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approach focused on how cultures of vision impact their respective arts and vice versa. One of Belting’s premises is that perspective is a so-called symbolic form, a position first argued by Erwin Panofsky in an essay published in 1927. The concept of symbolic form hails from the neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer, who believed that man makes sense of the world he perceives by means of symbolic forms. The human being, incapable of knowing reality other than through its subjective mind, has various categories of symbols that mediate between his per- ception and his understanding, and these categories vary according to time and place. Panofsky proposed to see per- spective as a symbolic form that defined Western modernity. Belting agrees and explains further the importance of per- spective for Western modernity. He explains how a painting with linear perspective draws the onlooker into the repre- sented scene. Only through a frontal confrontation with the vanishing point of the painting does the artwork make proper sense. The perspective needs the presence of the onlooker and conforms to the onlooker’s subjectivity and vice versa. In Belting’s words: “Perspective has been a cultural tech- nique and not merely a matter of the arts. For it symbolized the right to a perception (Wahrnehmung) that anyone could engage in with one’s own vision.” (p. 25). Having established the crucial importance of linear per- spective in the first chapter, the second chapter informs on the classical Arab understanding of vision, and the issue of Islamic aniconism. This is the part Belting is least equipped to deal with, and yet there is little to complain about from an Arabist point of view. There are but few issues that weaken this chapter. Firstly, Belting explains the phenomenon of ani- conism in the Muslim world by referring to the well-known tradition that foretells the maker of graven images that he will be asked by angels on Judgment Day to breathe life into his images. The artist’s inevitable failure would then be fol- lowed by eternal hellfire, as punishment for what is per- ceived as presumptuousness. The making of images is thus understood to be an attempt to create life, which is God’s prerogative alone. While this tradition must surely have had its effect, a rather more powerful reason for the prohibition of images is more likely to have been the tendency in the near East around the time of Islam’s emergence, to worship images as idols. Only dwelling on the tradition without refer- BELTING, H. — Florenz und Bagdad. Eine westöstliche ence to the cultural context which it produced seems too Geschichte des Blicks. Verlag C.H. Beck, München, restrictively textualist. Secondly, while the relative scarcity 2008. (24,5 cm, 319). ISBN 978-3-406-57092-6. / 29,90. of images in the Islamic world is beyond dispute, Belting goes too far when he writes that before the Mongol invasions No phenomenon has occupied art historians more than the there were only exceptions to the rule of aniconism, and that emergence of linear perspective in early Renaissance paint- even illustrations in manuscripts were confined to works of ings, or the technique that aims to represent images as they science, where “they were (..) nothing but replica’s and cog- are seen by means of human vision. The eminent German art nitive aids, that did not establish a new pictorial genre.” It historian Hans Belting has written a book that draws scholars goes too far to dismiss all early painting in of Arabic studies into this discussion or at least sends out a this sweeping manner, when there is still discussion going on compelling invitation. concerning the existence of a Bagdad school of miniature offers a comparative study of vision Florenz und Bagdad painting in the period preceding 1258. in which the author argues that among the earliest chapters The third chapter offers an exposé of the contributions of in the development of linear perspective is one written by the Ibn al-Haytham to our knowledge of optics and the impor- Basran scholar Ibn al-Haytham (also: Alhazen, ca. 965– tance of his work for the development of the technique of 1039). Belting meticulously traces the trajectory of Ibn al- linear perspective. Belting explains once more that Arab sci- Haytham’s work on optics through Muslim Andalusia to ence was more than a translation movement which safe- Renaissance Italy. The book’s scope is much wider, how- guarded classical texts for posterity. Certainly Ibn al-Hay- ever. Belting’s book is concerned with the question of how tham is a good illustration in this regard, since his optical people cultivate vision, and employs a comparative-historical theories went straight against what the Greek authorities

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Ptolemy and Euclid had to say. The importance of Ibn al- coming in from the outside. This light however does not Haytham’s Kitab al-ManaÂir lies partly in his proof (by enter the inside undisturbed. The mashrabiyya’s geometri- means of a camera obscura) that light travels in straight rays cally designed latticework dictates the conditions under from the world into the eye, and not the other way around. which the rays of the sun may enter. In this fashion, light Belting argues convincingly that this theory of vision was and screen work together to produce a geometric pattern of later transformed into a theory of depiction by scholars and rays, that draws the eye as it travels across the room in the artists of the early Renaissance. The three remaining chapters course of the day. Light here becomes a geometrical theme, are further elaborations on the importance and uses of per- and the window is dedicated to disciplining light and show- spective. ing pure geometry, rather than an instrument for viewing Each chapter ends on a so-called ‘Exchange of view’ into the world. The show of light and shadow that it occa- (Blickwechsel) designed to achieve a better understanding of sions can even be seen as a manifold reproduction of the both the Western and the of vision. Some of principle of Alhazen’s camera obscura. these exchanges offer precious insights. Belting’s use of Florenz und Bagdad, of which an English translation is Orhan Pamuk’s recent novel My name is Red to illustrate the forthcoming at Harvard University Press (entitled Florence difference between the Italian ideal of portraiture and the and Bagdad. Renaissance Art and Arab Science), is a book Ottoman ideal of miniature painting is mostly playful, but that succeeds in bringing a complex topic before a wide aca- two other exchanges are promising in that they may lead to demic audience. It is to be hoped that Arabists and scholars new discussions of the meaning of the and the of Islamic history will accept Belting’s invitation to engage mashrabiyya. Belting devotes an exchange to each of these in this discussion. The book is therefore wholeheartedly rec- phenomena and suggests that they be understood as symbolic ommended. forms. The three-dimensional decorative element called muqar- nas is ubiquitous in from the Nasrid palaces of Bibliography Granada to the Taj . Its purpose and meaning has Hans Belting, Florence and Bagdad. Renaissance Art and Arab therefore been studied to varying extents by Oleg Grabar, Science (Harvard University Press, forthcoming). Gülru Necipoglu, and Yasser Tabbaa. No agreement