'Versions and Visions of the Alhambra in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman World' West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design, History, and Material Culture, 22:1, Spring/Summer 2015, 44-69. (original) (raw)

Re-envisioning the Alhambra : readings of architecture and ornament from medieval to modern

2011

The Alhambra, a medieval Islamic palatine city located in Granada, Spain, is examined in this thesis as the product of material transformations and changing visual perceptions over time. Selected areas of the Nasrid palatial complex (1238-1492) are explored within the context of their production, their later alterations under Christian rule, and in relation to the interpretations of British travellers, historians, designers and enthusiasts throughout the long nineteenth century. Through the formation of individual and collective identities, responses to cultural difference, and an active engagement with the past, the Alhambra grew to become a commemorative monument of multiple and interrelated histories. In addressing the overlapping structural and ornamental layers which make up its form, this study challenges the historiographic limitations of categories such as 'medieval' and 'modern', as well as formal categories such as 'ornament' and 'architecture&#...

‘History in the making: the ornament of the Alhambra and the past-facing present’, Journal of Art Historiography 6 (June 2012). ISSN 2042-4752.

This article examines the impact of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European perspectives on the development of Alhambra scholarship. An Islamic palatine fortress built near the city of Granada during the Nasrid period (1232-1492), the monument has undergone substantial transformations under Christian occupation, and through its ‘rediscovery’ by foreign visitors in the nineteenth century. The fragmentation of its surfaces through a variety of Romantic and modernising frameworks served to dislocate its decorative forms from their historical and architectural contexts, leading many historians to discuss its designs in relation to previous periods and traditions. The pervasive view of the period and its art as ‘past-facing’ would postpone a critical consideration of the ornament of the Alhambra on its own formal and ideological terms. Only in recent decades has this position been challenged and the monument discussed in terms of its regional specificity and its multiple periods of production and reception.

Ilm and the ‘architecture of happiness’ : the ottoman imperial palace at Edirne/Adrianople, 1451-1877 / author Susan Scollay ; editor Samer Akkach

2019

This chapter considers the imperial palace built by the Ottoman sultan Murat II (r. 1421-51) at Edirne in Thrace and its aesthetic context. The city had been the Ottoman seat of government for almost a century but it was not until the final years of Murat II's reign that the dynasty commissioned a palace of any significance. The built form of the royal complex appeared to have no precedent in the Ottoman realm and, although little studied, has been interpreted by scholars as being a key articulation of the emergence of a new imperial vision. Likely sources of inspiration for key structures of the Edirne Palace include Seljuq and Timurid architectural precedents. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, the term ʿilm al-jamāl (knowledge or science of beauty) describes the concept of aesthetics in modern Arabic usage. Yet, as Doris Behrens-Abousief has noted, it is a term missing from historical Islamic civilisation. Architecture, for example, had pre-eminent status as an art form throughout the Islamic world, yet there were no theoretical writings on architectural design or construction. This chapter proposes that palaces of the imagination described in illustrated manuscripts, such as the Persian Shāhnāma (Book of Kings) and other Persianate poetic tales, were likely models for the Edirne Palace. It concludes that poetic ideals of beauty connected to ʿilm, understood here as knowledge of literature and cultural models from elsewhere in the Islamic world, played a large part in the artistic evolution of the House of Osman.

Courtyards and Ottoman mosques in the 15th and 16th centuries: Symbolism, mimesis and demise

The first aim of this paper is to describe the emergence of courtyards in Ottoman sultanic mosques in the fifteenth century and discuss the background of this pivotal transition. The reception of courtyards in Ottoman mosques dates back to A.H. 841(1437), Üç Şerefeli Cami in Edirne. The fact that Eyüp Sultan Camii in Istanbul was the second sultanic mosque with a courtyard indicates the royal symbolism of courtyard at a mosque, since the one in Eyüp functioned as the stage of sword girding (kılıç kuşanma) ceremonial of newly enthroned sultans. Secondly, in order to affirm that only sultans could construct mosques with courtyards, a few exceptional non-sultanic mosques with courtyards are examined. These pseudo-courtyards, were merely extensions which was a clever solution for non-sultanic benefactors. Finally, it is analysed how Sinan prepared a formula for courtyards in mosques for his non-sultanic patrons in the sixteenth century. He adopted an existing “mosque and madrasa” style for these patrons, but carefully alluded to the difference between the mosque section and the madrasa. However, it was also Sinan who abandoned this meticulous design and started building mosques with courtyards for non-sultanic patrons in a sultanic manner in 1580s. The demise of courtyards as a symbol of the omnipotent sultan coincided with the political upheaval of the dynasty. Since then, Queen Mothers and other court officials began to participate in decision making of the colossal empire, as well as enjoying a freedom to donate mosques in a style once only adopted at sultanic mosques.

Taking the Alhambra to St. Petersburg. Neo-Moorish Russian Architecture and Interiors 1830–1917

2023

Little is known of Russian architects’ in-depth engagement with Ibero-Islamic architecture, especially the medieval Nasrid palaces of the Alhambra in Granada, in the so-called Moorish Revival. This study, rich in material, analyzes 19th-century Orientalizing buildings and interiors in St. Petersburg and traces the routes by which the formal vocabulary of the Alhambra reached Russia from Spain. Incorporating essential aspects of Russian cultural history and 19th-century European notions of the Orient, it shows that Russian architects and the Imperial Academy of Arts were among the pioneers of the Moorish Revival.