Chapter 8 Vocabulary

Chapter 8 Vocab.

Abbasid Dynasty: 750-1258 replaced the Umayyad dynasty
Aniconic: non figural
Arabesque: scrolling vines
Caliph: “successor” ruler of the Islamic kingdom,
Calligraphy: fancy Arabic writing used as and in art
Hadith: a composite book of what Muhammad did and said
Horseshoe arch: a round arch with an indentation in the middle
Imam: Prayer leader
Islam: Monotheistic religion created by Muhammad the Prophet
Iwan: large rectangular vaulted halls w/ monumental arched openings.
Kaaba: Islam’s holiest structure. One room cube shaped building, when Muslims pray they direct themselves towards the Kaaba. Thought to be built by Ishmael and Abraham over a foundation made by Adam
Khamsa of Nizami: Five poems written by Persian Mystic poet
Kilim: Flat woven carpet
Koran: “Recitation” Holy book of Islam
Kufic: Angular, earliest scripts for the city of Kufa
Madrasas: Schools for advanced study, like modern universities
Mecca: birthplace of Muhammad, place of the major pilgramage
Miniatures: individual small scaled paintings
Minbar: Pulpit
Mirador: Projecting rooms with windows on three sides
Mosque: Muslim place of worship
Muqarnas: Niche-like pointed arch
Naskhi: script used by educated Muslims
Nasrid: last Spanish Muslim Dynasty 1232-1492)
Ogival or Pointed Arch: an arch with a pointed tip and stones outlining
Thuluth:popilar Mamluk cursive scriptTugras: Imperial calligraphic design
Umayyad Dynasty: 661-750. Founded by Uthman. The Umayyads spread from India to Spain and Northern Africa
Warp and Weft: Warp is vertical portion of the wool carpets, wefts are the flat woven horizontal rows that hold the piece together.

Chapter 8 images part 3

8-14 Qibla wall with minrab and minbar
Main iwar in a mosque, sultan Hasan madras-mausoleum-mosque. Cairo, Egypt. 1356-63. Shows Seljuk influence. Functioned as classrooms with the student housing in the surrounding rooms. Has marble panels and double-arches recessed minrab with thin columns holding up pointed arches. The inlays, marble, have red, white, and blue stripes, minbar made of carved stone instead of the usual wood,

8-15 Sinan. Selimiye Cami (Mosque of selim), Edirne
Turkey. 1570-74. Royal mosque, only royal mosque could have more then two minarets, they usually had more. The dome is more than 102 feet in diameter. The complex has a madrasa, and other educational buildings, a burial ground, a hospital, a covered market and baths, and charity kitchens, the shape of the mosque shifts from square to octagon to circle as it moves up. It is raised up.

8-17 Griffin
Islamic Mediterranean, probably from Fatimid Egypt. 11th century, Bronze, height 42 1/8”. Stylized. Maybe a fountain spout. They made many metal works in the shapes of birds. The piece is incised with feathers, scales, and silk trapping. On the thighs there and animals in medallions. The bands of the chest and back have tufic lettering along with scale and circle patterns.

8-19 bottle
Syria. Mid 14th century. Blown glass with enamel and gilding. 19 ½ x 9 ½”. has a large inscription naming and honoring the Rasulid sultan in thuluth, a mamluk cursive script, it also has the Rasulid insignia, a red rosette with five petals

8-20 Ewer
Kashan, Persia (Iran). Early 13th century. Glazed and painter fritware, height 11 13/16”. Double-walled. Panted and pierced on the outer shell with tangled vines surrounding seated human figures. Glazed with luster (a thin transparent glaze with a metallic sheen, applied over the colored glazes) and translucent turquoise.

8-21 Banner of Las Navas de Tolosa
Detail of center panel, from southern Spain. 1212-50. Silk Tapestry-weave with gilt parchment. 10’9 7/8” x 7’2 5/8”. It has an eight-pointed star in the center. It has calligraphic panels down the sides and across the top. The piece has eight lobes with gold crescents and white inscribed parchment medallions that form the lower edge of the banner.

