’s theories do not seem to have had much influence in the Muslim world in the two centuries after his death, not until the HAPTIC SPACE AND ABSTRACT LINE IN scholar of optics Kamal al-din Abu’l-Hasan al-Farisi (d. ­ANDALUSIAN CERAMICS TO THE NASRID ca. 1320) rediscovered them. However, as Jamal J. Elias ­SULTANATE argues, Ibn al-Haytham’s scientific optics broadly ac- cord with understandings of perception among theolo- Finally we are prepared to take up the travels of haptic gians, jurists, Sufi metaphysicians, and poets during this space and abstract line within the aesthetics of Andalu- time and attest to a general scholarly interest in percep- sian ceramics during the rise of Christian powers and tion.31 This argument suggests that Ibn al-Haytham’s the gradual repression and final expulsion of Muslims. conception of an embodied and contemplative behold- First let me contextualize the migration of ceramics er was “in the air” at the time he made his experiments, and ceramists among the eastern Muslim world, the as is often the case with scientific discoveries. Mediterranean basin, and al-Andalus. A ninth-century In these ways the haptic space and abstract line of innovation by Abbasid ceramists, tin and lead glazes, Islamic art tend to undo representation and appeal to allowed potters to make shiny, opaque white surfaces an embodied perception. Phenomenology supports this on which ornament could play. (The opaque-glaze tech- understanding in that it shifts the focus away from nique would come to be called maiolica, an Italian word meaning and toward sensory experience. A phenome- based on either the production center of Málaga or the nological approach allows a beholder of our time to shipping port of Mallorca.)35 Also in the ninth century, come up with an embodied approximation of how his- potters invented metal-oxide glazes that, when bur- torical Islamic artworks may have appealed to their con- nished, resembled gold. Scholars cannot determine with temporary beholders. Valérie Gonzalez developed such certitude whether the lusterware technique was first a phenomenological approach to Islamic art in Beauty developed in Iraq, Iran, or Egypt, but they agree that it and Islam (2001). In her analysis of the Hall of Comares traveled widely.36 In the itinerary that Anja Heidenreich at the Alhambra, she demonstrates that an existential, embodied, and performative analysis of Islamic archi- has pieced together, beginning in the mid-tenth century tecture suggests what a building may have meant to its Eastern potters emigrated to wealthier countries, most- contemporary visitors, in a way that iconic analysis can- ly westward to North Africa, bringing the technique not.32 Like Gonzalez, I offer embodied analyses of Is- with them.37 Traffic in North African ceramics increased lamic artworks in order to try to reconstruct others’ during the Fatimid caliphate (909–1171): its dramatically experience of them, mindful (as existential phenome- figurative ceramics were imported through and to An- nology demands) that no single embodied response is dalusian ports.38 In the eleventh century, North African normative. ceramists emigrated or were invited to centers in al- The concepts of haptic space and abstract line avoid Andalus; Heidenreich recounts that Abu’l-Walid b. Ja- the figurative prejudice of art-historical discourse, typi- nah, a doctor from Córdoba, wrote that in the eleventh fied in the term “horror vacui” coined in 1979 by Richard century immigrant potters arrived from the East and Ettinghausen to characterize the Islamic manner of di- taught the local artisans new techniques.39 There is evi- minishing the difference between figure and ground.33 dence of lusterware production during the eleventh and Ettinghausen’s term has fallen out of use, perhaps twelfth centuries and of the export of Andalusian luster- ­because scholars recognized its ethnocentric tone, but ware from these periods to Fustat and as far as Prague, not before Ernst Gombrich thoughtfully reversed it to as well as the import of Fatimid lusterware.40 Later, ce- “amor infinity.”34 These designs indicate no horror of ramists emigrated from Kashan and Ray in Persia after anything but rather a creative interest in exploring the Mongol invasion in 1260.41 THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 259

Andalusian cultural commerce with North Africa the dish in his hands, in order to get a sense of what he multiplied greatly in the twelfth and thirteenth centu- is looking at. Thus the shimmer of lusterware demands ries under the rule of the Almoravids and Almohads a more embodied and temporal engagement. This effect (1130–1269), as the rulers and their entourages traveled is sometimes amplified by sgraffito patterns, scratched between their courts in al-Andalus and Marrakesh. Lux- into the wet luster glaze in order to reveal the light glaze ury lusterware produced during the Nasrid caliphate beneath. Sgraffito embeds a pattern in the shimmering (1230–1492) was largely for export, not only to European luster, sometimes confounding the clarity of the image markets but also to North Africa. Ádela Fábregas García further and inviting the beholder to move in order to get demonstrates that, from the thirteenth to fifteenth cen- a sense of the motif. Sometimes, however, sgraffito has turies, a Granadan merchant fleet operated in the west- the opposite effect, breaking up the shimmer of the lus- ern Mediterranean and a Maghribi fleet followed the ter and making it easier to take in at a single glance. same route as Genoese, Venetian, and Cata­lonian- It is clear that for several centuries Christians in the Aragonian trade ships, carrying ceramics as well as region appreciated the aesthetics of Islamic ceramics. sugar, silk, and other commodities. Granadan ­merchants Spanish Christians received Islamic ideas and images in sold Andalusian ceramics in Cairo, Fez, and Tunis.42 many ways, from assimilation to rejection, and some- However, it was not until the Nasrids that the luster- times both at once. Jerrilynn D. Dodds and María Rosa ware industry was thoroughly established, centered in Menocal have written extensively about this ambivalent Málaga.43 Lusterware was costly to produce, given the reception of Islamic culture on the Iberian Peninsula. expense of metallic oxides and the fuel needed for mul- Dodds, Menocal, and Abigale Krasner Balbale argue that tiple firings (the metallic glaze is applied before the a common culture developed from the interactions third firing), and it had a high failure rate; thus it needed among Christians, Jews, and Muslims.49 Some of the heavy capitalization, which the Nasrid treasury provid- forms of this shared culture persisted in sixteenth-cen- ed.44 In addition to the smaller dishes that this article tury mudéjar (that is, Arabized Christian) practices even discusses, Granadan ceramists produced massive and after the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain,50 ambitious works in lusterware, including the luster tiles as we will see in the case of some seventeenth-century for the Alhambra and the Alhambra vases. Ibn Battuta ceramics. An emphasis on lived experience rather than (d. 1368–39) famously attested in 1350, “At Malaqa is ideology also informs Francisco Prado-Vilar’s concept of made the wonderful gilded pottery that is exported to the Gothic anamorphic gaze that characterized the in- the remotest countries.”45 Besides the North African tercultural relations of thirteenth-century Castile, which destinations mentioned above, these export markets he argues was “informed by experience and direct included the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.46 Mar- knowledge of culture and religious diversity, rather than iam Rosser-Owen notes that Eleanor of Castile received by dogma and ingrained stereotypes of alterity.”51 An a gift of what was probably Málaga lusterware in 1289 anamorphic approach would be open to ideas and im- and that, according to the Nasrid vizier Ibn al-Khatib, ages from another religious culture yet interpret them “all countries clamor for it, even the city of Tabriz.”47 in terms of its own: it would be seduced by another cul- This boast suggests that Nasrid lusterware was as good ture’s images and repress that seduction in order to fit as the luster ceramics made where the technique was those images into a more familiar context. first developed; Anthony Ray notes that later Valencian My focus in what follows is on the way the shape of lusterware might have inspired Safavid potters to revive the figure at the center of a dish and its interaction with the luster technique.48 the background motifs give rise to haptic space. The Lusterware is an ideal medium to play with haptic concave surface, often flattened in the center, of plates effects, as its metallic shimmer confounds vision, mak- and bowls offers interesting creative challenges for or- ing it difficult to distinguish patterns or the shape of a nament. The figure in a circular composition has plenty figure in a single glance. A viewer needs to physically of precedents in Sasanian and Byzantine ceramics and move, or (if lucky enough to be able to hold it) to turn metalwork, as well as in Late Roman and Coptic textiles, 260 LAURA U. MARKS and this heritage is evident in both Syrian and Andalu- sian Umayyad art. However, ceramists in the Muslim world from the Abbasid period on devised ways of filling the field with a human or animal figurative motif that depart from Syrian Umayyad representational conven- tions. In the new compositions, humans were depicted in postures that distributed their figure within the cir- cular field, holding musical instruments, weapons, wine cups, or other props in ways that further filled the field. Fatimid ceramics often depict a figure imaginatively posed to fill the circular space of the dish. For example, a dish at the David Collection, Copenhagen, from the eleventh to first half of twelfth century (fig. 1), with the background painted in reddish-brown luster and the figure left white, depicts a seated man pouring wine from a flask into a cup. His left knee rises to fill the right side of the dish, his right foot crosses his left to rest com- fortably in the bottom part of the dish, and the tail of his turban loops up over the flask.52 The left side of the dish F ig. 1. Fragmentary earthenware bowl, painted in reddish- is filled by a conical plate of fruit from which a curving, brown luster over an opaque, white ground. Egypt, eleventh leafy tendril springs; three small ornaments break up century–first half of twelfth century. David Collection, Co- the remaining areas of the dark ground. The drinker penhagen, inv. no. 4/1992. (Photo: Pernille Klemp, courtesy looks to his right, inviting a beholder’s eyes to follow his of David Collection) look and continue to circle counterclockwise around the dish. This arrangement, as well as the large curves of the drinker’s body and the rounded ornaments, make ­Almoravid and Almohad caliphates. (It is notable that looking at the dish a time-based act of easy, rhythmic the Almohads, despite their doctrinal austerity, had no movement. objection to human figurative decoration in textiles, Animal figures in a circular composition are often caskets, and ceramics.)54 For example, a bowl from the abstracted further by bending their limbs, ears, antlers, second half of the tenth century, that is, the Taifa period, and tails to minimize empty ground, creating a sense of at the Museo Nacional de Cerámica Gonzáles Martí in lively movement. The animal combat motif, in which Valencia, features a plump prancing gazelle with a slim two fighting animals circle each other in a closely recip- bough in its mouth (fig. 2).55 The elegant creature’s rocal relationship, provides another satisfying way to bending legs differentiate the space of the lower part of distribute figures in the field. Willy Hartner and Richard the dish, its long ears the upper part, while the bough Ettinghausen demonstrate that the ancient motif of a branches into two flowers on slim stems that curve lion attacking a bull occurs in Sasanid art and was taken about its body. The contour delimiting the creature up in Umayyad art, as in a mosaic on the walls of the gains freedom at the expense of naturalism, so that the Khirbat al-Mafjar Palace depicting a lion attacking a ga- liveliness of the line itself imparts life to the gazelle. The zelle.53 The motif occurs in Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, and ground is unadorned. Fatimid ceramics of the twelfth century. In the thirteenth century, the city of Málaga in the Techniques abstracting figures to distribute them in Kingdom of Granada was the center of ceramic produc- a circle became newly emphasized in Andalusian ce- tion. Málaga ceramics often feature the formal vegetal ramics through exchanges with Egyptian and Maghribi arabesques descended from Umayyad designs, as well artists during the Taifa period and especially the as knot patterns, geometric patterns and interlace, and THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 261