exists Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form (Zone Books: New concerning the inherent symbolic meaning that the muqarnas York 2009 (1927)). may have had. Yasser Tabbaa (strangely not referred to by Yasser Tabbaa, The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Belting) has argued most forcefully in favour of a symbolic Revival (University of Washington Press: Seattle, London meaning, stating that the muqarnas emerged in the eleventh 2001). century as an artistic component of the so-called Sunni revival, and notes the ‘parallels between occasionalistic cos- University of Amsterdam, May 2011 R.A.F.L. WOLTERING mology and the muqarnas ’ (Tabbaa, p. 133). Also Belting deems the muqarnas to be more than a mere decora- * tive technique. Similar to how Panofsky elevated the use of * * perspectival drawing to the status of symbolic form, Belting considers the muqarnas as a phenomenon through which RABBAT, N. — history through architecture. Mon- geometry has become a symbolic form. Essentially a geomet- uments, culture and politics in Medieval and ric division of a three-dimensional surface, the muqarnas is Syria. I.B. Tauris, London & New York, 2010. (25 cm, the concretization of geometry, or in Belting’s words ‘ein XIV, 261). ISBN 978-184511964-5. £ 45.00. Schauplatz oder Aushängeschild der geometrischen Phanta- sie’. The result is a space with no beginning or end, as with While the field of Islamic art history is not as densely the geometrically designed , there is no unique cen- populated as its riches deserve, the period of Mamluk rule tre, no periphery, no beginning or end to the design of the over Egypt and Syria (ca. 1250-1517) is relatively well muqarnas, as its spatial division is the result of mathematical tended to. Since 1997 many fruits of Mamlukist labour have lining. Belting points out that the science behind the muqar- found their way to the Mamluk Studies Review. Within the nas is identical to the science behind perspectival drawing, broad range of scholarship in this field, Nasser Rabbat has namely (Alhazen’s) optical theory. This is Belting’s point: come to occupy the area where architectural history meets where early modern Europe created an art in which geometry literary history and history proper. Few scholars are as con- was an instrument to show images, Islamic civilization in the sistent in bringing together architectural, literary and histori- eleventh century created an art in which geometry itself was cal material to tell a story. Rather than adopting a clinical imaged. approach that basically informs on the size and shapes of Even more than the muqarnas, it is the mashrabiyya that architectural objects (which is a necessary, but not ultimately qualifies as a symbolic form. Belting points out how in early satisfying endeavour), Rabbat is interested in finding out modern Europe the window became a cultural artifact of the how architecture can inform us about the history of its inhab- highest importance. The window came to symbolize man’s itants and patrons. If this suggests that art to Rabbat is a mere view upon the world, or the frame through which man ingredient for history telling, this may be right, but only if it searches for images of reality. Of course there were and are is properly understood that this ingredient is indispensible to also windows in the Arab world, but their purpose and the meal. meaning is entirely different. Windows in the architecture Mamluk history through architecture consists of fifteen of Arab lands are typically wooden latticed screens or so- chapters that have all been published previously in the period called mashrabiyya’s. Their primary function is not so much between 1989-2005, in a range of mostly easy-to-access jour- to allow for a view inside-out, but rather to allow for light nals and edited volumes. The articles have not been updated

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despite the fact that new research has been published that authors where specialists of the word, not of the image, according to Rabbat ‘may alter some of my conclusions and requires that the contemporary scholar develops a familiar- despite my own views having changed in the last twenty ity with this kind of architectural information. In an article years.’ (p. xiv). concerning the meaning of the word Rabbat makes The author seeks to explore two directions. First, he ample use of poetic evidence to show how the concept of explores how Mamluk written historical sources represent the iwan was connected to ‘monumentality’ and more inter- Mamluk elite culture and architecture. Secondly, he explains estingly, to the so-called iwan kisra, or Chosroe’s Iwan at through architecture the Mamluk world view in relation to Ctesiphon. An explanation of what the author means by culture, society and politics. The fourfold division of the monumentality is not provided, but what makes this article book under the headings ‘Unpacking Mamluk Sources’; so interesting is the way in which the author employs poetry ‘Architecture as History’; ‘Architecture and Language’; and to make some strong architectural-historical points. In the ‘Architecture as Cultural Index’ is not exactly compelling, chapter on Mamluk throne halls, Rabbat reconstructs the but is does no harm either. Great Iwan on ’s citadel to have been of a basilical The first four chapters discuss the evolution of the mean- plan, which is odd because this type of plan had not been ing of the term mamluk, the gradual grafting of the Mamluk used in Egypt since the Muslim conquest. Rabbat suggests political system and the question of manumission. These that the inspiration for a basilical plan came from Syria, chapters are very informative, showing also the various unre- where the basilical plan had survived long into the Islamic solved questions. Rabbat explains how the central problem period. Rabbat’s argument is convincing because it would of writing Mamluk history is that our sources are almost not be the only example of Damascene import during the never written by members of the Mamluk elite themselves. Mamluk age, witness Qalawun’s (inspired by It was the almost exclusively Arab class of literati, consisting Nur al-Dín’s bimaristan in Damascus) and Al-NaÒir MuÌam- of religious scholars and poets, that produced the written mad’s QaÒr (also after an earlier Damascene model), material at our disposal. As a consequence, the which was in fact a forerunner of the throne hall under dis- may occupy centre stage in most historical narratives, ‘but cussion in this chapter. they appear literally as actors given lines to read, or worse Part IV begins with a welcome clarion call to revise the still, they are spoken (or written) for and about, but rarely historiographic tradition dealing with the story of Cairene speak themselves.’ (p. 13). It is then a bit confusing that Rab- architecture. Rabbat criticizes the tendency to isolate Cairo’s bat refers to ‘Mamluk historians’ when he really means his- architectural development as sui generis, and highlights the torians of the Mamluk era, but this is a matter of little con- manifold ways in which Cairo’s built environment has sequence. While most of the material that these chapters (the always been open to regional influences. This chapter ends oldest of which was published in 1998) bring to the fore will however on a sour note, when Behrens-Abouseif’s Islamic still be relatively up to date, some issues would have been Architecture in Cairo: An Introduction is elaborately put helped by an update using new insights. Rabbat’s frequent down (this section fills around a third of the chapter). When reference to the Mamluks as a ‘one-generation aristocracy’ this article was originally published in 1994, this critique ignores the fact that there are numerous instances of heredi- was already coming a bit late (the work in question was tary succession, so numerous in fact that we may speak of published in 1989, and its flaws had already been pointed Mamluk dynasties. Given that Rabbat admits in the foreword out by Caroline Williams in a review published in 1992, to to have changed his mind on a number of issues, the reader which Rabbat refers). To publish this article again in 2010 wonders if this is perhaps such an issue. seems uncalled for. Other chapters in this final section con- Chapter five deals with the sudden reemergence of mosaic textualize the so-called Palaces of Justice (dar al-¨adl), art in the thirteenth century, after its absence in Egypt and review once more the difficulties of textual sources for the Syria since the late eighth century. The material is fascinat- writing of architectural history and lastly take the reader to ing, but the chapter lacks a clear focus. The chapter on the the modern age, when we see how the evolving ambitions militarization of taste consists mainly of an exposé on the of MuÌammad ¨Alí’s dynasty can be traced through the reemergence of citadel-building under Turkish hands as of architecture it sponsored. This is one of the finest chapters the eleventh century. While the military nature of the citadel for those who seek concrete examples of how architectural is obvious, there should ideally be more to say about for projects speak for the outlook of its sponsors. Rabbat shows instance stylistic matters that are to be linked to the highly how MuÌammad ¨Alí’s classicizing Ottoman imperial style military-oriented cultures of the Ayyubids and the Mamluks. atop the citadel embodies his Istanbul-oriented The following chapter, that closes the second part of the ambitions, which contrasts sharply with how his descend- book, offers an overview of the vicissitudes of Al-Azhar’s ents were to intervene in Cairo’s city-scape towards the end prominence in the views and deeds of a millennium of rul- of the nineteenth century. They ordered the construction of ers. Though this chapter is not for the most part concerned the Rifa¨í Mosque in a Mamluk style that is so strongly with the Mamluk era proper, the importance of Al-Azhar associated with Cairo, characterizing the dynasty’s need to during the Mamluk era and beyond, warrants this article’s portray themselves as part and parcel of Egyptian national inclusion. Part III begins with a clarifying article on the history, no longer eyeing Istanbul as ultimate goal or even importance and peculiarity of documents as sources for as model. writing architectural history. Rabbat explains that in contrast A book consisting of previously published material of to the European tradition, where precise graphic representa- which the author himself says that it contains postulations tion gradually developed, Islamic cultures’ waqf (and other) he no longer holds true, is of course not without its prob- documentation developed a system or tradition of verbal lems. One could dwell on this unfortunate aspect of the pub- reconnaissance of architectural objects. This different lication, but this would be of little use. The question is approach, largely to be explained out of the fact that the whether this book is nonetheless a valuable contribution to

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our collective library on Islamic art and architecture. This and Arabic traders since the 10th century. The ports of the reviewer believes that this book’s publication is more than Red Sea and the Persian Gulf (although dominated by the justified. The field is helped by the wider availability of its ports of the Red Sea since the Swahili period- since the scholarly work in convenient volumes, if only to increase Islamisation of the coast, 7th-9th centuries) were connected readership. The book brings together a wealth of publica- with the port of Gedi, or rather made the port of Gedi owe tions by one of the finest historians of its existence to the connections. The bay of Mida connects that gives easy access to Rabbat’s method and his various the river Sabaki and the Indian Ocean. The course of the insights into a range of crucial architectural remains of the river possibly changed in time. For Gedi as a trading com- Mamluk period. In short, Mamluk history through architec- munity a centre near the river was important, and so a new ture is not a side dish. It is a full and filling meal, albeit not centre was created. made fresh. Determining Islam archaeologically is difficult. Archaeol- ogy is a discipline with the artifact as source. A multi-source University of Amsterdam, Robbert A.F.L. WOLTERING approach is needed, which includes ethnographic, linguistic May 2011 and architectural data, as discussed by Timothy Insoll in The archaeology of Islam in Sub-Sahara Africa. He argues that in Africa Islam has been subjected to a historical process in * which a variety of new religious and cultural phenomena * * coexisted. This means there are various ways of Islamisation, which are still going on. PRADINES, S. — Gedi, une cité portuaire swahilie. Islam Islamisation means a shift in religion (in this case from médiéval en Afrique orientale. (Fouilles de l’IFAO 60). polytheism to monotheism) and has its impacts on economy Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire, (local trade becomes part of an international network extend- Cairo, 2010. (32 cm, 302). ISBN 978-2-7247-0543-0. ing throughout the Muslim World), politics (adaption of the ISSN 0768-4703. / 54,-. language/ administrative system) and the social environment Islamic archaeology is a neglected discipline. Archaeolo- (changes in architecture and settlement, food and rituals, in gists rush through Islamic layers in search for older strata. this case there is a clear focus on Islamic burial patterns). This book, Gedi une cité portuaire swahilie. Islam médiéval Islamisation of the East African coast created the Swahili en Afrique orientale, is an enrichment for Islamic archaeol- culture. This makes Gedi, a site on the East coast, a Swahili ogy. The description of the site is a goal in itself (it is a site. Defining the concept Swahili is difficult. According to continuation of British excavations conducted from 1948 to the author the Swahili culture is a culture embracing different 1958. A French team started in 1999). Each layer of the ethnicities (African, Arabic and Asiatic). The culture is based excavation is described and explained. The stratigraphy is on commercial relations, on trade. The Swahili culture came described with such a precision page after page, that it makes into being in the 10th century. Only from that time on the Gedi a very good handbook. Islamic archaeology, especially social regulations and the architecture changed. Gedi itself in Africa, has long been a neglected field. The objectives of blossomed in the 11th century and was abandoned in the 17th the book, however, are not made clear by the author at the century. Gedi was by then cut off from access to the Indian outset. They become clear in the conclusion: they include Ocean, the Portuguese disturbed the traditional trade connec- not only giving a description of the site, but also identifying tions, water wells dried up and tribal wars created the last Gedi. The problem with identifying Gedi is that the site is fortification and fall of Gedi. not mentioned in any historical source, whereas Malindi, a All aspects of the historical process of Islamisation are site not even 15 kilometers away, is. The first question which named (although they might not be recognizable by an rises is why Gedi is not mentioned in any historical source archaeologist) and described by Pradines, starting with the and second how it is possible that two big cities coexisted in most recognizable feature and artifact for an archaeologist of the same period, within a such a short distance. Pradines Islam: the mosque. argues that Gedi is the historical Malindi (modern Malindi is From the 11th to the end of the 15th centuries, Gedi was the situated 15 kilometers to the south). In his books he convinc- biggest Swahili site of Kenya, with one of the oldest (12th ingly proves this identification. century, to be named in this article mosque I) and biggest It is a very detailed book about medieval (XI-XIV, XV (14th century, to be named in this article mosque II) . and XVI centuries) Africa. Gedi is an archaeological site It had two more big mosques, six mosques in the town quar- situated at the east coast of Africa, 6,5 kilometers from the ters, two enclosure walls, monumental , a palace and Indian Ocean and 3,2 kilometers from the bay of Mida. The three hundred stone houses. two subtitles of this volume with its adjectives (portuaire Pradines first pays attention to the mosques and tombs, the swahilie, Islam médiéval, Afrique orientale) make the com- religious places. A description is given of the building phases plex of terminology, and within that the meaning of the ter- and the architecture. Through the building periods and archi- minology, clear: it is a mixture of cultures, religion and ori- tecture local developments influences from abroad are made gin. visible. This gives a clear insight in settlement changes due Pradines is not only using the archaeological material for to Islamisation processes. The oldest mosque (mosque I, this handbook but also social historical geography. In the used in the period 1100-1450) is in the centre of the site beginning of the book a geographical description of the Afri- Gedi. The big mosque (mosque II, used in the 14th century) can east coast is given. Historical sources prove the early is created at another location, which means a shift in the importance of trade in the area. Slaves, metal, gold and centre of the site. Beneath this mosque there are even older agrarian products were traded since the pharaonic period. fundaments from the 13th century (this might point to a reli- The Indian ocean has brought Asiatic (mostly from India) gious place before the big mosque was built there). A

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(1399) is attached to the of the mosque. An Arabic Renovations started in the beginning of the 16th century but inscription points to a Muslim being buried there, also the were never finished, because Gedi was to be abandoned. The orientation of the body (it is explained that the direction of palace (it is hard to say to whom the palace belonged) was the body does not have to mean it is a Muslim since the an important administrative centre, surrounded by a new vil- Giriama animists- one of the nine ethnic that make up the lage, and a fortification wall. It might be that two political Mijikenda, meaning “nine towns”, with a strong belief in the systems coexisted between the 14th and 19th centuries: that power of their ancestors and ancestress — also bury their of a traditional African one, with senior members of the com- death in that direction). This buried person had a religious or munity, and a sultanate, with an Arabic-Persian model. Here political status, like an imam or a sheikh. One grave was the author touches upon an important phenomenon, the wa- found below the wall of the mosque, in the direction of the ungwana system with the notables and senior members in , the direction of . This means according to the power. There was no single man or institution in power, indi- author that the location was already holy before mosque II vidual positions were determined by lineage and ancestors. was built there. The six small mosques are all located in dif- Such communities were the ones living originally in the cen- ferent quarters, with each quarter dominated by a cultural tre of Gedi. The , Persians and Indians were strangers group, an ethnicity, like a tribe (based on kinship) or an Arab in the beginning but by marrying the daughters of the elites, or Asian community. they received the same status as the wa-ungwana. Hierarchy This chapter thus explains the religious places and the is important in the Swahili culture. Ethno archaeology (the quarter systems, in connection with ethnicity. It would have use of anthropology within archaeology as an extra source) been interesting if the author had chosen to consider the points out that at least nowadays Gedi families have still whole site primarily as material culture. This might have strong ties with Malindi. resulted in a stronger focus leading to a more detailed discus- Gedi was abandoned in the beginning of the 16th century sion of the social patterning of quarters and tribes in conjunc- and reoccupied in the same century. Then the second defense tion with the political tribal confederations and the linking of wall was built due to tribal wars. During the second half of quarters, tribal confederations and burial habits; of social that century an inside wall was built. After the 16th century clustering and its religious and political implications. But Gedi was abandoned again. since the objectives of the book are not described in the The last chapter is about ceramics and trade in products. beginning, and focus of the author is on the identification and There is a clear distinction between locally made pottery description of the site, this might be food for thought for (incised triangles and red slip) and imported ceramics from another publication. Islamic (Iran, Oman and Yemen) and Asiatic regions (with a The next chapter, chapter III (in total six chapters) deals special focus on China). A typology of ceramics from the with domestic architecture. It opens with a discussion about 11th to the 19th centuries specifies the changes in shape but the origin of the Swahili houses made of stone since the 10th especially in decoration. Most of the pottery is local (97% of century (before the 10th century the houses were made of the total of objects excavated). Probably the imported ceram- wood). Pradines convincingly argues that building in stone ics, only 3% makes it rare, point to luxury and status. This was a development strongly influenced by the Indo-Persian argumentation of linking imported ceramics to status and and Arabic cultures in the 11th and 12th centuries. Details to ranking, leads to the argumentation that the use and types of prove this are firstly the occurrence of stone building tech- pottery are related to the excavated area, and within that to nology in the Persian Gulf and secondly the use of small the social patterning of the site. spaces and niches in the walls, which betray Indian