SHRINES AND PALACES

TOPKAPI PALACE Located at the center of the mighty Ottoman Empire, the Topkapi Palace can seem, at first, surprisingly unassertive. Indeed, it is not a palace in the European sense but a series of small buildings in an informal arrangement. Dating from the 16th century, the palace is furnished with the utmost luxury. In this picture, Salim III gives audience at the palace's Gate of Felicity. The Islamic palace was built for both ceremony and comfort, for both private pleasure and public show. In this picture is one of the most luxurious chambers of Turkey's Topkapi Palace. The bedroom of Murad III (ruled 1574-1595) is lined with colored tiles and roofed with a high dome. Around the upper part of the room is an inscription in Kufi (angular script) script. The Harem, or women's quarters, in the Topkapi Palace consists of a group of small rooms, halls, and passages tightly segregated from the rest of the palace. The rooms on the left housed the black eunuchs. The domes on the right belong to the Divan (state council). A bird's-eye view of the Topkapi Palace from the west with the main gate in the background and the Harem on the left. Athough located outside of the complex's walls, the Chinili Kiosk is considered a part of the Topkapi Palace. The kiosk is notable for its magnificent glazed Iznik tiles which cover the structure's entire surface. meters and includes seven colleges, a hospital and asylum, a hammam, two residences, a hostel, kitchens, tombs, fountains, wrestling grounds, shops, a piazza and a mosque within its courtyard. The arcades from the Sulyeman complex develop into lateral facades where the courtyard is grandly conceived. The mihrab wall contains stained glass by Ibrahim the Drunkard and early tiles from Iznik workshops. This dome is 53-meters high and is the largest of more than 500 subsidiary domes in the complex. Note: From the Ottoman period, the palace of the 'Gun Gate' was originally a double structure consisting of summer pavilions at the water's edge and a winter palace on a ridge overlooking the city. The courts were arranged in a series; the first contained the armory in the church of Hagia Irene and various hospitals and barracks; the second was bounded by the reception hall and the inner treasury on one side, and the kitchen on the other side; the third was used as the palace school; and the fourth consisted of gardens and pavilions. On the city side, beyond the barracks of the Halberdiers, was the harem. It was divided into distinct sectors -- those for eunuchs, laundry and other services; the queen mother's suite; the sultan's rooms and those of his ladies; and the sacred chamber of the Robe of the Prophet and its pavilion. Tulunids This dynasty was founded by Ahmed Ibn Tulun, governor of Egypt who declared independence and broke off from the Abbasids. The Tulunids reigned in the Nile Valley until 905 AD. http://www.islamicart.com/main/architecture/sites1.html http://www.islamicart.com/main/architecture/sites2.html GREAT MOSQUE OF CORDOBA Begun in 785 AD, the Great Mosque of Cordoba is one of the finest examples of a hypostyle mosque -- a mosque whose roof rests on a series of parallel rows of columns. Oleg Grabar, in The Genius of Arab Civilization, describes the plan of the mosque at Cordoba as simple and flexible, a plethora of columns supporting arcades and covered with a flat roof. The mosque has been preserved because Christian conquerors used the structure as a cathedral rather than destroying it. The mihrab (a niche in the qibla wall indicating the direction of Mecca) of Cordoba is unusual in design, notes Grabar. This mihrab is a small, windowless room -- a dark and mysterious source of the Divine. The mihrab reportedly was decorated by a mosaicist with 320 bags of mosaic cubes sent to Cordoba by the Byzantine emperor. Many people including architects and craftsmen from all over Andalusia came to help with the project. In 961, the Caliph al-Hakim had three bays in front of the mihrab transformed into a separate enclave that was reserved for the prince. With a set of structural ribs, the normal spherical space of the mosque's dome was broken down into many planes set at different angles from each other. This multiplication of angles, writes Grabar, gave a comparatively small dome a monumental character and created an illusion of great height. The dome also features a surface decoration of tesserae and is one of the last major examples of wall mosaics in the Muslim world. The subject matter of these mosaics includes abstract vegetation and simple lines. Grabar writes that these designs may have iconographic meaning - "the vegetal motifs and the rich texture of the decoration my be an imitation of a paradisiac setting, a suggestion of the divine world." One of the best known monuments of Islamic architecture is the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. In The Genius of Arab Civilization, Grabar describes the Alhambra as a "citadel-city-within-a-city, a complex typical of late medieval Islam." In the 13th century, the last Muslim dynasty of Andalusia, the Nasrid dynasty, made Granada its capital. The Alhambra became the dynasty's royal city. The word Alhambra comes from the Arabic al-Hamra which means Red Palace. Within the walls of the Alhambra were a mosque, baths, houses, gardens and a royal burial