F ig. 2. Tin-glazed earthenware bowl. Spain, second half of the tenth century. Museo Nacional de Cerámica Gonzáles Martí, Valencia, inv. no. 2.858. (Photo: Photographic Ar- Fig. 3. Luster-painted tin-glazed bowl. Málaga, 1425–50. Vic- chives, Museo Nacional de Cerámica Gonzáles Martí) toria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. 486-1864. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum)

epigraphy. When they feature figures, these play against Matteo, Pisa, a seafaring scene occupies the entire deco- painted or sgraffito patterns of arabesques and abstract- rative field. The sails and mast of the round-bottomed ed plant forms. They include many variants of a broad sailing ship curve to fit the circular dish, while below it dish at the center of which a hare, deer, or other animal a longboat with oarsmen fills the bottom part of the cavorts or an archer or musician performs. In all of frame. Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy states that it is a typi- these, the creature’s body, limbs, and ears gracefully cally Majorcan eleventh-century work, whose detail bend to maximally fill the space, so that if you squint it makes it possible to identify the ship as a sophisticated seems to be occupied by regular variations of color and vessel from the Balearic Islands.57 Since these islands white ground. Florence C. Lister and Robert H. Lister were under Islamic control until 1229, this identification characterize these ingenious designs a bit less charita- suggests the dish portrays a Muslim Andalusian mer- bly: “Motifs bent arbitrarily or twisted to fill prescribed chant ship. spaces and thereby passed from realism to abstrac- On the splendid thirteenth-century Nasrid bowl at tion.”56 But we can say in a more prohaptic way that on the Victoria and Albert Museum (fig. 3), the curving these dishes figuration yields to the action of abstract prow and sails, flags, and mast of the ship fit elegantly line to produce a haptic space. into the roundness of the bowl and manage to depict the My next examples are not of human or animal figures figure without distortion on the steep-sided bowl when but of ships. Andalusian potters treated ships as they did you look at it straight on. Hair-like lines incised in the creatures, taking advantage of their curves and projec- luster-brown sails and hull of the ship add realistic detail tions to creatively fill the circular space. On a bowl from and also emphasize the curves of the dish, especially in the Taifa period, now at the Museo Nazionale di San the prow and sail that curve to the left and invite the 262 LAURA U. MARKS eyes to move clockwise.58 Four big fish, the leftmost ­continuity despite the political upheaval. Castilian ce- leaping to the left and the others leaping rightward, fill ramists had little technical knowledge because their the space under the massive curving ship while also di- region habitually imported pottery from Muslim manu- recting the look in both directions around the bowl. facturers, so they continued to rely on Muslim cera- Rounded lozenges holding interlace motifs buffer the mists.61 Muslim craftspeople living in Christian Spain bowl’s remaining edges and gently push the gaze back continued to be valued for their skill, but for the most toward the middle. Between these forms, the painter part they had little power or recourse. The decree by has filled the ground with fine curls and flowers, so that Alfonso X (r. 1252 –84) in 1261 that the former Great while sgraffito lightens the dark luster figures, the back- Mosque of Córdoba (by then the Church of Santa Maria) ground pattern diminishes the lightness of the ground, be restored indicates a respect for this Islamic building relieving the difference between figure and ground. The the decree called “noble.” However, as Heather Ecker overall effect is of an equilibrated, abstract composition points out, the fact that Alfonso commanded all Muslim in a circle, which sends a beholder’s gaze in spiraling craftsmen to devote two days a year to working on it, paths from the figure in the center to the edges and threatened with imprisonment if they did not comply, back, springing from dark to light forms; when one looks in labor that continued for forty years, shows that the closer at any part of the dish, its interior curving patterns valued Muslim craftsmen could be treated as inden- invite the look to focus in on their detail and then send tured laborers.62 it spiraling back out. This work may have been commis- In Valencia, unlike the rest of the peninsula, Muslims sioned by a Portuguese maritime merchant, as the ship remained the majority after the 1258 conquest, and they bears the Portuguese royal arms.59 appear to have constituted the majority of the popula- A Nasrid dish from the late fourteenth century, paint- tion in the fifteenth century. Moreover, Muslims in Va- ed with dark brown luster and showing St. George slay- lencia continued to speak Arabic, unlike their fellow ing the dragon, demonstrates that ceramists were Moriscos (Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity) capable of incorporating Christian Gothic figures into a elsewhere.63 Muslims in Valencia lived separately and circular composition that is well balanced and dimin- had their own legal bodies. And, since Manises in Valen- ishes the difference between figure and ground. The dragon’s body curls around half the rim of the dish, cia is a port, they were in communication by sea with framing St. George’s horse, its head rising at the left side other Muslim communities.64 So we can imagine that of the dish, while the horseman bends toward the crea- for some time the Muslims of Valencia lived autono- ture, his spear angling from the top of the rim. At the mously and were under little pressure to adapt to Chris- right of the dish a soldier holding a curved shield adds tian customs. But as L. P. Harvey shows, Muslims in both narrative and compositional support. Additional Valencia from the thirteenth century on suffered from spaces are filled by plants with large flowers and leaves. vacillating policies of the Crown of Aragon: they were A stipple of dots minimizes the whiteness of the remain- alternately pressured and prohibited to emigrate, as ing background, while the hair, clothing, and armor of their labor was required but their religion was de- the men, the horse’s mane, spots, and saddle, and the spised.65 dragon’s scales are indicated with sgraffito.60 Muslim craftsmen were already producing luster- ware in Valencia in the thirteenth century before James I (r. 1213–76) conquered the city. James promised Pa- VALENCIA, FROM 1308 TO THE EARLY FIFTEENTH terna and Manises to the nobleman Artal de Luna, who CENTURY: HAPTIC SPACE AND ABSTRACT LINE in 1304 sold them to Pedro Boil, a man intent on making NEGOTIATE WITH OPTICAL IMAGES a fortune from the pottery trade.66 Upon negotiating peace after the siege of Almería in 1308–9 that led to the In the early thirteenth century, when all of Muslim end of the first Nasrid dynasty, Boil retained the right to Spain except the Kingdom of Granada had fallen sell Nasrid lusterware. It may be his son Felipe who, after to Christian rule, craft maintained a fair degree of losing his father's lucrative prerogative, encouraged THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 263