influ- Objects of metal, glass, animal-deposits and copal are ence. typically objects which according to the author reflect Most of the houses were built between the 10th and 12th changes in the commercial relation in the 15th century (by the century (the first phase also includes the 13th century). volume of import and the quality of material excavated at According to Pradines, the shift from the traditional African Gedi). wooden houses to the stone Swahili houses symbolizes the The —description of the-archaeological material of Gedi hierarchical position of the Swahili community (the mer- makes it possible to identify Gedi. Gedi was a very important chants) above the native local population. Three other build- medieval city, as is suggested by the fortifications —outer ing phases date, according to the stratigraphy, to the middle and inner walls- and the old (mosque I) of the 12th century of the 14th century, the 15th century (1400-1450) and the 16th and big mosque (mosque II) of the 14th century. Other exca- century (1500-1550). vated material, the metallic rests, prove Gedi produced metal There is a shift in technique from the 13th to the 14th/15th between the 12th and 13th centuries. This (only described by centuries: the use of ground mortar instead of chalk mortar. two historical sources on medieval Malindi) strengthens the Together with the construction of a new big mosque and a idea that medieval Malindi is Gedi. palace, this points to a new population. Also there are Arabic A change in location of Malindi (to its current position) influences, like the courts with rectangular openings in the was possibly caused by the change in course of the river walls. So even though the architecture changed dramatically Sabaki in the 15th century. after the arrival of the Portuguese (with buildings in the 18th Pradines proves with his detailed book, Gedi une cité por- and 19th centuries with more floors as in the Arabian Penin- tuaire swahilie. Islam médiéval en Afrique orientale that sula/ Yemen) it is difficult to define the Swahili habitat Gedi is the site of medieval Malindi. before that time. According to the author, the excavations prove at least that in Gedi there were influences which made Rijswijk, March 2010 Marloes BORSBOOM the a uniform one. The palace of Gedi was built in the beginning of the 15th * century, redecorated in the second half of the same century. * *

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BLOOM, J.M. — Arts of the City Victorious. Islamic art and cultural context still need to be written for many in Fatimid and Egypt. Yale dynasties. University Press, New Haven and London, 2007. (29 cm, It was Jonathan Bloom who in the late 1990ies contacted the XVIII, 236). ISBN 978-0-300-13542-8. £45.00. Institute of Ismaili Studies in London to enquire if they were interested in commissioning him to write such a publication. In Dancers, musicians, drinkers and seated rulers, running 2007 the manuscript was published. The well-written, well- hares, birds and lions. It is these images that spring immedi- balanced and witty result makes clear that Bloom was the right ately to mind when one thinks of decorative arts from the scholar for the book. Jonathan Bloom had first been introduced Fatimid period (909-1171). The Fatimids ruled large parts of to in 1973 during a visit to Tunisia when he worked North Africa and Egypt: in 969 they founded Cairo (al-Qahira: at a Tunisian-American campaign on ancient mosaics. In 1977- the Victorious), from which they ruled until the Ayyubids took 1978 he studied all remnants of Fatimid architecture along the over. They were Ismaili Shiites, who claimed that they were Mediterranean and visited major museum collections of the rightful leaders of the Islamic empire instead of the Sunni Fatimid art. This resulted in his doctoral thesis at Harvard Uni- Abbasids or the neo-Umayyad rulers of Cordoba. Although versity (1980), titled: Fatimid constructions and objects of arts have been found in Meaning in Early Fatimid Architecture: North Africa, Fatimid material culture was probably mostly Islamic Art in North-Africa and Egypt in the Fourth Century . After this, time and again he went produced in the later Fatimid capital of Cairo. Among the well- A.H. (Tenth Century A.D.) back to the selfsame area and period in his research. Besides known Fatimid objects are ceramic bowls, textiles, rock-crystal this, his overviews of Islamic art history in and jugs and the wooden beams that once decorated the Fatimid Islamic Arts (both with Sheila Blair) and palaces of Cairo with their lively rendering of the luxurious life The Arts and Architecture of Islam his editorial work for may have con- of the elite and their energetic depictions of animals. The Dictionary of Islam tributed to the insightful way in which he relates Fatimid art to The figural images on Fatimid decorative art have proved to the material culture of contemporary dynasties and the Chris- be a major attraction to visitors of museum collections of tian Mediterranean. Simultaneously, to bring a book on archi- Islamic art. The focus on figural representation has also tecture and decorative arts alive one needs to describe objects intrigued students of Islamic culture, and the question what trig- and techniques not only with a technical eye. It is one of his gered this seemingly sudden outburst of figural themes has been major achievements that he is able to transfer to the reader his the topic of many an essay. Oleg Grabar once proposed the fascination for the objects and their manufacture, and the pleas- dispersal of the Fatimid treasury in the 1060ies as a reason for ure they can bring to the onlooker’s eye. the arts of the bourgeoisie to embrace figural imagery in imita- In tion of the preferred aesthetic of the ruling classes. It is, how- Arts of the City Victorious. Islamic art and architecture Jonathan Bloom first traces ever, questionable whether there was such a thing as a sudden in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt the material remnants of the Fatimids in North-Africa, before outburst. Figural imagery was already included on early Fatimid their move to Cairo in 969. Although Fatimid art is most often ceramics, and therefore must have been inspired by Abbasid, associated with the later capital city, he shows that a courtly Eastern Christian or Hellenistic traditions (Bloom, p. 95). art that represented the aspirations of the Fatimid dynasty was Before the 1990ies, Fatimid art was mostly treated in spe- already visible in the monumental projecting portal in the cialist articles by museum curators or academics who focused Mosque of al-Mahdiyya (the new North African Fatimid cap- on single or groups of objects such as lustre ceramics, sgraf- ital constructed on a peninsula). Its formal resemblance to fitto pottery or rock crystals. Simultaneously, monographs Roman triumphal arches was well-intended. Also the expen- were written on single Fatimid constructions, the symbolic sive materials used for three pre-Cairene objects - the Blue significance of their decoration being the focus of many an Qurˆan, an ivory casket and a now lost map of the world on article. However, in the last decade of the second millennium blue silk and embroidered with gold thread — suggest their a sudden occurrence of publications and catalogues on intention as representations of power. Bloom proposes compe- Fatimid material culture saw the light in