Spanish+Islamic+Art

Spanish Islamic Art: THE ART OF THE ALHAMBRA DE GRANADA   Spain was conquered in 714 A.D. by Muslim armies (after being conquered by, among others, Romans and Visigoths). During the 800 years until Spain was reconquered by Christians, the Muslims greatly influenced the culture of Spain. During the middle ages, when little mathematics and science were being done in the rest of Europe, Spain was an intellectual center.  The Alhambra is a walled city and fortress in Granada, Spain. It was built during the last Islamic sultanate on the Iberian peninsula, the Nasrid Dynasty (1238-1492). The palace is lavishly decorated with stone and wood carvings and tile patterns on most of the ceilings, walls, and floors. Islamic art does not use representations of living beings, but heavily uses geometric patterns, especially symmetric (repeating) patterns. In this "Medieval-Renaissance" period, Arabic artists excelled in the geometric art of figrative adornment. The finest example of this is The Alhambra in Grenada (Spain), a fortess and palace. Mathematicians recognize 128 distinct patterns of "the wallpaper-tile group". All of these appear in the decorations of The Alhambra. Since 711, with the attack and conquest of the Peninsula, Spain was under Islamic rule for eight centuries, until 1492, when the Catholic Monarchs conquered the last Moslem domain: the Kingdom of Granada. Al-Andalus, as the Arabian named the conquered territories in the Iberian Peninsula, became one of the most important cultural centers in Europe. The most outstanding Islamic centers in Spain were Cordoba, in the first place; and then Granada. The Almohads´s defeat in the battle of Navas de Tolosa in 1212 allowed the Christians to advance. This fact, apart from splitting the Muslim supremacy, divided the Islamic power into new kingdoms of which the Granada Nazarí one was the most wealthy and powerful since 1238. Some of the most important artistic works of the Islamic art, which also constitute the last samples from the Hispano-Muslim art, rose during their domain. The Alhambra, together with the Generalife gardens, are undoubtedly the most fascinating monumental complex from the Nazarí art. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Alhambra, which was built on the remains of an 11th century ancient castle, became then a palace and, later on, a small town where the nazarí sultans had their residence. The Alhambra stands on the highest point of the Sabíka Hill, which rises on the left bank of the Darro river. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Alhambra name comes from the reddish color of the walls of a previous castle, already mentioned in the Arabian chronicles of 889. The existence of a "red castle" on the Sabika Hill allows scholars to date its antiquity. According to the 12th century chronicles, the Nazarí resistance used the Alhambra as a refuge from both the Almoravids and the Almohads. It is quite probable that the last ones dismantled the old citadel when the different revolts had been put down. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Alhambra is the most important work of art dating from the last Islamic sultanate in the Iberian Peninsula. The Nasrid Dynasty (1238 - 1492), who was responsible for the building of the Palace, combined artistic and cultural activities with their constant policy of military campaigns and pacts. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Within the long tradition of Hispano-Muslim art, the Nasrids represent the culmination of the evolution of Islamic culture in Europe which at the time was more advanced than that of their feudal Christian enemies. The Alhambra of Granada is the most characteristic example of Nasrid art, which is the high point of the periods of the Emirate, the Caliphate of Cordoba, the Alhambra is one of the most widely known of all Islamic works of art. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Nasrid Sultans chose as the site for their court the //Sabika// hill, one of the foothills of Sierra Nevada on the plain of Granada, which constituted an excellent site from which to keep watch over the capital of their kingdom and the surrounding area. From the beginning of the 13th century, the small older buildings gradually grew into a huge walled site which clearly intended to be both palace and court. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Within this gradual change, different stages of development, grandeur and decadence can clearly be seen through the various works of art and buildings erected over the years. The Alhambra was not a single static construction, built at a specific date, but rather the result of an evolution, successive reforms and extensions. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Its buildings are divided into four main different, though not independent areas. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Alcazaba //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">, i. e. the military fortress, built on the oldest site of the Alhambra, was soon put to purely military use since it was situated on the highest part of the hill, watching over the surrounding area. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Medina //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">, created to house craftsmen and serve the needs of the court, has the layout of a town in miniature. It occupies the largest part of the walled area, situated within the so-called "Upper Alhambra", and still conserves the ruins of several houses, baths and small workshops on its typical alleys and squares. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Palaces are independent from each other, and maintain a slight hierarchy. To date, five palaces which belonged to the sultan all within an area clearly set aside for palaces, together with at least two others, that of the Abencerrajes and that of the former Saint Francis' Convent, both within the Medina, have been identified. Finally, the outlying buildings, designed to be leisure and supply centers also fulfilled a defensive function. They were to be found throughout the area surrounding the Alhambra and included the //Generalife//, //Torres Bermejas// and the //Palace of the Alijares//, which unfortunately no longer exists. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">One of the most surprising characteristics of the Alhambra is the way in which its simple structures were transformed into truly pleasing architectural jewels by the magnificent decorative work of anonymous craftsmen, and continue to enthrall and delight those who wee them today. Although the Alhambra is today devoid of furniture, and most of the rich colors of its decoration have worn off, we have been left at least the testimony of its purpose summed up for prosperity by the dynasty's moto, //wa la galiba illa Allah// (No one conquers but Allah), which appears so many times in the decoration of its buildings amidst innumerable religious quotations and poetic lines, as proof of a spirit alive beyond "mere" material constructions. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The Arab Contribution **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Muslims left an enormous contribution to the history of the world during their time in Spain. They preserved much of the learning of the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Persians and transmitted this knowledge back to the Europeans via Spain. They also had many many innovations of their own. Contemporary art, linguistics, science, medicine, philosophy and mathematics all owe a debt to the Spanish Muslims. Modern Spanish and Portuguese have two main roots: Latin and Arabic. Much of these languages come to us as a direct result of the Muslims who lived in the Iberian Peninsula. At that time, Arabic was // the // international scientific language. Muslims also created many schools and very famous universities. Following the fall of the [|Roman Empire] and the dawn of the [|Middle Ages], many texts from [|Classical Antiquity] had been lost to the Europeans. In the [|Middle East] however, many of these Greek texts (such as [|Aristotle] ) were translated from [|Greek] into [|Syriac] during the 6th and 7th centuries by monks living in [|Palestine], or by Greek exiles from [|Athens] or [|Edessa] who visited Islamic Universities. Many of these texts however were then kept, translated, and developed upon by the Islamic world, especially in centers of learning such as [|Baghdad], where a “ [|House of Wisdom] ”, with thousands of manuscripts existed as soon as 832. These texts were translated again into European languages during the Middle Ages. These texts were translated back into Latin in multiple ways. One of the main points of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe was in [|Toledo], [|Spain]. Islam was not, however, a simple re-transmitter of knowledge from antiquity. It also developed its own sciences, such as [|algebra], [|chemistry] , [|geology] , [|spherical trigonometry] , etc. which were later also transmitted to the West. Stefan of Pise translated into Latin around 1127 an Arab manual of medical theory. The method of algorism for performing arithmetic with Indian- [|Arabic numerals] was developed by [|al-Khwarizmi] (hence the word “ [|Algorithm] ”) in the 9th century, and introduced in Europe by [|Leonardo Fibonacci] (1170–1250). A translation of the [|//Algebra//] by al-Kharizmi is known as early as 1145. [|Ibn al-Haytham] compiled treaties on optical sciences, which were used as references by [|Newton] and [|Descartes]. Medical sciences were also highly developed in Islam as testified by the Crusaders, who relied on Arab doctors on numerous occasions. Contributing to the growth of European science was the major search by European scholars for new learning which they could only find among Muslims, especially in [|Islamic Spain] and [|Sicily]. These scholars translated new scientific and philosophical texts from [|Arabic] into [|Latin]. <span style="height: 146.25pt; margin-left: 300pt; margin-top: -33.05pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 180pt; z-index: 1;">  In short, the contributions of the Muslims to modern Western culture have been profound with permanent results. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"> <span style="height: 222.75pt; left: 0px; margin-left: -54.75pt; margin-top: 9.2pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; text-align: left; visibility: visible; width: 180pt; z-index: 2;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">

//"Torre de las Damas" in the Partal of the Alhambra. The site formed part of a Nasrid Palace, dating from the first half of the XIV century.// <span style="height: 219.75pt; left: 0px; margin-left: 195.75pt; margin-top: 25.2pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; text-align: left; visibility: visible; width: 180pt; z-index: 3;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">