Muslim potters from Málaga to settle in Valencia and front of the dish only, but later ceramists began to paint produce “Málaga-style ware”; the first reference to Va- them on the back of the dish as well. For example, on lencian lusterware occurred in 1325.67 At the same time the back of a luster-painted deep dish, probably made there was an exodus of Muslim craftsmen from Murcia, in Manises (1435–65), in the Cloisters Collection of the some of whom emigrated to Valencia.68 Boil arranged Metropolitan Museum of Art, a deer stands alertly, legs to promote the mudéjar potters’ wares for export, keep- stick-straight but flanks and long neck curving, antlers ing 10 percent of the profits.69 Potters in Paterna, across streaming back from its head like long flowing locks (fig. the river from Manises, made similar but less sophisti- 4). Three large light spots break up the dark form of the cated wares.70 Organized trade passed from Manises, deer’s body. A few remarkably lively vines make large, port of Valencia, to Pisa, port of Florence, through the loose spirals around the creature, terminating in grace- transshipment point of Majorca.71 The Boil lusterware ful brushy flowers almost the size of its head. The effect empire soon eclipsed that of the Nasrids for two reasons: again, I would argue, is less a figurative representation Manises potters obtained a high-quality gold-colored than a rhythmic composition. luster that surpassed its Granadan counterpart; the Boil New aesthetics entered as Valencian potters pro- enterprise focused on quantity while Nasrid ceramists duced works for the changing demands of European focused on quality, producing a small number of fine customers, sometimes on commission from Spanish, objects, including the Alhambra vases, for royal con- French, and Italian royalty and nobility. In fifteenth- sumption.72 This trade advantage evidently brought century ceramics it is evident that Manises potters, massive profits to the Boil family: in 1372 Felipe Boil pe- while continuing to develop new styles from the Islam- titioned the king for a monopoly on Manises ware; the ic repertoire, increasingly produced works whose motifs king’s response is not known.73 After 1450 some Old and styles would appeal to a European, Christian clien- Christians joined the Muslim potters.74 The Boil enter- tele. They incorporated Latin text and Gothic motifs of prise follows the general pattern of Christian lordship knights, ladies, and monks.77 New background motifs over the Muslim inhabitants of Valencia, in which Mus- occur that sometimes interact with the figure so as to lims formed the majority of agricultural workers on emphasize the figure-ground distinction. In some dish- Christian-colonized land. es Islamic motifs fill the space around Gothic lettering Valencian ceramics from this period of almost two spelling “Ave Maria,” biblical quotations, and the Chris- centuries vary widely in design and style, although ini- tian monogram IHS (fig. 5). Coats of arms dominate the tially they were so similar to Málaga ware that early center of dishes commissioned by noble families (fig. 6); works can be distinguished only by the different colors many examples depict the Florentine lion rampant. of the clay underbody.75 Initially many decorative ele- Shields and monograms are symbols that can be easily ments had precedents in Nasrid lusterware from the read rather than experienced as plastic forms. twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but the styles of luster- Interestingly, Valencian lusterware, with its more Eu- ware from the two regions (Andalusia and Valencia) ropean style, was exported not only to European cus- begin to diverge in the second half of fourteenth cen- tomers but also (like the earlier Granadan ceramics) tury as Marinid (1269–1465) potters brought new styles across the Islamic Maghrib and to Egypt, succeeding the to Granada while Valencian potters developed their Nasrid export market. Fábregas García remarks that own repertoire.76 Let us keep in mind that the artisans even in the Islamic markets—where we might assume a were under pressure to produce in volume for Boil’s ready acceptance of Nasrid stylistic models as the result of business. Skill was necessary to paint the dishes quickly a related decorative culture—we find the same phenom- while maintaining their quality. Figures in circular com- enon that is common in the European markets: that is, the substitution from the middle of the eighth/fourteenth cen- positions are often depicted with a few bold marks shap- tury of Granadan lustreware by the new blue and lustre ing the figure of a hare, deer, bird, or other creature, still products of Valencia. These Valencian products not only balancing the suggestion of a figure with a sense of ab- show signs of a considerable increase in the volume of con- stract design. It seems that initially figures were on the sumption, but also of a typological and, above all, stylistic 264 LAURA U. MARKS

F ig. 4. Back of a luster-painted tin-glazed deep dish. Man- Fig. 5. Luster-painted tin-glazed bowl. Manises, 1430–70. ises, 1435–65. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Salting Bequest, mu- Collection, 1956, accession no. 56.171.71. (Photo: © The Met- seum no. C.2046-1910. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Muse- ropolitan Museum of Art) um)

development, introducing decorative motifs from the Lat- in and Western European tradition, which are—perhaps curiously—also accepted into the Islamic markets.78 The explanation she posits is that Italian merchants dominated the trade and thus were able to dictate the nature of the exports.79 North African Muslim custom- ers perhaps did not have much influence on the looks of Valencian lusterware and had to accept works designed with a Christian clientele in mind. Dishes with heraldic motifs are especially interesting to examine, for often the obverse of the dish features bold lions, eagles, bulls, and other animals, “masterpiec- es of ceramic decoration in their own right”80 in compo- sitions that maintain relations of haptic space and abstract line that are constrained on the front of the dish. Rosser-Owen writes that these animal figures are Gothic motifs, such as the griffin,81 but some are also F ig. 6. Luster-painted tin-glazed dish with arms of the Ar- common in the Islamic repertoire. Several pieces from righi family of Florence: “azure two pallets argent, on a chief Manises dated to 1450–75 with a heraldic shield on the a lion’s jamb erased in fesse azure.” Probably Manises, 1430– front of the dish show a large animal on the back that 50. British Museum, London, registration no. G.571. (Photo: fills the space, as in traditional Islamic designs. For © Trustees of the British Museum) THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 265

F ig. 7. Luster-painted tin-glazed dish with arms of Cardona family. Manises, ca. 1435–60. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. 14-1907. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum)

