An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World

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An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World Muqarnas An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World Editor Gülru Necipoğlu Managing Editor Karen A. Leal volume 33 Sponsored by The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts LEIDEN | BOSTON 2016 For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV C ONTENTS Géza Dávid, In Memoriam: Győző Gerő (1924–2011) . vii Heba Mostafa, The Early Mosque Revisited: Introduction of the Minbar and Maqṣūra . ............... 1 Diana Isaac Bakhoum, The Foundation of a Tabrizi Workshop in Cairo: A Case Study of Its Influence on the Mosque of Emir Altunbugha al-Maridani . .................................................... 17 Sandra Aube, The Uzun Hasan Mosque in Tabriz: New Perspectives on a Tabrizi Ceramic Tile Workshop . ........................................................................................ 33 Eloïse Brac de la Perrière, Manuscripts in Bihari Calligraphy: Preliminary Remarks on a Little-Known Corpus . ........................................................................................... 63 Keelan Overton, Book Culture, Royal Libraries, and Persianate Painting in Bijapur, circa 1580–1630. 91 Charles Melville, New Light on Shah ʿAbbas and the Construction of Isfahan . ...................... 155 Farshid Emami, Coffeehouses, Urban Spaces, and the Formation of a Public Sphere in Safavid Isfahan 177 Conrad Thake, Envisioning the Orient: The New Muslim Cemetery in Malta . ........................ 221 NOTES AND SOURCES Ünver Rüstem, The Spectacle of Legitimacy: The Dome-Closing Ceremony of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque . ........................................................................................ 253 Mounia Chekhab-Abudaya, Amélie Couvrat Desvergnes, and David J. Roxburgh, Sayyid Yusuf’s 1433 Pilgrimage Scroll (Ziyārātnāma) in the Collection of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha . 345 Hans Barnard, Sneha Shah, Gregory E. Areshian, and Kym F. Faull, Chemical Insights into the Function of Four Sphero-Conical Vessels from Medieval Dvin, Armenia . ............................ 409 For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV Envisioning the Orient: The New Muslim Cemetery in Malta 221 CONRAD THAKE E NVISIONING THE ORIENT: THE NEW MUSLIM CEMETERY IN MALTA The Maltese islands, situated at the crossroads of the perspective—through Orientalist imagery and the con- central Mediterranean basin between Sicily and the ceptual ideals of Romanticism—will be explored with North African coast of Tunisia and Libya, have through- specific reference to the establishment of this late Otto- out their history been ruled by diverse foreign powers, man cemetery in a British island colony. However, prior ranging from the Romans (ca. 218 b.c.–a.d. 395), the to considering this subject in detail it would be useful to Byzantines (535–869), the Arabs (870–1090), the Nor- briefly trace the historical backdrop of the Muslim pres- mans (1090–1265), the Angevins (1266–82), the Ara- ence on the island. gonese (1283–1529), the Order of Saint John (1530–1798), Muslim cemeteries have been found in Malta since at the French (1798–1800), and the British (1801–1964). least the eleventh century. The conquest of the island in With the notable exception of Malta’s prehistoric tem- a.d. 870, spearheaded by the Aghlabids in Muslim Sicily, ples dating to 5000 b.c., the imposing network of mili- would suggest the establishment of Muslim burial sites.1 tary fortifications and the Renaissance city of Valletta Recent historical studies have postulated the theory that founded by the knights of the Order of Saint John have initially it was more the case of a violent razzia leading overshadowed other architectural legacies. In the after- to a virtually depopulated island, rather than a whole- math of the Great Siege of 1565, the island of Malta, now scale occupation of Malta during the tenth century.2 under the rule of the Order, established itself as a strate- Although Roger the Norman did temporarily conquer gic military base and bulwark of Christianity against the the island in 1091, political instability was still the order westward expansion of the Ottoman Empire. Local his- of the day and the Muslim presence and influence re- torical studies have tended to depict a heroic, predomi- mained widely prevalent. It was not until the year 1224, nantly Christian island state that throughout different subsequent to further military expeditions by the Nor- periods in its history managed to successfully repel in- mans from Sicily, that the Latin Christianization of Mal- cursions by foreign Muslim powers. One unintentional ta was virtually complete. Architectural remains and result of this has been that the few local art and archi- artifacts dating from the Arab period are sparse and no tectural forms emanating from non-Christian cultures notable structures or buildings from this period have have been underappreciated and not given the attention survived. they deserve. In 1881, archaeological excavations conducted on the The main objective of this paper