4.611/13 Civil Architecture in Islamic History (HASS)
Instructor: Nasser Rabbat

4-Umayyad Desert Palaces: Architecture and Decoration.

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-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

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

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

 

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.