­example, a dish circa 1435–60 features a heraldic shield Christian contexts but unbound by a framing shield (fig. bearing a thistle plant in which five blossoms spring on 8). The bird spreads its wings, which fill the sides of the slim curving stems from two posed leaves, the arms of dish; its splayed legs and claws reach to the edge of the the Cardona family of Catalonia (fig. 7). The painter is bottom third of the dish, and its broad tail fills the bot- clearly faithful to the iconography and symmetry of the tom. Each feather and leg is painted with one broad device, but the painting style retains grace and ease. In stroke, as are the head, curving beak, and darting tongue. any case, as a heraldic symbol, the device can be under- Slender vines with large, pea-like flowers fill the remain- stood in a flash and need not be contemplated. A gar- ing space, one vine-scroll inhabiting each of the recess- land of large blue, four-lobed flowers joined by es left by the bird’s appendages, with smaller leaves lozenge-like stem bundles, from which spring tri-lobed occupying the spaces between its tail feathers, so that leaves, rings the shield; graceful gold, feather-like leaves the overall effect is a rhythmic composition of color with and vines entirely fill the remaining space, their asym- little void. The composition invites the eye to follow the metry giving a sense of motion to the otherwise rather large swoops of the wings, be caught in a loose ringlet of static motifs. The back of this dish is filled by a ferocious vine, spring on to the bird’s curved head, and so move eagle, a familiar heraldic animal in both Muslim and around the dish in a looping alternation between figure 266 LAURA U. MARKS

F ig. 8. Back of dish in figure 7. and “ground” (although as this description suggests, the dishes have holes for hanging on the wall, and they ground is once again not subordinated to the figure but might have hung with the reverse facing out. So perhaps equally visually engaging). In this looping mobility of their owners prized the animal figure.82 On the other vision, a beholder who turns the dish over experiences hand, Ecker suggests the animals painted on the back a somewhat more embodied visuality, which perhaps signified the potter, the workshop, or the batch, indicat- extends to feeling the curving movements in her head ing they meant more to the maker than they would to and neck as her eyes make the circuit of the dish. the owner.83 Or were the painters simply demonstrating It is tempting to interpret a metaphor in these pot- their ease with simultaneous modes of image-making, ters’ decision to depict the requested motif on the front one more legible, one more painterly? of the dish and to indulge in more free and expressive— Also in the fifteenth century, new background motifs even aggressive—abstract figuration on the back. Did appeared that resemble the flora of Gothic miniatures: the painters obey their patrons’ wish to depict a con- bryony, parsley, thistle flowers, and roses, as well as strained heraldic animal on the front of the dish, and on “disk flowers,” a circle surrounded by disk-shaped pet- the back paint it in a way that appealed more to their als.84 These floral motifs have a neutral quality, less ob- sense of plastic dynamism? Was there a more subversive viously Islamic than the abstracted vegetal motifs and intention, given the fierce appearance of some of the interlace, while initially filling the same function as a creatures? Rosser-Owen points out that some of the background motif. Italian as well as Spanish clients THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 267

figure-ground distinctions and generate a visual rhythm begin to give way to distinct figures on a field. As a result, many later Manises ceramics appeal less to an embod- ied, temporal response and more to a narrative or cogni- tive understanding. We can see the process of becoming figurative in a plate from Manises (ca. 1450) in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (fig. 10). In a motif that suggests love’s archer, a smiling lady in stylish European dress has just drawn her bow, wounding a smaller male figure, also smiling, who clutches at the arrow through his neck. The figures, new to the repertory of figurative composition within a cir- cle, sit rather awkwardly in the field of bryony flowers. The lady’s skirts billow a bit to fill one edge of the circle, but the rest of her figure and the male figure float awk- wardly in the space in a way that is quite different from the graceful filling of space in earlier works. This motif is also more narrative than most figures on Andalusian ceramics, suggesting a series of specific events that play out in time more than does an image of an animal or a F ig. 9. Tin-glazed dish with arms of the Degli Agli family of Florence. Manises, ca. 1400–1450. Victoria and Albert Mu- musician. seum, London, Salting Bequest, museum no. C.2053-1910. In a similar work, a plate in brown and blue luster (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum) attributed to Valencia or Catalonia (ca. 1525–75) at the Hispanic Society of America, the figure of a horseman in Spanish costume, probably inspired by Italian ma- commissioned heraldic dishes with the bryony and jolica, floats on a background of large-leaved vines (fig. parsley motif, as in a dish with the arms of the Degli Agli 11).86 As in the Louvre plate, reciprocity between figure family of Florence whose background is populated by a and background pattern is largely ignored, although regular pattern of small flowers and leaves contained by both are painted with a sure hand. The rider’s bonnet linear tendrils (fig. 9). An ivy-leaf background was pop- squashes into the top edge of the plate, while plenty of ular with the Netherlands market; ivy-patterned Man- space remains below his horse’s hooves in the lower half ises ceramics appear in paintings such as the of the dish, suggesting that the painter was trying out a Annunciation by Hugo van der Goes (d. 1482), now at the new motif. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.85 In many fifteenth-century ceramics we can see the rise of a more figurative aesthetics. Some Valencian lus- THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, THE EXPULSION OF terware shows a new distinction between figure and MUSLIMS FROM SPAIN, AND THE TRIUMPH OF ground: the line conforms more to the contours of the OPTICAL SPACE figure, and the background motifs are deployed differ- ently. Sometimes they become smaller and more regu- In Granada in 1499 and Castile in 1502, edicts forced lar, relinquishing their interaction with the central Muslims to choose between conversion and expulsion, figures; sometimes they become larger and act as figures and, in some cases, enslavement. Ferdinand of Aragon on a ground. Bunches of grapes, ivy leaves, and other, (r. 1479–1516) encouraged entry permits for Muslim larger motifs increase in size and move from the back- refugees from the Granadan War of 1489 and prom­- ground. The haptic space and abstract line that ­confound ised to protect the morerías (segregated mudéjar 268 LAURA U. MARKS

F ig. 10. Luster-painted tin-glazed plate. Manises, ca. 1450. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Legacy of Antonin Personnaz, 1937, inv. no. OA 9001. (Photo: Laura Marks)

­neighborhoods) and not to force Muslims to convert, promises his successor Charles V (1516–56) repeated in 1518. All these measures served the financial interest of the nobility of Aragon, who relied on Muslim labor— mostly agricultural87 but also evidently in the lucrative ceramic business. But finally in 1525, in part due to pres- sure from the Christian laboring class, Charles retracted his promise.88 All mosques were converted to churches. The Moriscos continued to practice their religion se- cretly, supported by the compassionate provisions of the Oran fatwa of 1504.89 Despite the conversions, in the early years of the sixteenth century a series of royal de- crees from Ferdinand II and his daughter Joan of Aragon sought to strip Moriscos even further of their culture and their remaining economic power. These include the pro- hibitions, in 1526, on using written or spoken Arabic, Fig. 11. Tin-glazed earthenware dish with cobalt and luster. Valencia or Catalonia, ca. 1525–75. Hispanic Society of Amer- bearing arms, and moneylending, among other profes- ica, New York, inv. no. E688. (Photo: courtesy of the His- sions.90 Yet the Christian rulers blocked emigration, panic Society of America) again because they needed the Muslim labor and taxes. THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 269