place. Except for the outer walls, the citadel and two large architectural units, little remains of the original construction. The two architectural units, each with a central open court, form a right angle. At the center of the Court of Myrtles is a long pool. At the center of the Court of Lions is a quadripartite (chahar bagh) garden with a fountain inscribed with references to the warriors of the holy war (jihad). A series of rooms and halls opens onto the courts, either directly or through arcades. The Alhambra was redesigned in the last half of the 14th century by Muhammad V. Grabar writes that a striking feature of the Court of Lions is the infinite subtlety of its forms. The architectural structures are arranged in a manner that creates fleeting, ever-changing impressions. "Sturdy marble is combined with cheap stucco," Grabar notes. "The design of the court seems almost perfectly symmetrical, but in fact it is modified by axes of composition that do not correspond to the obvious features of the plan..." Throughout the Alhambra, Grabar continues, open and covered spaces are combined and contrasted according to a system whereby interiors are always in the presence of exterior spaces, with pavilions projecting into open areas. Grabar writes that features that appear dominant during the day appear recessive at night; columns that are brilliantly lighted at night recede during the day to become dark frames around sunlight. The play of light and dark, the changing impressions, notes Grabar, have a number of interpretations. The setting may metaphorically represent the rotating dome of heaven. Or, the Alhambra may suggest that nothing made or seen by humans is real -- only God is. http://www.islamicart.com/main/architecture/sites1.html BHONG MOSQUE The contemporary Bhong Mosque is part of a complex situated in Bhong, Pakistan. The complex consists of a small mosque that was later converted into a prayer hall and library; a madrasa; and residential dormitories for students and visitors. Other structure, including roads and irrigation channels, were built to serve this outstanding complex. The complex is utilized by the local population. The madrasa still functions, although with less importance than in the past when students came to the school from Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iran. The complex, erected over a 50-year period from 1930-1980, was designed by the great architect Rais Ghazi Muhammad. Specialized craftsmen from all over Pakistan contributed to the construction as Rais Ghazi Mohammed made a monumental effort to revive traditional crafts. The minaret and the main gate of the Bhong Mosque are covered with ceramic tiles of exceptional detailing and are unique in design, style and decoration. http://www.islamicart.com/main/architecture/sites2.html The impact of Islamic arts on the West The idea of a traditional Islamic art and architecture that began in 7th-century Syria and grew to encompass the art and architecture of lands from the Atlantic to the Indian oceans, write Blair and Bloom (1994), is a creation of late 19th- and 20th-century Western thought. According to Blair and Bloom, there is no evidence that early Muslim artists ever thought of their work as Islamic. Nor can it be said that there is a dominant style or influence that defines Islamic art. The Moorish Alhambra and the Indian Taj Mahal show that Islamic art and architecture has definite regional variations. However, scholars have devoted much effort to the identification of unifying principles in Islamic art -- geometric design and the arabesque, for example. It can be said, however, that the art and architecture of Islamic countries has long influenced the West. Blair and Bloom note that a painting such as The Reception of a Venetian Embassy in Damascus , attributed to the school of Bellini in the early 16th century, was undoubtedly the work of an artist familiar with the topography and monuments of Damascus. And the 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt owned a collection of several dozen Mughal and Deccani paintings which he copied. The influential Viennese publication of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach's general history of architecture in 1721 included Arab, Turkish and Persian architectural representations. The book lead to the design of several European structures in a quasi-Oriental manner. Write Bloom and Blair, "Although Fischer von Erlach's sources were such public monuments as mosques, the resulting designs were almost exclusively for such civil structures as kiosks, pavilions, palaces, and theaters, all pertaining to an architecture of leisure with which the Orient was invariably associated." In 1750, Frederick, the Prince of Wales, commissioned the English architect William Chambers (1723-1796) to design an "Alhambra" for the gardens at Kew. The resulting design had little in common with the original Alhambra in Spain except for the paired slender columns used for support. Chambers followed this design with an octagonal pavilion in the form of a mosque. "It was based on a free improvisation on the domed Ottoman mosques flanked by minarets illustrated by Fischer von Erlach," write Blair and Bloom. "A pagoda completed the trio of exotic buildings... at Kew." As European visitors to Turkey became familiar with the kiosks in public