4-Umayyad Desert Palaces: Architecture and Decoration: (Click on images to enlarge)

Roman Distant Precedents:

• Hadrian Villa's, Tivoli, Italy (124)
• Diocletian's Palace, Split, Yugoslavia (300-4)

 

The Palaces of Hisham (724-43):

Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (West), Syria (724-27):

• Square courtyard enclosure with half-round towers
• Adjacent to a pre-Islamic complex (caravanserai or barracks and tower)
• Lavish Sasanian carved stucco decoration with Byzantine motifs
• Figural representations in floor mosaics, murals and sculpture

Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi Plan of Palace after Schlumberger

Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi Floor Plan of small enclosure

 

Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi (East), Syria (728-29):

• Two enclosures at the head of a valley walled to serve as game park (hayr)
• Large enclosure with mosque, probably barracks
• Small enclosure identified as caravanserai, probably royal residence

Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi plan how hydraulic works

Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi distant view of major enclosures

 

The Palaces of al-Walid II (743):

Khirbet al-Mafjar, Palestine:

• Site contains a palatial complex, a reservoir fed by an aqueduct, and a hayr
• Complex comprises a square palace enclosure, a mosque, and a large bath
• Irregularly planned and unified by a forecourt with a fountain structure
• Palace is a two-storeyed square castrum enclosure with a mosque and a sirdab (basement)
• Mosque is a small rectangular hypostyle structure with a courtyard
• Bath is a square with three exedrae to a side that formed the Frigidarium and the apodyterium, a private diwan, the tepidarium and the caldarium on its south side
• Profusely decorated bath hall and diwan
• Representation of caliph above entrance
• Different statues of attendants and dancers
• Human and animal statues in the transitional zones under domes as pendentives
• Human faces in stucco decoration
• Geometric and Symbolic mosaic panels in bath hall

Khirbat al-Mafjar Plan of Hammam	Khirbat al-Mafjar Axonometric of Hammam	Khirbat al-Mafjar Audience Hall reconstructionl
Khirbat al-Majfar Mosaic Floor in Diwan	Khirbat al-Majfar Perspective reconstruction of hammam and fountain	Khirbat al-Mafjar Axonometric of fountain

 

Mshatta, Jordan:

• A large square enclosure which was never completed
• Divided into three longitudinal zones
• Central section contains the gateway block and the throne hall block
• Throne hall is triple apsed
• South façade decorated with geometric, tracery-like carved band of triangles and rosettes
• Conscious change in treatment of the external façade of the mosque

Mshatta: Aerial View	Mshatta: Axonometric reconstruction of audience hall
Mshatta: South Facade at Berlin Museum	Mshatta: Facade Relief Detail

 

The personal character of the palaces attributed to al-Walid II:

• Structures of pleasance and entertainment.
• Allegorical and symbolic uses of representations akin to his poetry's symbolism.
• Inflated sense of sovereignty.