The forcibly converted Muslims of Aragon were also in- creasingly vulnerable to violence by Christian mobs. In 1581, Diego de Arce y Reinoso (d. 1665), inquisitor of Valencia, calculated that if the Moriscos were ex- pelled, Valencia would lose one-third of its population and two-thirds of its income and would suffer food shortages and a decline in the incomes of nobles. But he figured these problems could be dealt with by bringing in settlers from elsewhere in Spain.91 How it was calcu- lated that Christian potters would be able to take over the ceramic industry remains a matter of speculation. Manises records from around 1500 give the names of twenty-five potters, half Muslims, half Old Christians. It is unknown to what degree Christians participated in the making of lusterware, but the names of Old Chris- tians include two who would found pottery dynasties: Eximeno and Requeni.92 So it is in this context of the official eradication of Muslim identity and autonomy, and profound insecu- F ig. 12. Luster-painted tin-glazed bowl. Manises, ca. 1475– rity for the Morisco inhabitants of Valencia, as well as 1500. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. 19- changes specific to the ceramics industry, that Islamic 1907. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum) aesthetics went into a final retreat. In the early sixteenth century, the demand for armorial lusterware began to fall because, with precious metals now imported from the new colonies in the West Indies, the wealthy could use gold- and silver-plated dishes instead of the luster- ware that had substituted for them. Accordingly, potters began to make lusterware imitations of gadrooned and ribbed metalware. Works from this period often feature small, fussy, rather mechanical patterns, such as the dot and stalk or solfa (because it looks like a musical note, sol-fa) and the chainlike spur band, developed from an Islamic motif.93 For example, on a bowl from Manises, circa 1475–1500, the repetitive solfa motif surrounds a squat little rabbit (fig. 12). On the back expands a freely painted fern motif, quite common in Valencian ceram- ics of this period (fig. 13). How to account for these changes not only in style but also in finesse without resorting to essentialism, that is, a notion of a “Muslim hand” at work? We might char- acterize the change as a shift from mudéjar to Morisco style,94 that is, from a style that displays its Islamic sources even as it adapts to Christian taste, to one that conceals them. Some ceramics made after the Expulsion clearly demonstrate a lack of practice. For example, a Fig. 13. Back of bowl in figure 12. 270 LAURA U. MARKS

MEANWHILE, THE ABSTRACT LINE TRAVELS TO ITALY, AND FIGURATION TRAVELS BACK

Italian interest in Islamic ceramics is evident as early as the eleventh century, when Italy was importing bacini (painted bowls) from North Africa, Andalusia, Sicily, and Egypt to set into church façades.95 (The large-fig- ured Fatimid dishes that inspired innovation among the ceramists of al-Andalus also show up in Tuscan church- es.)96 In the period under discussion here, Italian cera- mists copied and adapted Valencian designs: see, for example, the fifteenth-century dish from Faenza with simple vegetal motifs spiraling around what might be a coat of arms (fig. 15). By the fifteenth century these cop- ies developed into indigenous products, as in the Tuscan figurative zaffera or oak-leaf ceramics, produced in quantity for hospitals and pharmacies, that clearly adapt the Valencian motif of animals romping on a field of bryony flowers (fig. 16).97 In the later fifteenth century, decoration on Italian F ig. 14. Tin-glazed dish. Manises, 1500–1700. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Given by Mr. Henry Wallis, mu- ceramics grew more typically Italian, as Catherine Hess seum no. 331-1908. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum) notes.98 Relinquishing the Valencian influence, they came to depict coats of arms, busts, emblems, and nar- rative scenes and adopted the new pictorial techniques of chiaroscuro, volumetric modeling, and linear per- spective. New Renaissance motifs appealed to a new creative interest in clear figuration and, in the case of the complex biblical and mythical narratives, deep dish from Manises dated 1500–1700 is regularly spotted space. W. D. Kingery notes that technological advances with tiny flowers in the middle of which the painter has allowed Italian ceramic painters to draw with precision plunked a nine-leaved tree, erasing some of the flowers and model figures. From 1430 to 1450, Italian ceramists in the process (fig. 14). This rendition suggests that at developed paints made of insoluble pigment particles least some Christian potters never gained the skill of with just enough binder to hold them together. These their Muslim forebears. But others are painted with a allowed painters to draw with precision, shade figures, sure hand, so the change in style and composition can- and even use impasto.99 not be attributed to lack of skill. Therefore, I attribute In sixteenth-century Italian ceramics, Islamic motifs the change in style to a change in taste. It might have such as arabesques and overlapping scallops main- been shared by the ceramists and their customers, driv- tained their presence among a host of decorative op- en in part by customers’ demand for fashionable new tions. Often the arabesque enlarges and gets its own styles and in part by ceramists’ own experiments. The contour line, so that it becomes a figure in itself, as in new taste for clearly delimited figures, often in a recog- the Deruta dish with a lance man, 1520–50, from the nizable space, seems to have arisen in response to Ital- workshop of Giacomo Mancini (fig. 17). Similarly, a dish ian imports as well as in a rejection of Islamic styles. from Deruta, circa 1500–1525, at the British Museum, Thus a brief digression on the Italian reception of Anda- shows an unidentified coat of arms surrounded by firm- lusian ceramics is necessary. ly outlined arabesques.100 The play of haptic space and THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 271

F ig. 15. Tin-glazed dish. Faenza, ca. 1425–1450. Victoria and Fig. 16. Tin-glazed vase with zaffera motif. Florence, ca. 1430. Albert Museum, London, museum no. 1228-1901. (Photo: © Musée du Louvre, Paris, Former Collection of Henry Wallis, Victoria and Albert Museum) acquired 1904, inv. no. OA 5973. (Photo: Laura Marks)

abstract line diminishes, although these motifs never entirely disappear.101 But the ceramics of Deruta and Faenza had an irre- sistible new élan that spoke to emergent European sen- sibilities. They quickly developed a deep perspectival space in which figures could be represented, narratives enacted, and the psychology of characters developed. For example, a tin-glazed dish from the workshop of Giacomo Mancini in Deruta, dated 1545, depicts a scene from Canto IV of Ludivico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516) (fig. 18). The composition is crowded, but fore, middle, and rear ground are clearly delimited by the out- lines of low hills, the sea beyond them, and mountains on the horizon at the far edge of the sea. The painter has taken advantage of the new painting technology to crisply describe the figures of Bradamante, armed, pre- paring to fight the sorcerer riding the flying hippogriff, Fig. 17. Tin-glazed dish. Deruta, ca. 1520–1550, from the work- while Brunello, tied to a tree, watches helpless, and in shop of Giacomo Mancini. Victoria and Albert Museum, the background Rinaldo and his esquire ride off with the London, museum no. 2595-1856. (Photo: © Victoria and Al- rescued Ginevra.102 Cross-hatching gives the figures’ bert Museum) limbs volume. This complex depiction of a narrative 272 LAURA U. MARKS

­Italian and Flemish masters. The Italian Renaissance influence is more evident in tile production than in hol- lowware, especially in the works of the Italian ceramic painter Francisco Niculoso (d. 1520). Niculoso’s style was not followed until fifty years after his death, when Span- ish potters began to take up both his and the Della Rob- bia family’s Renaissance techniques. Florence Lister and Robert Lister write that the Re- naissance influence inspired a “shift in popular attitude, which would culminate in an incredible artistic flower- ing at Sevilla. Southern Catholics somewhat reluctantly began to realize that handwork could be accomplished proudly by Christians.”104 This statement is a bit difficult to parse. Does it imply that previously Christians had been willing to let Muslims retain the expertise in ce- ramics (as in other crafts) because they felt it was be- neath them? That the entry of Renaissance figurative and narrative imagery into ceramics elevated the craft into an art? If so, it implies a distinction between fine F ig. 18. Tin-glazed dish, depicting a scene from the Canto IV art (figurative and narrative) on one hand, and craft of Ludivico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, adapted from a wood- cut published at Venice in 1542 by Gabriele Giolito de’ Fer- (decorative and minor) on the other—a modern atti- rari. Deruta, 1545, from the workshop of Giacomo Mancini. tude characterized by Riegl’s distinction between “orna- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Salting Bequest, mu- ment” and “argument.”105 But it may be that the practice seum no. C.2198-1910. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum) came first and the attitude appeared later. Anyway, the practice did change. In sixteenth-centu- ry Manises, Old Christians now dominated the industry, scene occurring in deep space is all the more remarkable constituting more than half of master potters.106 Mudé- because it is adapted from another medium, a woodcut, jar traditions declined.107 New large motifs appear: big that does not require the speed of execution that ce- marguerites, passion flowers, shield-like forms. Some- ramic painting does. The plate is certainly sensuously times, as earlier, the graceful abstract animal figures still appealing in its juicy colors and gold luster, but I would fill the circular frame and interact with a swirling popu- suggest that it appeals more to a cognitive recognition lation of background motifs, maintaining a tactile rhyth- akin to reading. Here, interestingly adapted to ceramics, micity. But many Valencian dishes from 1525 to 1560, is practiced the Renaissance optical space that had though technically polished, look neat and static: they come to dominate European painting. It is the space for are crowded with small motifs that are often framed by narrative and identification that centuries later cinema square and shield shapes (a method termed “in re- would import and that the theory of the gaze would serve”). scrutinize. In September 1609 the Royal Council (having dis- The Renaissance influence entered Spanish ceramics, missed the notion of slaughtering or castrating adult especially in Seville, after Italian ceramics entered the Muslims or drowning them at sea) issued the Edict of Spanish market. In 1484 Ferdinand and Isabella encour- Expulsion.108 This Castilian decree was initially opposed aged Italian and Flemish artisans to emigrate to Spain in Valencia and Aragon, where many Muslims lived. In by granting them a ten-year tax exemption,103 likely in 1609 the lords of Valencia, where Muslims still consti- the hopes of building an industrial base no longer reliant tuted 35 percent of potters, sent two representatives to on Muslim expertise. Spanish potters studied with plead with the king against the expulsion, to no avail.109 THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 273

