The Language of Gardens :Ibn Al -"Arabi's Barzakh,The Coutryard
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THE LANGUAGE OF GARDENS: IBN AL-„ARABI‟S BARZAKH, THE COURTYARD GARDENS OF THE ALHAMBRA AND THE PRODUCTION OF SACRED SPACE Language articulates the contents of the self in a barzakh, an isthmus– i.e., the breath–that is neither immaterial like the self, nor material like the external world. We know the barzakh is there because we experience its articulation, not least through enunciation and hearing spoken works. Language is intelligible, becauseTown the self is intelligent, and it is sensory, because it is perceived by sensation. Hence it is a world of imagination, a barzakh between awareness and embodiment, self and other. It is an image of the self and of the world outside the self. It is neither here nor there, neither this nor that. It clarifies and obscures, reveals and veils.1 Cape of ≈ Eye, hearing, and all sensation are aiders and helpers of reason‘s acquisitions. With the eye you will see the absent, not with my arguments. (III 78.4)2 University 1 William C. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-„Arabī‟s Cosmology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), xxxiii. 2 Ibid., 261. (III 78.4). See Note 2, pg. 1. Thesis Presented by Ursula Badenhorst for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Religious Studies UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN February, 2014 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University Town Cape of University ii Acknowledgements Firstly, my sincere appreciation goes to Prof. David Chidester, for everything I have learned from him and for his continuous help and support in all stages of this thesis. He had the wonderful ability to know exactly what to say to keep me motivated and inspired in order to complete my thesis. I would like to express my deep gratitude and respect to Sa‘diyya Shaikh, whose advice and insight was invaluable to me. Not only is her knowledge of Ibn al-‗Arabi and Sufi Mysticism unquestionable, but I could always rely on her to focus my wandering mind on the important details of my thesis. A special thanks to Adrian Tyler, who without hesitationTown gave permission to use some of his beautiful photos in this project. Finally, I would like to thank my husbandCape and my children for always believing in me. With their continuousof love and encouragement I was able to continue on this journey with great confidence and conviction. University i Abstract The aim of this thesis is to propose a multilayered and interdisciplinary understanding of space by focussing on the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra. By presenting a theoretical conversation on the Sufi notion of the barzakh (an intermediary and relational space) between the premodern Muslim mystic Ibn al-‗Arabi and contemporary western theorists concerned with space, movement and aesthetics, such as Louis Marin, Henri Lefebvre, Tim Ingold and Martin Seel, this thesis offers an original contribution to the spatial analysis of religion as embodied in the architecture, gardens, and imagination of the Alhambra. Emphasising the barzakh‟s role in the interplay between presence and meaning this thesis alsoTown draws attention to the dialogue between self as spectator and the garden as spectacle. Through this dialogue, Ibn al-‗Arabi‘s concept Capeof the barzakh , which he developed in terms of ontology, epistemologyof and hermeneutics, is investigated and analysed in order to identify a theory of knowledge that relies on the synthesis between experience and imagination. The union of meaning and presence afforded by the intermediary quality of the barzakh is further demonstratedUniversity in the physical, imaginative and virtual worlds of the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra. Viewing the Alhambra palaces and gardens in terms of Ibn al-‗Arabi‘s barzakh, they produce their own language, a ―showing‖ of their outer and inner movements, which prompts and provokes the spectator to participate in a poetical and creative encounter. Seen as a barzakh, these gardens put space into movement. Using the analogy of medieval Islamic travel genres such as riḥla and ‗Ajā‟ib, this thesis shows that we can encounter these gardens through a sensory engagement with ii Abstract their architectural elements. Understood as a barzakh, the visual and haptic elements of these gardens are amplified and carried over in other media such as literature and film. The travel narrative ―Gringa Morisca‖ by Sally Shivnan and the short film Arabesque for Kenneth Anger by Marie Menken serve as examples of the barzakh‟s liminal and relational qualities. In essence, ―Gringa Morisca‖ and Arabesque for Kenneth Anger show the exterior mapping of the Alhambra gardens as a barzakh, and simultaneously, also, the mapping of an interior and emotive journey in the self. On the one hand, ―Gringa Morisca‖ and Arabesque for Kenneth Anger exhibit the barzakh in terms of a production of movement, soundTown and light. On the other hand, these two examples reveal the barzakh as a visual language in which embodied practise and imaginationCape come together in a sensual and perceptual encounter. Emphasizingof not only the spatial qualities of the barzakh, but also its sensory and imaginative characteristics, this thesis offers a challenge to the dominating emphasis on meaning and hermeneutical interpretation. Thus, moving away from the academic hegemony Universityof space as only a medium of representation, this thesis proposes that space encountered as a barzakh has epistemological value for it allows a person to live creatively in the world. The barzakh stands in-between the self and the world, interpretation and aesthetic awareness, therefore, functioning at once reverentially and poetically. Using the barzakh as a methodical classifier of space can contribute to the ongoing debate centred on overcoming the opposition between the poetics and politics of space. Space identified as a barzakh offers us the means to move away from a iii Abstract subject and object, inner and outer, physical and emotional dichotomy. Through the lenses of Ibn al-‗Arabi‘s barzakh, this thesis, thus, maps an epistemological, imaginative and aesthetic journey through the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra. Town Cape of University iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ------------------------------------------------------------------- i Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ii Table of Contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- v List of Figures --------------------------------------------------------------------------- viii Chapter One: Transcending Boundaries -------------------------------------- 1 Current Research ----------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Method ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Town Chapter Outline-------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Chapter Two: “Betwixt and BetweenCape:” The Barzakh and Heterotopia ------------------------------------------------------of 27 Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 The Barzakh ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 31 HeterotopiaUniversity ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 The Neutral ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 52 Conclusion: Mapping the Barzakh ------------------------------------------- 65 Chapter Three: The Alhambra Gardens of Light and Shadow --------- 71 Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 72 Landscape into Meaning -------------------------------------------------------- 82 v Table of Contents The Courtyard Garden ---------------------------------------------------------- 86 The Courtyard Garden within a Medieval Islamic Framework -------- 91 Arabic Lexicology of Landscape and Garden ----------------------------- 94 Ibn al-‗Arabi: Market of the Garden ------------------------------------------ 98 The Courtyard Gardens of the Alhambra: A Barzakhian Approach - 106 Miradors ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 110 Water ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 112 Town Light --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 125 Screens ----------------------------------------------------------------------Cape 129 Conclusion: Gardens of theof Imagination ------------------------------------ 135 Chapter Four: The Alhambra: A Journey of Discovery ------------------- 142 Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 143 Travel:University A Practise of Exploration --------------------------------------------- 158 On the Garden Path -------------------------------------------------------------- 168 Conclusion: Gardens with Atmosphere ------------------------------------- 185 Chapter Five: The Alhambra: Presence and Absence -------------------- 194 Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 195 Presence ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 204 vi Table of Contents