CONTENTS...us the purpose of these boxes, receptacles for perfume, and also suggests that precious...

CONTENTS

Introduction: Art and Faith 6

1 A GIFT FROM GOD: THE ORIGINS OF ISLAM 12 The Crucible: Arabia Before the Prophet 14 No Deity but God: The Faith of Submission 20

2 THE EMPIRE OF ISLAM: THE UMAYYADS AND ‘ABBASIDS 24 Heirs of Byzantium: The Umayyad Caliphate 26 Special Feature: The Dome of the Rock 34 A Golden Age: The ‘Abbasids and their Vassals 38

3 IMAMS, PRINCES, AND SULTANS: RIVALS OF THE ‘ABBASIDS 48 Shi’ism Triumphant: The Fatimids 50 Lords of the Citadel: The Ayyubids 56 Special Feature: Illuminating the Quran 60 From Slaves to Sultans: The Mamluks 64 Special Feature: Sultan Hasan 74

4 FUSION IN THE WEST: IBERIA AND THE MAGHREB 78 Spirit of Coexistence: The Umayyads in Spain 80 Lords of the Maghreb: The Almoravids and

Almohads 88 The Twilight: The Nasrids in Spain 96 Special Feature: The Alhambra 100 Mud Mosques of the Desert: Subsaharan

Africa 104

5 SULTAN AND SHAH: IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA 106 Iran for the Iranians: The Samanids and Buyids 108 Iran for the Turks: The Ghaznavids and Seljuks 112 Special Feature: Seljuk Ceramics and Metalwork 116 Heirs of Chinghis Khan: The Coming of the

Mongols 120 Special Feature: The Master of the Black Pen 128 Lords of Samarqand: Timur and his Successors 132 Special Feature: Persian Manuscript Painting 134 Sultans of Isfahan: The Glories of Safavid Iran 138 Special Feature: Isfahan 144

6 FROM PRINCIPALITY TO EMPIRE: SELJUKS AND OTTOMANS IN ANATOLIA 148 Rulers of Rum: The Seljuks in Anatolia 150 Imperial Magnificence: The Ottomans 162 Special Feature: Selimiye Mosque 176

7 OVERLORDS OF THE ORIENT: SOUTH ASIA AND THE FAR EAST 180 Islam in India: The Delhi Sultanate 182 Conflict and Coexistence: The Mughals 188 Special Feature: The Taj Mahal 200 A Wind in the Orient: East and Southeast Asia 204

Glossary 212 Bibliography 214 Index 216 Acknowledgments and Picture Credits 224

Treasures of Islam_BLAD.indd 1Treasures of Islam_BLAD.indd 1 24.07.2007 11:36:59 Uhr24.07.2007 11:36:59 Uhr

NO DEITY BUT GODTHE FAITH OF SUBMISSION

Islam conceives of Allah, God, as that from which all else emanates. He is, fi rst and foremost, utterly One – as the concept of tawhid (see below) makes clear. In the words of the Quran: “God bears witness that there is no god but He, as do the angels and those possessing knowledge. He acts with justice. There is no god but He, the All-powerful, the All-wise” (Sura 3.18). Affi rming the oneness of God is the fi rst part of the Shahada, the Islamic profession of faith: “There is no god but God.” To violate the principle of tawhid is to commit shirk, often translated as “association” – that is, associating any aspect of the world with the holy or divine when it does not possess these qualities. The term can be applied in a variety of ways. Naturally, it is a grievous sin to worship any other force or being in the universe. Muslims may also interpret a preoccupation with material wealth, or impulsive and arrogant behavior, as examples of shirk, corrupting as these do the individual’s attitude and behaviour both toward God and within the community.

THE FIVE DOCTRINES

Islamic writers often write of faith, or iman, as being com-posed of fi ve doctrines. The fi rst is belief in tawhid. Second is the belief in creatures linked to God and his presence in the universe, and in the work they perform on behalf of God – including angels and the beings known as jinn (a col-lective noun, the origin of the term “genie”). Third is the belief in the prophets and in the prophetic message that communicates the divine will to humankind. This belief is expressed in all the books of divine revelation, including the Torah of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus. The fourth concerns the belief in the Final Judgment and the eternal reward or

OPPOSITE

A 15th-century illustration,

depicting pilgrims visiting

Mecca, from an essay by Abu

Hanifah discussing the need for

compliance with the commands

of Islam, written for Jalal al-Din

Iskandar ibn Umar Shaik.

BELOW

A wood-carved roundel with the

name of God picked out in gilt

Ottoman sülüs lettering – one of

a set of four such pieces made

in Iznik in the 19th century,

each bearing a different pious

invocation.

21NO DEITY BUT GOD: THE FAITH OF SUBMISSION


chapter 3

IMAMS, PRINCES, AND SULTANS

RIVALS OF THE ‘ABBASIDS


us the purpose of these boxes, receptacles for perfume, and also suggests that precious stones mounted on pins might have fi lled the small holes present on them. The most splendid of the boxes is one made in 968 for al-Mughira, the son of ‘Abd al-Rahman III and the brother of the ruling caliph al-Hakam. It has a wealth of fi gural decoration in four eight-lobed medallions, showing youths stealing eggs from eagles’ nests, two royal fi gures fl anking a lutanist on a throne, lions attacking bulls, and youths on horseback plucking dates from palm trees. Even though al-Hakam had a son, Hisham, in 968 he had not been appointed heir, and al-Mughira might have had every expectation of inheriting the throne. The royal imagery in the medallions may have been a way of implying this. The fi gures picking dates may at fi rst sight look like a genre scene, but the cheetahs or bear cubs perched on the back of the horses are no ordinary companions. The medallion also has resonances from the earliest Spanish Umayyad ruler, ‘Abd al-Rahman I, who, in order to recreate a garden of his Syrian Umayyad ancestors in Rusafa, imported several plant species including the palm tree, suggesting a connection between the recipient of the box and the right to rule. As it happened, al-Mughira was supported by one faction when al-Hakam died, but was outmaneuvered by the chief minister al-Mansur and his lover, none other than al-Hakam’s widow, who had al-Mughira killed and the tractable child Hisham II (ruled 976–1009) put on the throne. The fi nest surviving artistic achievement of the Spanish Umayyads is the Great Mosque of Cordoba. It was the enlargement of al-Hakam in 961, when the dynasty was at the height of its powers, that produced the building’s most innovative features