F ig. 19. Tin-glazed footed dish (tazza). Teruel, Aragon, 1650–1700. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Given by Dr. W. L. Hildburgh FSA, museum no. C.425-1920. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum)

But between 1609 and 1614, Spain expelled 300,000 Mus- (­tazza) from Teruel on which large floral motifs release lims, of a total of 330,000, from Aragon, Murcia, Catalo- spiraling tendrils that fill the ground (fig. 19). Ray writes nia, Castile, Mancha, and Extremadura. In L. P. Harvey’s that this work maintains the “horror vacui” of the mu- cautious estimate, this constituted 4 percent of the déjar style;113 again, I contest the use of this term and Spanish population.110 The evidence of Inquisition trials suggest instead that the painter succeeded in relating suggests that most converted Muslims (Moriscos) really figure and ground in a rhythmic harmony. did leave the peninsula. Morisco cases were the major- In many post-Expulsion ceramics, background motifs ity in tribunals of Saragossa, Valencia, and Granada in continue to get larger and leave more white space; they the second half of the fifteenth century, but between harden up, stop moving, and become stand-alone fig- 1615 and 1700, only 9 percent of Inquisition judgments ures. The motifs lose their connection to each other and were against Moriscos.111 to the central figure, and there is far less sense of move- The Expulsion was catastrophic for agriculture and ment. For example, on a (nonfigurative) dish from mid- crafts. It seems that few Christian potters had attained sixteenth century Manises at the Victoria and Albert all the skills of their Muslim colleagues. The quality of Museum, whose central fourfold symmetry doubles to Valencian pottery declined precipitously.112 Yet it ap- eightfold symmetry at the rim, fairly large motifs, even- pears that Old Christian potters well versed in Islamic ly distributed on the ground, maintain their distance aesthetics continued to practice. For example, a very from each other (fig. 20). Eight shell-like motifs in re- Valencian-looking hare leaps across a footed dish serve are distributed around the edge, echoing the 274 LAURA U. MARKS

Later sixteenth-century Spanish lusterware, now made largely for a local market, tends to be simply paint- ed with large figures, often based on the Italian portrait profile. The figure-ground relationship in Spanish ce- ramics reached a détente, figure having pretty much won.

RESURGENCE OF HAPTIC SPACE AND THE ABSTRACT LINE

Thus the abstract line of Andalusian ceramics lost its independence and became more obedient to the con- tour, while its haptic space, in which figure and ground commingle rhythmically, gradually gave way to an opti- cal space in which they are clearly distinct. In post-Ex- pulsion Spain, the earlier Christian openness to Muslim F ig. 20. Luster-painted tin-glazed deep dish. Manises, mid- culture was supplanted by what Prado-Vilar calls a “gaze sixteenth century. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, of disavowal,” capable of ignoring the latent traces of museum no. 379-1893. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Muse- Islamic aesthetics in European art.114 This whitewashing um) of Islamic presence from art occurred in the context of ethnic cleansing as Spain invented itself as a Christian nation. Islamic aesthetics went decisively out of fashion in the country where Muslims had governed for centu- ­rosette on a square in the center. The painting is accom- ries, as though the Spanish could not bear to be remind- plished, so the static and boxy effect is likely what the ed that their sangre lacked limpieza, that the Muslim painter was after. presence had shaped their culture irrevocably. Landscape begins to organize the space, and the ho- Yet looking at the way these objects changed over a rizon line, something extremely rare in Islamic figura- few centuries allows us to reconstruct the paths by tive ceramics, enters. A fascinatingly hybrid lusterware which Islamic culture survived in Europe. The haptic dish from Valencia, 1625–1700 or later, features a space and abstract line went underground in Western crowned lion that stands on hilly ground marked with art, appearing for centuries only as ornament, as back- crosshatches, in a nod toward Renaissance naturalistic ground. In the visual territory that art staked out for nar- depictions of space (fig. 21). At first glance it resembles rative and psychological meaning, haptic space and the fifteenth-century Valencian dishes that placed Euro- abstract line were reduced, for some centuries, to per- pean figures onto a ground of vegetal motifs without a ceptual vacation spots. Not until the late nineteenth great deal of attention to figure-ground relationships. century did Western artists rediscover them and, wit- However, in this case the figure and ground relate with tingly or not, bring Islamic aesthetics back into Western a vengeance! Extremely lively and busy plant motifs art. crowd the surface of the dish, mimicking the lion’s tail, I have argued that the concepts of haptic space and curling eagerly into the spaces under its legs, and en- abstract line, in contrast to their companion form of op- croaching on its every contour. Yet the illusion of deep tical space, usefully describe the ways in which Islamic space that the ground line creates causes these plant aesthetics substitutes rhythm and embodiment for rep- motifs to seem to be floating in space, like giant flying resentation. I hope that these concepts, enriched by insects, creating a fevered, hallucinatory quality. their long itinerary from art history to philosophy to THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 275

F ig. 21. Luster-painted tin-glazed deep dish. Valencia, ca. 1625–1700 or later. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. 24-1907. (Photo: © Victoria and Albert Museum)

­cinema and back to art history, eventually find a bit of Deleuzian Ijtihad: Unfolding Deleuze’s Islamic Sources Occulted traction as concepts, de facto or de jure, for the study of in the Ethnic Cleansing of Spain,” in Deleuze and Race, ed. Arun Saldhana and Jason Michael Adams (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Uni- Islamic art as well. versity Press, 2013), 51–72. Hearty thanks to Olga Bush and Avi- noam Shalem for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser of this essay and to Ann Grogg for her wonderfully thorough and University thoughtful copyedit. 1. Laura U. Marks, Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Geneal- Vancouver, British Columbia ogy of New Media Art (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010); Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, “1440: The Smooth and the Striated,” in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: Uni- NOTES versity of Minnesota Press, 1987), 492–97. 2. Mieke Bal, Traveling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Author’s note. An earlier version of this essay, Laura U. Marks, Guide (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012). “From Haptic to Optical, Performance to Figuration: A History 3. Ibid., 13, citing Isabelle Stengers, ed., D’une science à l’autre of Representation at the Bottom of a Bowl,” appeared in Islam (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987). and the Politics of Culture in Europe: Memory, Aesthetics, Art, 4. Ibid., 24. ed. Frank Peter, Sarah Dornhof, and Elena Arigita (Bielefeld: 5. Jacques Lacan, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Func- Transcript-Verlag, 2013), 247–63. Its intellectual companion is “A tion of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience,” 276 LAURA U. MARKS