is to highlight the site of the Roman Domus, just outside the walls of the historical and architectural significance of a unique settlement of Melite (Mdina), revealed the presence of nineteenth-century Muslim cemetery complex built un- an extensive eleventh-century Muslim cemetery esti- der the auspices of the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz (r. mated to have more than 245 graves placed directly over 1861–76). It is the final culmination of several Muslim Roman-era floors.3 The bodies were buried in an east- cemeteries that were discreetly established on the island west orientation, lying on their sides with the heads fac- in various historical periods. The way in which a Muslim ing south. Between 1920 and 1925, Sir Themistocles cemetery has been represented from a Western cultural Zammit led further archaeological investigations on a An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00331P09 ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) MUQJ Muqarnas Online 33-1 (2016) 221-252 For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV 222 Conrad Thake number of fragmented tombstones made predominant- ly of local globigerina limestone and prismatic in form. The type of tombstones referred to here are known as mqabriyyah, with origins in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The Kufic inscriptions carved into the tomb- stones were mostly quotations from the Koran, although some record the name of the deceased along with their dates of death.4 Some five hundred years later, in 1675, another Mus- lim cemetery was established along the Strada Croce della Marsa, in the Menqa area and a short distance from Spencer Hill, Blata il-Bajda. That year, Grand Master Nicolo Cotoner granted land to be used as a cemetery to the predominantly Turkish Muslim slave community.5 It replaced an earlier one that had been destroyed by the knights when the Floriana line of fortifications was built after 1635. An eighteenth-century map shows the cem- etery, designated as the “Cimitere de Turchi,” situated along the “Sciat El Kuabar,” underlying the Kortin head- land (fig. 1).6 The Muslim cemetery remained in use un- til 1873, when the main road network leading to Floriana and Valletta was completely re-planned, necessitating the transfer of the cemetery to its present location in Marsa.7 On July 12, 1873, the local newspaper, The Malta Times and United Service Gazette, published the following short announcement: A New Mahomedan Cemetery at Malta—We are credibly informed that the local Government has acceded a grant of wasteland on the rise to Casal Luca from the Marsa, in the vicinity of the former Paper Manufactory to the Ottoman Consul General for the formation of a more decent place of Fig. 1. Map showing the location (circled in blue) of the sepulture, than has heretofore been appropriated to those seventeenth-century Muslim cemetery designated as the dying in Malta, professing the creed of Mahomet. We have “Cimitere de Turchi” along the “Sciat el Kuabar.” (Map: cour- also been given to understand that in this concession there tesy of the National Library Malta, Valletta) is a special reference that the Consul General for the Empire of Morocco and the Regency of Tunis is to have the right of issues relating to the repair and maintenance of the old holding a key; but why a like privilege has not been stipu- cemetery and ambiguities as to the title of ownership.9 lated in the contract in favour of the Consul for Persia, for In a letter dated March 2, 1865 and addressed to the lo- the subjects of the Shah, is likely to form the subject of Of- cal British governor, Duhany claimed that he “had been ficial enquiry through the Minister in London.8 authorized by the Government of the Sublime Ottoman Even before this formal notice in the local press, nego- Porte to make some repairs in the cemetery destined tiations had been underway for quite some time. Cor- for the internment of Mussalmans dying in the islands respondence dating to 1865 between Antoine Naoum and requesting [sic] that before incurring the expense Duhany, representing the Ottoman consulate, and Vic- necessary for effecting those repairs that that [i.e., the tor Houlton, the chief secretary of state, reveals several Ottoman] Government be recognized as the sole and For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV Envisioning the Orient: The New Muslim Cemetery in Malta 223 exclusive owner of that ground.”10 Almost six months consul in Malta and Giovanni Battista Trapani in his ca- later, the chief secretary of state responded to Duhany, pacity as collector of the Department of Land Revenue saying, “I am directed to state that on receipt of that and Public Works and representative of the governor of communication, His Excellency [the British governor] Malta.14 The transfer of the land necessitated the termi- caused a careful inquiry to be made in to the circum- nation of the existing rental lease, with the lessee being stances connected with the original acquisition as well compensated by being given full ownership of an adjoin- as the present possession and management of that ing parcel of land fronting the public road.
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