which vast numbers tition with the Byzantines and with the Neo-Umayyads for this of objects or buildings were taken as the point of departure. early courtly art development. He warns, though, not to over- Among them were Paula Sanders, Ritual, Politics, and the state this presumption of a well-developed courtly art, for most , Albany 1994; Anna Contadini, City in Fatimid Cairo Fatimid objects and fragments found in excavations so far are quite , London 1998; Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum Trésors basic in terms of materials and manufacture. , Paris 1998; Wilfred Seipel (ed.), Fatimides du Caire Schätze The four chapters that follow are devoted to the material , Vienna der Kalifen: Islamische Kunst zur Fatimidenzeit culture of the Fatimids after their move to Cairo. In the text 1998; and Marianne Barrucand (ed.), L’Égypte Fatimide: son there is a constant interchange between historical facts that art et son histoire. Actes du colloque organisé á Paris les 28, provide the necessary context in which to understand the flow- , Paris 1999. Whether this timing was coin- 29 et 30 mai 1998 ering or decline of industries while the analysis of religious cidental or not, the field was suddenly given an impulse. Con- and palatial buildings increases our understanding of Fatimid tadini’s book, though based on a single museum-collection history. Two chapters are devoted to architecture and two to which naturally limits and delineates a study, and Barrucand’s the decorative arts. The presence of woodwork furnishings and publication which encompassed articles both on architecture fittings such as s, doors (the now detached doors and the decorative arts proved to be a major step forward in ordered by the Caliph al-Hakim for which Bloom proposes the the study of Fatimid art. The need for an overview of both the original entrance portal as their original location (p. 65)) and minor arts and architecture and a contextualisation and syn- the famous beams with figural imagery, now housed in the thesis of Fatimid material culture, however, still remained. In Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, makes clear that this dividing this, the Fatimid dynasty is by no means an exception: syn- line is not entirely strict. They are thus both treated in the thetic studies that describe and explain the evolvement of the chapters on architecture and on decorative arts. Bloom’s arts and architecture of single Islamic dynasties within their choice to use the unrest and subsequent looting of the Fatimid

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treasuries from the palace in the 1060ies as a chronological With respect to the theme of architecture Bloom gives stu- division for the chapters works well. It is in this second part dents clear insights in his research-methodology. He also of Fatimid rule in Cairo that, in the case of rock crystals, ivo- shows the positive effect of returning to old topics when new ries and lustre ceramics especially, a clear decline of industries evidence has come to light. This is illustrated by his study on is visible. As he focuses on each of the different media, he is the mosque of al-Hakim on which he wrote an article almost however able to show that the second phase from the 1060ies 30 years ago: ‘The Mosque of al-Hakim in Cairo’, Muqarnas to 1171 was not one of decline only: the production of textiles 1, 1983, pp. 15-36. He summarizes his former findings while and less expensive ceramic wares continued in this period. taking into account new evidence from literary sources. More- And it is in the craft of woodworking in this period that we over, he shows that his former methodology, i.e. studying the find a major stylistic development. A shift towards a geomet- content and style of the inscriptions only while leaving out the ric aesthetic with floral fillers is visible, a style that was taken rest of the decorative programme, led him to draw the wrong on and developed further by artisans in subsequent dynasties. conclusions. Discussions like these, in which the author is Bloom regularly puts forward intriguing observations, which critical about his former work while simultaneously providing might propel students or other scholars to rethink certain aspects alternative conclusions, make the publication even richer in of the field. This is illustrated by Fatimid manuscripts. So far content. The student is offered a full view in the workings of there are almost no extant manuscripts that can be ascribed to research while the topic is interesting in itself alone. the Fatimid period, although the Chester Beatty Library con- The intended readership, i.e. students and historians of tains a copy that once belonged to the Fatimid library (p. 110). Islamic culture and art and general readers interested in his- Literary sources, however, hint at a love on the part of several tory, especially that of the Ismaili’s, are both served very well. caliphs for written manuscripts. The figures mentioned in liter- The student is offered an in-depth overview full of observa- ary sources are breathtaking: in 1012-13 the Caliph al-Hakim tions that trigger the inquisitive mind. And indeed the more commanded 1298 manuscripts of the Qurˆan in both bound vol- general reader who is not acquainted with terms like ‘Fatim- umes and chests be taken from the Fatimid palace to the ids’, ‘Ismailis’, or with historical writers such as the Mamluk mosque. And when the Fatimid palace was looted in the historian al-Maqrizi (1364-1442) from whose writings so 1060ies, one storeroom yielded 18,000 volumes on the ancient much factual information on the Fatimid period is distilled, is sciences and another contained 2,400 boxed manuscripts of the indeed provided with the necessary information for a proper Qurˆan (p. 109). The destruction of books, also accounted by understanding of the arguments and text. The text reads like a the Mamluk historian al-Maqrizi based on eyewitness reports narrative, but one that is rich in sources and discussions. An was gruelling: “ [..] these precious books — which had no overview of published scholarship is provided in the introduc- equals anywhere in the beauty of the writing and binding — tion and referred to in the endnotes. The book was published were taken by slaves and their wives who made sandals from by Yale University Press in association with The Institute of the bindings. The pages were burned on the pretext that they Ismaili Studies. This institute was established in 1977 with the came from the Caliph’s palace and contained improper sectar- goal to promote the study of Islam in general, both from a ian ideas. Still other books were dumped in the Nile, destroyed historical and modern perspective, and that of Ismailism in or carried off to other lands. Those which were not burned were particular. The reader who expects a publication on Fatimid covered by the wind-blown sands, forming the small hills still art with Ismaili doctrine as its leading focus for explaining known today in the region as the ‘Hills of Books’.” Bloom artistic styles gets the short end. Instead, Bloom often refers to explains this lack of extant Fatimid manuscripts not only by other scholars who explain segments of Fatimid art by Ismaili referring to this massive destruction or otherwise to accidental or Alid symbolism, but he himself mostly offers practical or survival: he poses the question instead whether this void is due