in Écrits: A Selection, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York and 22.G rant Kester, The One and the Many: Contemporary Collab- London: Norton, 1977), 1, 2. orative Art in a Global Context (Durham, N.C.: Duke Univer- 6. See Christian Metz, “Identification/Mirror” and “The Pas- sity Press, 2011), 43–61. sion for Perceiving,” in Film Theory and Criticism, ed. Leo 23. Marks, Enfoldment and Infinity, chaps. 2–5. Braudy and Marshall Cohen (New York: Oxford University 24. Alois Riegl, Problems of Style: Foundations for a History of Press, 1992), 820–26, 827–30; Jean-Louis Baudry, “Ideologi- Ornament, trans. Evelyn Kain (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton cal Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus,” in University Press, 1992) (first published 1893 in German). Movies and Methods: An Anthology, vol. 2, ed. Bill Nichols 25. Margaret Olin, Forms of Representation in Alois Riegl’s The- (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, ory of Art (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State Univer- 1985), 531–42. sity Press, 1992), 144–45. 7. Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in 26. Ibid. Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader, ed. 27. Ernst Gombrich, The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychol- Philip Rosen (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), ogy of the Decorative Arts (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University 198–209. Press, 1979), 89. 8. Kaja Silverman, “Fassbinder and Lacan: A Reconsideration 28. In addition to the previously cited section of Deleuze and of Gaze, Look and Image” (1975), in Male Subjectivity at the Guattari, Thousand Plateaus, see Gilles Deleuze, Francis Margins (New York and London: Routledge, 1992), 125–56. 9. Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, trans. Daniel W. Smith (Min- 10. Norman Bryson, “The Gaze and the Glance,” in his Vision neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004). and Painting (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 29. Gülru Necipoğlu, The Topkapı Scroll: Geometry and Orna- 87–131. ment in Islamic Architecture (Santa Monica, Calif.: Getty 11. See, for example, bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Repre- Center for the History of Art and Architecture in the sentation (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1992). Humanities, 1995). 12. See, for example, Luce Irigaray, An Ethics of Sexual Dif- 30. See the discussion in Marks, Enfoldment and Infinity, chap. ference, trans. Carolyn Burke and Gillian C. Gill (Ithaca, 2. N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993); Vivian Sobchack, The 31. Jamal J. Elias, Aisha’s Cushion: Religious Art, Perception, and Address of the Eye: Phenomenology and Film Experience Practice in Islam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992); Gilles Press, 2012), 196–97. Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and 32. Valérie Gonzalez, “Understanding the Comares Hall in the Schizophrenia, trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen Light of Phenomenology,” in her Beauty and Islam: Aesthet- R. Lane (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983). ics in Islamic Art and Architecture (London: I. B. Tauris, 13. Robert Vischer, “The Aesthetic Act and Pure Form,” trans. 2001), 42–68. Nicholas Walker, in Art in Theory, 1815–1900: An Anthology of 33. See Richard Ettinghausen, “The Taming of the Horror Vacui Changing Ideas, ed. Charles Harrison et al. (Oxford: Oxford in Islamic Art,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical University Press, 1998) (first published 1927 in German); Society 123, 1 (February 20, 1979): 15–28. Wilhelm Worringer, Abstraction and Empathy: A Contribu- 34. Gombrich, Sense of Order, 80. tion to the Psychology of Style, trans. Michael Bullock (New 35. Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy, “The Ceramics of al-Andalus,” York: Meridian, 1948) (first published 1908 in German). in Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain, ed. Jerrilynn D. 14. Adolf Hildebrand, The Problem of Form in Painting and Dodds, exh. cat., Alhambra and Metropolitan Museum of Sculpture, trans. Max Mayer and Robert Morris Ogden Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), 101; (New York: G. E. Stechert, 1907) (first published 1893 in Rosalind E. Mack, Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and German). Italian Art, 1300–1600 (Berkeley: University of California 15. Heinrich Wölfflin, Renaissance and Baroque, trans. Kathrin Press, 2002); Catherine Hess, ed., The Arts of Fire: Islamic Simon (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1966) (first Influences on Glass and Ceramics of the Italian Renaissance, published 1888 in German). exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty 16. Margaret Iversen, Alois Riegl: Art History and Theory (Cam- Museum, 2004). bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993), 170. 36. Anja Heidenreich posits that the lusterware technique 17. See also Laura U. Marks, “Haptic Aesthetics,” The Oxford started in Samarra in the early ninth century and was Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, ed. Michael Kelly et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 269–74. taken up in Iran and Iraq. Anja Heidenreich, “Early Lus- 18. Deleuze and Guattari, Thousand Plateaus, 492–93. tre Wares in the Mediterranean and Implementing the 19. Ibid., 496–97. New Techniques in the Iberian Peninsula: An Approach,” 20. Noël Burch, Life to Those Shadows, trans. Ben Brewster Acts of the First International Congress of the European Net- (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Antonia work of Museums of Islamic Art (Granada: Patronato de la Lant, “Haptical Cinema,” October 75 (Fall 1995): 45–73. Alhambra y Generalife, 2013), 404–20. However, Balbina 21. Laura U. Marks, The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, M. Caviró posits equally Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia, Embodiment, and the Senses (Durham, N.C.: Duke Univer- and argues that the lusterwares found in Samarra were not sity Press, 2000). made in Samarra. Balbina M. Caviró, “Golden Earthenware THE TAMING OF THE HAPTIC SPACE, FROM MÁLAGA TO VALENCIA TO FLORENCE 277