Art History -Chap 8- Images Parts 1+2

8.3 Cut-Away Drawing of the Dome of the Rock

• 687-91
  
• Oldest surviving Islamic sanctuary
  
• Stands on platform of the temple Mount and encloses a rock outcropping that is sacred to the Jews
  
  
  • Where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac
    
• Built by Syrian artisans in the Byzantine tradition
  
• Central plan
  
• Crowned with a golden dome. Decorated with tiles outside and marble veneer and mosaic inside
  
• Frieze on inner wall contain inscriptions from the Koran with passages from other texts
  
• Walls are covered with pale marble whose veining creates abstract symmetrical patterns and columns with shafts of gray patterned marble and gilded capitals
  
• Mosaics thought to represent the gardens of Paradise
  

8-5 Frieze, Detail of Façade

• The frieze of Mshatta extended in a band 16 feet high across the base
  
• It was divided by a zigzag molding into triangular compartments
  
  
  • Each has contains a large rosette in high relief
    
• Compartments were filled with intricate carvings in low relief that included interlacing scrolls inhabited by birds and other animals
  

8.6 Prayer Hall, Great Mosque

• One of the earlier mosques
  
• Hypostyle hall
  
  
  • Approached through an open courtyard
    
  • Sahn an dinteriors are divided by rows of columns leading at the far end to the mihrab niche of a qibla wall
    

8-24 Behram Gur Visiting One of His Wives, an Indian Princess

• Illustrates the character from a lyrical favorite
  
• Round impassive faces of the amorous couple and their servants are a part of their idealization of the Timurid style painting
  
• There are no shadows and the colors are all bright although the scene takes place at night
  
• In the background there you see a garden in bloom through an opening in the wall
  
• Foreground contains a silver stream that has been tarnished back
  

8-26 Illuminated Tugra of Sultan Suleyman

• Istanbul, Turkey
  
• 1555-60
  
• Ink, paint, and gold on paper
  
• Oversized Tugra that required more than the usual skill to execute
  
• The color scheme of the floral interlace enclosed in the body was inspiried by Chinese blue-and-white ceramics
  

8.2 Dome of the Rock Jerusalem

• 687-91
  
• The gilt wooden beams in the outer ambulatory are not visable
  
• The carpets and ceiling are modern, but probably reflect the original patron's design
  
• See 8.3
  

8.7 Dome in front of the mihrab, Great Mosque
-965
-the melon-shaped, ribbed dome over one bays seems to float over a web of intersecting arches that rise from polylobed
-intersects arches rather than supporting piers
-lushly patterned mosaics w/ inscriptions, geometric motifs, & stylized vegetations clothe the domes in brilliant color and gold

Mosque Plans:
Hypostyle Halls:
-Great Mosque, Cordoba.
-sahn: the courtyard; interior is divided by rows of columns leading, at the far end, to the mihrab niche of a qibla wall, which is orients toward Mecca
Four -iwan Mosque:
-originally associated w/ madrasas (schools for advanced study)
-iwans: monumental barrel-vaulted halls w/ wide-open, arched entrances; faces each other across the sahn
-most were developed in Persia
Central-plan Mosque:
-Selimiye Cami, Edirne: mosque derived from from Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia - typical Ottoman Turkish architecture
-interior is dominated by a large doomed space uninterrupted by structural supports
-worship is directed toward a qibla wall and its mihrab opposite the entrance

8.8. Bowl with kufic border:
-from Samarkand, Uzbekistan; 9th-10th cent; Earthenware w/ slip, pigment, & lead glaze
-a bowl of medium quality, clear lead glaze was applied over a black inscription on a white slip-painted ground
-letters are elongated to fill the rim
-inscriptions translates: ”Knowledge, the beginning of it is bitter to taste, but the end is sweeter than honey”

8.10 Court of the Lions, Palace of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, Spain
-completed. C. 1370-80
-a private retreat built by Muhammad the fifth (ruled 1362-91) in the late 14th cent.
-a rectangular courtyard named for a marble fountain surrounded by stone lions
-presently sanded
-originally a garden w/ aromatic shrubs, flowers, & small citrus trees between water channels that radiate from the central Lion Fountain
-2nd floor has miradors: projecting rooms w/ windows on 3 sides

8.12 Courtyard, Masjid-I Jami (Great Mosque), Isfahan, Persia (Iran)
-11th-18th cent. View from the northeast
-originally a hypostyle mosque; late 11th cent. Refurbished w/ 2 brick domes; 12th cent. W/ 4 iwans and a monumental gate flanked by paired minarets
-brick masonry on the interior of the iwans is unadorned; facades are sheathed in brilliant blue architectural tilework; typical Islamic feature for why this monument is famous

8.13 Tile mosaic mihrab, from the Madrasa Imami, Isfahan, Persia (Iran)
-c. 1354 (restored). Glazed and painted ceramic
-now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
-11 ft tall, made by cutting each piece of tile individually, including the pieces making up the letters on the curving surface of the niche
-color scheme (white against turquoise and cobalt blue w/ accents of dark yellow & green) is a typical kind of decoration