<span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;">       <span style="height: 18.75pt; left: 0px; margin-left: 11.25pt; margin-top: 3.05pt; position: absolute; text-align: left; width: 32.25pt; z-index: 5;"> //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The so called Hall of Comares, in the Alhambra, was in fact the Throne Hall about the middle of the XIV century. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;">         <span style="height: 7.15pt; left: 0px; margin-left: 250.5pt; margin-top: 33.15pt; position: absolute; text-align: left; width: 58.5pt; z-index: 6;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> //The Baths of the Alhambra.// <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"> <span style="height: 210.75pt; left: 0px; margin-left: -28.5pt; margin-top: 3.25pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; text-align: left; visibility: visible; width: 153.75pt; z-index: 4;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> //Inside of the "Torre de las Infantas" of the Alhambra.// <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"> <span style="height: 7.15pt; left: 0px; margin-left: 9.75pt; margin-top: 4.45pt; position: absolute; text-align: left; width: 139.5pt; z-index: 7;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Islamic art uses patterns made of geometric designs. Complex geometric designs create the impression of unending repetition, which is believed by some to represent the infinite (unending in time and space) nature of God. In religious buildings and palaces, as well as in common objects like bowls and rugs, the art of Arabic geometric designs is very common. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="height: 131.25pt; margin-left: 376.5pt; margin-top: 10.3pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 132pt; z-index: 9;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">A. The star was the most common Islamic design. In Islamic design, the star is a regular geometric shape that symbolizes equal radiation in all directions from a central point. All regular stars -- whether they have 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 16 points -- are created by a division of a circle into equal parts. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="height: 142.5pt; margin-left: -10.5pt; margin-top: -0.75pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 187.5pt; z-index: 10;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Here is an example of a six-pointed star found in a mosque in Lahore, Pakistan: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Eight pointed stars can also be made from two squares turned at different angles: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">. . .  <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Here are some colorful tiles that show the geometrical designs that come from two squares - the eight-pointed star. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="height: 159.75pt; margin-left: -6pt; margin-top: 17.2pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 162pt; z-index: 11;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 9pt;">Tiles from Andalusia, Muslim Spain <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 9pt;">Tiles from the Alhambra Palace, Grenada, Andalusia <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Here are five-pointed stars that repeat in patterns based on a square. <span style="height: 228.75pt; margin-left: 1.5pt; margin-top: 0.2pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 216.75pt; z-index: 8;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Here are some decorations based on the twelve-pointed star. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In 1936, the Dutch artist M. C. Escher visited the Alhambra, the fourteenth-century Moorish palace in southern Spain, and experienced a revelation. Until that time, Escher, who lived from 1898 to 1972, had directed his gaze toward the natural world. His work had consisted of portraits, plant and figure studies, and renderings of Italian hill towns and the Mediterranean coastline. An extraordinary craftsman who worked primarily in woodcutting and lithography, Escher had painstakingly studied natural form and explored techniques for transforming three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional graphic designs. He had not yet devised the tile patterns, geometric solids, impossible structures, and optical illusions for which he would become famous. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Escher's trip to the Alhambra gave new direction to his work. The walls and floors of the palace are decorated with colorful and intricately carved tessellations, patterns of tiles capable of covering an entire surface without leaving space between them. Escher filled sketchbook after sketchbook with pencil drawings reproducing the patterns and analyzing their geometry. Excited by his discovery, he wrote, years later: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> What a pity it was that Islam forbade the making of "images." In their <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> tessellations they restricted themselves to figures with abstracted <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> geometrical shapes. So far as I know, no single Moorish artist ever <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> made so bold as to use concrete recognizable figures such as birds, fish, reptiles, and human beings as elements of their tessellations. Then I find this <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> restriction all the more unacceptable because... it is precisely this <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> crossing of the divide between abstract and concrete representations, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> between "mute" and "speaking" figures, which leads to the heart of  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> what fascinates me above all in the regular division of the plane. Escher defined "tessellation" as "the regular division of a plane” or "Repeating shapes or patterns that cover a surface without gaps or overlaps." The Alhambra artists made many beautiful tessellations long before Escher was born, but Escher made tessellation art popular. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">