mundane explanations for particular layouts or forms. For to our inability to know what to look for. It is hoped that this example, he questions the transmission and reception of question alone will open up new horizons of study. Ismaili symbolism on the facades of the al- Another topic he addresses is the problem of dating Fatimid (1122-1125) on Bayn al-Qasrayn and that of Salih Tala’i pieces on the basis of stylistic comparisons. He observes that (1160) near Bab al-Zuwayla. He proposes instead that they are what is foremost needed is a corpus of securely dated objects. a response to the articulated facades of the Fatimid palaces that Textiles are clearly the exception as large quantities of extant once dominated the street-view. dated or dateable tiraz bands advertising the name of the caliphs Bloom has written a wonderful in-depth and simultaneously provide clear markers for tracing their stylistic development. highly readable book that is rewarding both for the answers it The same accounts for woodwork furnishings such as offers and the questions it raises. It opens up new horizons and and portable that contain the names of their patrons. encourages the reader to go and pursue further studies in the Ceramics, though, provide much more of a challenge: in arts of this period. Its use of well-chosen passages from the museum collections their dating range amounts to almost two literary sources and the ability of the author to bring to life the centuries. In this case, there is still much work ahead of us. The material objects by lively descriptions do justice to the interest- dearth in dated examples may be partly due to the fact that ing time frame of the Fatimid dynasty, the beauty of its objects excavations can still not be executed on historically important and the pleasure they convey. All that combined with an elo- sites (below the al-Azhar mosque or the former Fatimid palaces quent narrative style makes Arts of the City Victorious. Islamic for example). Simultaneously Bloom is cautious about dating art and architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt highly ceramics on the basis of style by providing an intriguing exam- recommendable to students and a general audience alike. ple. There are two extant dated ceramic bowls which look entirely different but which were made during the same period The Hague, April 28, 2011 Luitgard MOLS for two members of the elite (pp. 93-94). If style would have been the only criterion for attributing an approximate date, they * would probably have been dated to different periods. * *

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HAASE, C.-P. (ed.) — A Collector’s Fortune. Islamic Art parts of his collection by leading specialists in Islamic art in from the Collection of Edmund de Unger. Hirmer Ver- the seventies of the 20th century. Among them were Géza lag, München, 2007. (27,5 cm, 132). ISBN 978-3-7774- Fehérvári, Islamic pottery of the eighth to the fifteenth cen- 4085-9. / 34,90. tury in the Keir Collection, London 1976; Ernst Grube, Writing a catalogue accompanying an exhibition on Islamic Pottery of the eighth to the fifteenth Century in the , London 1976; Basil W. Robinson, Islamic art is by no means an easy task. The buyer of such a Keir Collection Islamic , Lon- catalogue is foremost the visitor of the exhibition who does Painting and the Arts of the Book. The Keir Collection don 1976; and Friedrich Spuhler, not fit easily into a single category. It may be the interested Islamic Carpets and Tex- , London 1978. In 1988 an over- traveller who plans a trip to the Middle East and sees the tiles in the Keir Collection view of the collection was published by several authors and exhibition and its catalogue as an excellent introduction to edited by Basil W. Robinson, the culture of the countries of his visit. It might be the stu- Islamic Art in the Keir Collec- . This initiative might well have encouraged other private dent or the scholar of Islamic history or religion, interested tion collectors to advance scholarly activities in the field of in the material culture of Islamic lands. A small group will Islamic art. An even more extensive publication-series (The consist of students and researchers of Islamic art, eager to Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art Series) is now stand face to face with the objects that were stored and hid- conducted on the instigation of collector Nasser D. Khalili den from public view in the storerooms of museums or the and was initialised in the eighties of the last century. houses of private collectors and to study them from close by. Given the interest of collector Edmund de Unger in Others might visit because of a thirst for more information encouraging research and disseminating knowledge it is on Islam, a need that apparently increased especially after hardly surprising that the selected 110 objects in 9/11, and which resulted in more visitors to museums dis- A Collec- were already published before in his series of playing Islamic cultures and art-forms. And finally, but not tor’s Fortune monographs. In some cases new insights have stimulated exhaustively, among this kaleidoscopic group of visitors are new attributions of provenance and dates. The catalogue people drawn foremost by the art itself: the slender flowing starts with introductions by collector De Unger and former lines of calligraphy, the idealized depictions of love and director of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Haase. These kingship in Persian miniatures or the woven treasures of col- are followed by the core of the catalogue: descriptions of ourful textiles and tapestries filled with repetitive floral and 110 objects which are arranged according to media. The first geometric patterns. Taking into account this diversity of art-forms discussed are calligraphy and book art, represented visitors and possible buyers of the catalogue, the question is by 41 objects. Then follow book-bindings (6 items), rock raised how the authors of the catalogue approached their crystal (5), ceramics (7), brocade and velvet (19), classical intended audience? And how did they balance the informa- carpets (6) and metalwork (26). The reasons for this quantita- tion they wanted to convey? tive imbalance between the chapters are not mentioned. An The catalogue under consideration was published on the explanation for the smallest group, the five rock crystals, occasion of the exhibition A Collector’s Fortune. Islamic Art might well stem from the fact that the collection does not held from 27 from the Collection of Edmund de Unger possess more items in this group (p. 64). In itself, though, November 2007 to 17 February 2008 in the Pergamon this is a remarkable quantity for there are only nearly 200 museum in . Edmund de Unger (1918-2011) was a medieval Islamic rock-crystal objects in collections known lawyer of Hungarian descent who made his fortune as a today. The emphasis on miniatures in the chapter on book art property developer in the United Kingdom where he was could be explained by the collector’s fondness for figural based from 1949 onwards. He was the owner of the famous illustrations. His preference does not always seem to have Keir Collection of Islamic art, named so after the house he played a leading role, for Islamic ceramics, admired by the inhabited in London. His long-time relationship (exceeding collector for its qualities to combine ‘warmth of