ABOVE

A beautiful pair of ornate gold

Hispano-Moorish earrings

dating from the 10th century

and typical of the exquisite

treasures produced in Iberia

when the caliphate was at

the height of its powers.

OPPOSITE

The ivory pyxis of al-Mughira,

carved in 968 in the workshops

of ‘Abd al-Rahman III at Madinat

al-Zahra, the palace complex

just outside Cordoba. This ornate

container was created as a

luxury portable object in which

to store precious aromatics. In

this view of the pyxis’s lobed

medallion – one of four in total

– riders pick dates while their

hunting cheetahs snatch at the

tailfeathers of parrots.

FUSION IN THE WEST: IBERIA AND THE MAGHREB84


HEIRS OF CHINGHIS KHAN THE COMING OF THE MONGOLS

The Mongol invasions were initially a catastrophe for the Islamic world. When Chingis Khan’s ambassadors were murdered in northern Iran in 1218, he retaliated by sending his sons at the head of armies of an unprecedented size. Any city that refused to capitulate was sacked and its inhabitants slaughtered. The caliph himself was murdered when Baghdad was taken by Hulagu in a second campaign in 1258. The Mongol khans who ruled Iran from 1256 to 1336 are known as the Ilkhanids. It took only another four decades for the conquerors to be assimilated to Perseo-Islamic urban culture, and in 1292 Ghazan Khan (ruled 1294–1304) converted to Islam and ordered a mosque to be built in every town. The greatest of Ilkhanid mausoleums was the twelve-sided tomb tower that Ghazan Khan built for himself in a vast complex next to Tabriz. It was around 69 feet (21m) in diameter and almost 180 feet (55m) in height, but like most medieval buildings in Tabriz, it has disappeared – hardly surprising, given that the city is at the center of a very active earthquake zone. Fortunately, some idea of its magnifi cence can be gained from the mausoleum of Ghazan Khan’s brother and successor, Uljaytu (ruled 1304–16), in the new capital of

OPPOSITE

A star-shaped, leaf-gilded

tile in the Ilkhanid regional

style emanating from Takht-i

Solaiman, produced in the late

13th or early 14th century.

BELOW

This early 14th-century luster-

painted ceramic tile is from

Kashan. It is part of a longer

frieze with a Kufi c script

inscription, which reads: “In the

name of God the most merciful,

there is no God but Him, the all-

powerful, the all-ruling.”

SULTAN AND SHAH: IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA120


121


SELIMIYE MOSQUE CROWNING GLORY OF THE OTTOMANS

The Selimiye (1568–1574) is arguably the culmination of Ottoman architecture, its dome – some 100 feet (32m) wide – crowning the city of Edirne (Adrianople) and the masterpiece of its great architect, Sinan. The mosque’s founder, Sultan Selim II, had served as lieutenant governor of Edirne from 1548 to 1550, and that may explain his reason for siting it there, as well as a lack of a suitable space in the capital, Istanbul. The mosque also differs from many other Ottoman complexes in the relatively small number of surrounding buildings, which include madrasas and a covered market. This may partially be explained by the presence of Selim’s tomb beside the Haghia Sophia in Istanbul (the Selimiye complex therefore contains no mausoleums), and by Selim’s death just before the building was completed. The Haghia Sophia had earlier been designated as Selim’s funerary mosque, and in Sinan’s autobiography he specifi cally mentions that its dome had been cited by “the architects of the infi dels” as one that Muslims could never surpass. He therefore set out to better it, and indeed succeeded in building one of even greater diameter. The decision to place the soaring minarets at the corners of the mosque instead of at the corners of the courtyard (as at the Sulemaniye in Istanbul), and the pointed caps of the turrets that provide weight to the eight piers of the building, reinforce the crown-

like appearance of the mosque’s exterior. They also may provide a link to the octagonal mausoleum of Uljaytu, which was originally surrounded by eight minarets, and which was known to Sinan from his travels. Instead of the cool gray masonry of the Sulemaniye, a much warmer sandstone is used here, further enlivened by polychrome masonry accents around many of the arches and windows. The axial entrance to the courtyard is surprisingly low, but this prevents it from obstructing the view of the dome. In contrast, the north face of the mosque seen within the courtyard is necessarily tall, but is visually

OPPOSITE

The distinctively warm cut

sandstone of Edirne’s Selimiye

mosque, commissioned by

Sultan Selim II and forming part

of a rich complex of buildings

(see plan below), including

schools (1) and a market (2).

Sinan, the architect, deliberately

located the rectangular

mosque (3) and its equal-sized

rectangular inner courtyard (4)

within a larger outer rectangular

courtyard (5), thereby helping to

create the distinctive classical

style of mosque architecture

featuring inner and outer

courtyards.

FROM PRINCIPALITY TO EMPIRE: SELJUKS AND OTTOMANS IN ANATOLIA 176

1

15

2

3 4

5


234 x 300 mm (11 x 91/2 inches)224 pages

. 170 photographs Four-color throughout and motifs in metallic ink Hardcover with dust jacket

ISBN 978-3-8331-4677-0

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