gardens where coffee and other beverages were served, the visitors brought home their interest in the structures. And the new kiosks built in Europe not only served their original function as garden pavilions but also developed into band-stands and news-stands. British artists and architects also found inspiration in the monuments of Muslim India. One of the first British artists to visit Agra, William Hodges (1746-1797), drew and painted the beauties of the Taj Mahal. And English landscape painter Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) published Oriental Scenery in six folio-sized parts between 1795 and 1808. Blair and Bloom write that each part had 24 hand-colored aquatint plates that brought Indian scenes to a wide audience. The popularity of the prints led Daniell to publish a separate volume dedicated exclusively to the Taj Mahal. Daniell later was hired as a consultant to help design a British residence with such features as a bulbous dome with corner chatris and overhanging eaves, cusped arches and pinnacles. The future George IV commissioned architect John Nash (1752-1835) to remodel an unfinished structure at the Royal Pavilion. With inspiration from Daniell's publications, Nash designed a pavilion with a large central ogival dome offset by four subsidiary domes. "The Oriental fantasy," write Blair and Bloom, "extended as far as the kitchens, where iron palm trees with copper fronds support the roof, but Nash used the latest technology, such as cast-iron ceiling frames and columns. In addition to giving the royal nod to the Oriental mode, the building set the style for glazed conservatories with bulbous domes." Also drawing numerous visitors from Europe and America was the Alhambra. After visiting the site, British architect Owen Jones ( designed two palatial houses in Kensington Palace Gardens in the Moorish style. And in 1854, he created an Alhambra Court, following the Court of the Lions, for the reconstructed Crystal Palace in Sydenham. Some of the earliest and finest examples of Orientalism in Western painting were produced by French artist Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) who had been to Morocco in 1832. Write Blair and Bloom, "(Delacroix's) opportunity to visit a harem, apparently the dream of almost every nineteenth-century man, resulted in a picture such as his Femmes d'Alger , painted two years later in 1834." After touring Syria, Palestine and Europe, American landscape painter Fredric Church (1826-1900) did a series of Mediterranean compositions that included scenes from Jerusalem and Petra. Church also returned from his trip with an enthusiasm for Islamic architecture. And after 1870, he devoted most of his efforts to the design and construction of his estate at Greendale-on-Hudson, New York. The mansion was called Olana, from the Arabic word for "our place on high." Blair and Bloom write that the house combined Alhambra motifs, simplified Hindu detail and Persian tilework. Piazza columns and the stencils in the Court Hall also are based on Persian motifs. A number of 19th-century international exhibitions further introduced the West to Islamic arts. The Great Exhibition of 1851 at London's Crystal Palace included Persian exhibits of carpets and carpet design that held influence over William Morris (1834-1896), the poet, designer and theorist of the Arts and Crafts movement. Morris did not imitate the Persian designs but found inspiration in their geometric patterns. Morris' own carpet designs -- with their rich colors, coherent patterns and planar surfaces -- show the impact Persian Vase carpets had on the English artist, write Blair and Bloom. Discerning European collectors were drawn to ceramics from the Islamic world. British collectors amassed collections of Ottoman ceramics known as Damascus or Rhodian wares, as well as Persian luster tiles and vessels. And, according to Blair and Bloom, this interest led to a revival of luster techniques in Europe. The designs of ceramicist-artist William De Morgan (1839-1917), continue Blair and Bloom, exemplify the Islamic mood that began to appear in the 1880s, partly as an expression of the Near Eastern romanticism and partly because of the affinity of the arabesque with the sinuous forms favored by the Art Noveau movement. According to Blair and Bloom, the French painter Henri Matisse (1869-1954) may be the greatest Western artist to integrate his own work with the influences of Islamic art. Matisse not only attended a number of exhibitions of Islamic art, but he also traveled to southern Spain, Morocco and Algeria. Blair and Bloom write that while Matisse's predecessors had added Oriental motifs to give their works an exotic flavor, Matisse actually incorporated the lessons he learned from viewing Islamic art into his paintings. In The Painter's Family , for example, Matisse's tripartite composition and the flattened perspective are devices common to Persian manuscript paintings, as are the figures that seem to float in space. It should be noted that while the arts in 19th- and 20th-century European and American countries were feeling the influence of Islamic arts and architecture, the reverse was occurring as well. Islamic arts and architecture began to experience the influence of Western artistry -- and technology. http://www.islamicart.com/main/architecture/impact.html