colour, del- more than 40 years) with the staff of the Museum für Islam- icacy and boldness of design’, are represented by seven ische Kunst in Berlin and his close bond with former director objects only (p. 7). Claus-Peter Haase were instrumental in his decision to lend All chapters but one start with a short introduction after high quality objects from his collection for this exhibition. It which most emphasis is on the objects themselves. In the coincided with a major loan of a large part of his collection case of the rock crystals both the introduction and analysis to the Museum für Islamische Kunst, for it to pass into the of the objects are closely related as all five items are from possession of The Prussian Cultural Foundation after his the Fatimid period (969-1171) and were made for the (ruling) death. The donation and display of objects from private col- elite in Egypt. Here, besides the production technique, the lections has been a constant in the history of this museum. patrons and the fall of the industry, also the European taste The Islamic Art Department set up by Wilhelm von Bode in for this medium — many rock crystals are now housed in 1904 consisted of objects already in the possession of Berlin church treasuries — is discussed. Author Jens Kröger bal- museums. Von Bode combined them with carpets from his ances his information well between a wider audience with no own private collection. previous knowledge on the art of rock crystals and the stu- Edmund de Unger was not a collector drawn by aesthetics dent of Islamic art who may learn from his descriptive and only. Besides a keen discerning eye he studied his objects reflective approach and his analysis of form and function. with real vigour keeping up to date with contemporary pub- When provenances and chronological scope of the objects lications. He also published his own findings on Mamluk are much wider, as is the case with metalwork and textiles carpets in : ‘The Origin of the Mamluk Carpet Design’ Hali for example, providing the reader both with a general frame- ( 2, 1979, pp. 321-322) and ‘An Ancestor of the Mamluk Hali work and simultaneously giving some insight into the field Carpets’ ( 5/1, 1982, pp. 44-46). Besides that he stimu- Hali is more challenging. However, Gisela Helmecke and Almut lated scholarship by initiating a series of monographs on von Gladiss manage well, though be it in different ways.

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Helmecke concentrates on the art dealers and private collec- Indian spiral scroll carpet is numbered 82, while its descrip- tors from whom De Unger acquired his collection of textiles. tion is given on p. 105 under entry number 84. The descrip- She offers an explanation why so many pieces are time and tion of entries 82-83 on p. 102 is accompanied by photo- again attributed to other localities by subsequent scholars: graphs numbered 83-84 on pp. 104 and 105. Finally, the pinpointing provenances with certainty is hard owing to the reader, irrespective of his background, would have benefited communality of taste and patterns in the medieval Mediter- from the inclusion of dynastic dates and regions, in the text ranean. Her descriptions offer varied information about the itself or provided as a list in an appendix. Also a map of the industry, iconography and the different uses of velvets as region with key place names and a short list of terms would wall-hangings, summer carpets or cushion covers. In her have been helpful. introduction on metalwork Von Gladiss introduces the reader Apart from the critical comments on text editing and the to the different sources for our knowledge on brass vessels: absence of a clear picture of the envisaged reader shared excavations, lists of household-objects in archives, historical among all authors, the catalogue serves its goal as an intro- sources and of course the information on patronage and met- duction to a famous private collection of Islamic art. With its alworkers available in the form of inscriptions on the metal- lavish colour illustrations and often informative texts it does work objects themselves. Of all the seven media discussed in justice to the high quality objects collected by Edmund de this catalogue, the inscriptions on metalwork provide us the Unger over more than 50 years. It gives evidence of the most with factual information on the owner, patron and the diverse expressions (secular and religious, figural and non- places of production. Either the city-name is mentioned or figural, floral, geometric and calligraphic designs) in which the metalworker’s name contained a reference to a locality, artists and craftsmen in Islamic countries excelled. It may such is the case with Ahmad al-Dhaki al-Mawsili, whose well guide those curious about the rest of the de Unger’s nisba refers to his affiliation with the city of Mosul, an collection to check out the other publications on the Keir important metalworking centre in the 13th century (pp. 102- Collection. 104, no. 103). Gladiss places the objects into their proper stylistic context and where necessary provides new attribu- The Hague, April 28, 2011 Luitgard MOLS tions of provenance and dates. Instead of its former attribu- tion to Anatolia in the 12th-13th century by Fehérvári (pp. 84-85, no. 99), she attributes an openwork lantern (no. 91) to 14th century on the basis of stylistic comparisons with openwork metalwork lamps in the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez. Between the chapters an imbalance in chosen perspective and the intended reader is noticeable. Some authors, such as Claus-Peter Haase in his section on the arts of the book, take a reader with a knowledge of Islamic history and culture as their point of departure: dynastic names are given without adding dates or regions and the concise reference to an epic such as the Shahnama (p. 35) presumes an acquaintance with the content of the text and its author. A different approach is chosen by Helmecke who for example explains and contex- tualizes a scene from the classic poetry-work Khamsa of the 12th century poet Nizami (p. 84). Often the authors mention comparable objects in other collections but leave out inven- tory-numbers or references to literature. For whom then is this information provided? The student wishing to know more would benefit greatly from additional information in the form of exact inventory numbers. Simultaneously, for a reader without any background in Islamic art the mentioning of comparable material without showing the pieces them- selves is hardly of interest. The final phase of text and photo editing seems to have been a hasty one. The catalogue would have deserved an accurate text editor so that the multiple typing errors and missing words in sentences would have been reduced to a minimum, preferably to zero. In some cases the text would have benefited from alternative suggestions by a native speaker or a translator. The pressure of time under which museum catalogues often are produced is visible in the erro- neous exchange of some entry numbers or photographs. For example in the introductory text on p. 108 reference is made to a silver bowl and an inkwell, which are numbered nos. 91 and 109, whereas in the catalogue they take in nos. 93 and 98 respectively. Sometimes the photographs are linked to the wrong entries, as is the case for example on p. 102 where the

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