and the Alhambra Vases,” in Los Jarrones de la Alhambra: ­Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture (New Haven: Simbología y Poder, exh. cat., Museo de la Alhambra y Gen- Yale University Press, 2008); see also Dodds, ed., Al-Anda- eralife (Granada: Capilla y Cripta del Palacio de Carlos V lus; María Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World: How and Monumental de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2007), 282. Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance 37. Heidenreich, “Early Lustre Wares,” 406–9. Heidenreich in Medieval Spain (Boston: Little, Brown, 2002). demonstrates that one center of lusterware production 50. Jerrilynn D. Dodds and Daniel Walker, “Introduction,” in was al-Behnasa in Egypt, likely the source of the luster- Al-Andalus, ed. Dodds, xxii. ware found in Madinat al-Zahra. Linda Komaroff describes 51. Francisco Prado-Vilar, “The Gothic Anamorphic Gaze: a similar itinerary, but with later dates. Linda Komaroff, Regarding the Worth of Others,” in Under the Influence: “Color, Precious Metal, and Fire,” in Arts of Fire, ed. Hess, Questioning the Comparative in Medieval Castile, ed. Cyn- 41–42, 47. thia Robinson and Leyla Rouhi (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 72–73. 38. Heidenreich, “Early Lustre Wares,” 439. 52. This is the Persian “scarf in the wind” motif; see Caviró, 39. Ibid., 415. “Golden Earthenware and the Alhambra Vases,” 282. 40. Rosselló Bordoy, “Ceramics of al-Andalus,” 99; Rebeca 53. Willy Hartner and Richard Ettinghausen, “The Conquering Bridgman, “Re-examining Almohad Economies in South- Lion: The Life Cycle of a Symbol,” Oriens 17 (December 31, Western al-Andalus through Petrological Analysis of 1964): 161–71. Archaeological Ceramics,” in Revisiting al-Andalus: Perspec- 54. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, 30. tives on the Material Culture of Islamic Iberia and Beyond, 55. Discussion and image in Rosselló Bordoy, in Al-Andalus, ed. ed. Glaire D. Anderson and Mariam Rosser-Owen (Boston: Dodds, 236, pl. 29. Brill, 2007), 161; Mariam Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from 56. Florence C. Lister and Robert H. Lister, Andalusian Ceram- Spain (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010), 43, ics in Spain and New Spain: A Cultural Register from the 146n50, 32. Third Century b.c. to 1700 (Tucson: University of Arizona 41. Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy, “Nasrid Ceramics and the Press, 1987), 89. Alhambra Vases,” in Al-Andalus, ed. Dodds, 274. 57. Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy, catalogue note, in Al-Andalus, 42. Ádela Fábregas García, “Other Markets: Complementary ed. Dodds, 238, pl. 31. Commercial Zones in the Naṣrid World of the Western 58. On the sgraffito, see Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy, catalogue Mediterranean (Seventh/Thirteenth to Ninth/Fifteenth note, in ibid., 361, pl. 114. Centuries),” Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterra- 59. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, 70. nean 25, 1 (2013): 135–53. 60. Pictured in Los Jarrones de la Alhambra, 204, fig. 32. 43. The possibility remains that Nasrid lusterware was pro- 61. Lister and Lister, Andalusian Ceramics in Spain and New duced in Granada and Almería, but the center of produc- Spain, 72. tion was without a doubt Málaga. Kilns existed in Granada 62. Heather Ecker, Caliphs and Kings: The Art and Influence of but their purpose is not known. During the Taifa period Islamic Spain, exh. cat., Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smith- lusterware production took place in several cities, includ- sonian Institution (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler ing Almería. But workshops in Almería were destroyed Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2004), 7–8. between 1147 and 1157 during the Christian occupation, 63. L. P. Harvey, Islamic Spain, 1250–1500 (Chicago: University and it is not known whether the production revived. See of Chicago Press, 1990), 119, 7, 14. Yvan Coquinot, Christel Doublet, Anne Bouquillon, Claire 64. L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614 (Chicago: Uni- Déléry, and Isabel Flores Escobosa, “The Production of Lus- versity of Chicago Press, 2005), 119, 15. treware in al-Andalus during the Nasrid Period,” in Acts of 65. Ibid., 134–38. the First International Congress of the European Network of 66. Caviró, “Golden Earthenware and the Alhambra Vases,” Museums of Islamic Art, 424–28. 285. 44. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, 64. 67. Jaume Coll Conesa, “Technical, Formal and Decorative 45. Quoted in Summer S. Kenesson, “Nasrid Luster Pottery: The Aspects of 14th-Century Valencian Lustreware: The Ini- Alhambra Vases,” Muqarnas 9 (1992), 93–94. tial Series,” in Acts of the First International Congress of the 46. Yvan Coquinot, Anne Bouquillon, Christel Doublet, and European Network of Museums of Islamic Art, 470. Claire Déléry, “Reflections on the Manufacturing Tech- 68. Coquinot et al., “Production of Lustreware in al-Andalus,” niques and Production Locations of a Selection of Lus- 424. terware from the Nasrid period Preserved by the Museo 69. Mack, Bazaar to Piazza, 98; Lister and Lister, Andalusian de la Alhambra, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ceramics in Spain and New Spain, 92; Ecker, Caliphs and Louvre,” in Acts of the First International Congress of the Kings, 151. European Network of Museums of Islamic Art, 335. 70. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 50. 47. Quoted in Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, 67, 69. 71. Manuel Casamar Pérez, “The Almoravids and Almohads: 48. Anthony Ray, Spanish Pottery, 1249–1898 (London: Victoria An Introduction,” in Al-Andalus, ed. Dodds, 101; Mack, and Albert Museum, 2000), 7. Bazaar to Piazza, 95; Catherine Hess, “Brilliant Achieve- 49. María Rosa Menocal, Jerrilynn D. Dodds, and Abigale ments: The Journey of Islamic Glass and Ceramics to Krasner Balbale, The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Renaissance Italy,” in Arts of Fire, ed. Hess, 12. 278 LAURA U. MARKS

72. Rosselló Bordoy, “Nasrid Ceramics and the Alhambra en Italie,” in Le vert et le brun: De Kairouan à Avignon, Vases,” 274; Caviró, “Golden Earthenware and the Alham- céramiques du Xe au XVe siècle (Marseilles: Musée d’Art et bra Vases,” 285. d’Histoire de Provence, 1995), 128–63. 73. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 50. 97. Jörg Rasmussen, The Robert Lehman Collection, vol. 10, 74. Ibid., 58–59. Italian Majolica (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 75. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, 67. 1989), 5, 6, 10. 76. Rosselló Bordoy, “Nasrid Ceramics and the Alhambra 98. Hess, “Brilliant Achievements,” 18. Vases,” 273; Conesa, “Technical, Formal and Decorative 99. W. D. Kingery, “Painterly Maiolica of the Italian Renais- Aspects,” 471. sance,” Technology and Culture 34, 1 (January 1993): 28–48. 77. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 41. 100. Tin-glazed dish, Deruta, ca. 1500–1525, British Museum, inv. 78. Fábregas García, “Other Markets,” 152. no. 1855,0626.1. 79. Ibid. 101. I discuss the Islamic aesthetics of Italian ceramics in my 80. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 60. “From Haptic to Optical.” 81. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, 99. 102. Description on the Victoria and Albert Museum website, 82. Ibid. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O161986/basin-mancini- 83. Ecker, Caliphs and Kings, 154. giacomo/ (accessed September 14, 2013). 84. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 59, 60; Ecker, Caliphs and Kings, 155; 103. Lister and Lister, Andalusian Ceramics in Spain and New Caviró, “Golden Earthenware and the Alhambra Vases,” Spain, 118. 285. 104. Ibid. 85. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 83. 105. Riegl, Problems of Style. 86. Ecker, Caliphs and Kings, 159. 106. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 157. 87. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 48, 86. 107. Lister and Lister, Andalusian Ceramics in Spain and New 88. Ibid., 93–94. Spain, 127. 89. Ibid., 60–64. 108. Anouar Majid, We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Cru- 90. Ecker, Caliphs and Kings, 9. That some Moriscos did grow sades against Muslim and Other Minorities (Minneapolis: rich by lending money, banking, and speculating is attested University of Minnesota Press), 39; Harvey, Muslims in by records of debts that Christians owed them, which the Spain, 296. Crown hoped to collect upon their expulsion. Harvey, Mus- 109. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 242. lims in Spain, 252–55. 110. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 12–13. 91. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 298. 111. Joseph Pérez, The Spanish Inquisition: A History, trans. J. 92. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 90. Lloyd (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 217. 93. Ibid. 112. Lister and Lister, Andalusian Ceramics in Spain and New 94. Ibid., 22; Ray is writing of a long shift in the ceramic styles Spain, 150. of Talavera from 1248 to 1492. 113. Ray, Spanish Pottery, 209. 95. Mack, Bazaar to Piazza, 95. 114. Prado-Vilar, “Gothic Anamorphic Gaze.” 96. Heidenreich, “Early Lustre Wares in the Mediterranean,” 415, citing C. Berti and S. Gelichi, “Mille chemins ouverts

Abstract ually deepened out and thickened up into optical repre- sentations. The essay also examines traveling concepts: This essay proposes that an Islamic aesthetics and the gaze theory, from cinema studies to art history; and the modes of visuality to which they appeal can be charac- haptic image, from art history to cinema studies. terized by the use of haptic space and abstract line, terms that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari derived from the work of late nineteenth-century art historians. Key words It argues that abstract line and haptic space traveled in ceramics on the Iberian Peninsula and in the western Andalusian ceramics, Italian ceramics, lusterware, hap- Mediterranean basin. I examine how Andalusian ceram- tic space, abstract line, Gilles Deleuze, Alois Riegl, gaze ics engage haptic space and abstract line, how Christian theory, Lacanian psychoanalysis, figuration, visuality, clients took up these designs, and how, in Spanish and Islamic aesthetics Italian adaptations, haptic space and abstract line grad-