The ALHAMBRA

162 Pages·2016·38.21 MB·English

by  Desmond Stewart

THE
ALHAMBRA
by Desmond Stewart
and the Editors
of the Newsweek Book Division
NEWSWEEK, New York
NEWSWEEK BOOK DIVISION
JOSEPH L. GARDNER Editor
Janet Czarnetzki Art Director
Jonathan Bartlett Associate Editor
Laurie P. Winfrey Picture Editor
Kathleen Berger Copy Editor
ALVIN GARFIN Publisher
WONDERS OF MAN
MILTON GENDEL Consulting Editor
Mary Ann Joulwan Designer, The Alhambra •
Endpapers:
An intricate design in carved and
painted wood, the ceiling of the
Hall of the Blessing is typical of the
Alhambra's rich embellishment.
Title page: 1
The dressing room of the Royal
Baths contains an alcove where
bathers could relax on mattresses
after their ablutions. The stress
on bathing in Islam stems from
the Koran’s making cleanliness
a precondition of worship.
Opposite:
The four-foot-high Alhambra Vase
is considered among the finest
examples of the glazed lusterware
pottery for which Nasrid Granada 4
was renowned.
1st Printing 1974
2nd Printing 1975
3rd Printing 1977
4th Printing 1979
ISBN: Clothbound Edition 0-88225-087-6
ISBN: Deluxe Edition 0-88225-088-4
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 73-87152
© 1974 — Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, S.p.A.
All rights reserved. Printed and bound in Italy.
Contents
Introduction 11
ISLAMIC SPAIN IN HISTORY
by Desmond Stewart
I The Red Citadel 14
II Islam’s Western Fortress 12
III The Cordoba Caliphate 48
IV Intellect and Beyond 72
V The Spanish Bridge 82
VI Reconquest 100
VII The Afterglow 124
THE ALHAMBRA IN LITERATURE 136
REFERENCE
Chronology of Islamic Spain 162
Guide to the Alhambra 164
Selected Bibliography 168
Acknowledgments and Picture Credits 168
Index 171

Introduction
"The Alhambra was the last bastion of the eight-
hundred-year Islamic presence in Europe's westernmost
extremity, Iberia. It is also the finest example of the
architectural style that evolved there, with elements
blending delicacy and grace into such perfection that
they seem to float, as if disembodied, in the vivid air.
Built during the ebb tide of Spain's Muslim period,
the Alhambra seems somehow to encapsulate the entire
epoch. Implicit within its walls are the bold advance
of the eighth-century warriors who first claimed Iberia
for Islam, the glories of the tenth-century Cordoban
caliphate, and the tragic turbulence of the long recon¬
quest. A telling reminder of the reconquest is the for¬
tress aspect of the Alhambra, so prominent in the pic¬
ture at left. But inside the walls, the martial aura of
the monument totally disappears. The interior is a
veritable fairyland, with evanescent vistas of sky and
water, soaring arches fantastically embellished, and
halls — whether vast or intimate — whose rampant de¬
cor ranges from floral to abstract and includes a run¬
ning rubric of stately Arabic epigraphy.
Once in Christian hands, the Alhambra fell into
disrepair until such nineteenth-century enthusiasts as
Washington Irving, Victor Hugo, and Theophile
Gautier aroused interest in its romantic past and a
concern for its preservation. Thanks in part to them,
it is now a Spanish national monument and a tourist
attraction of the utmost magnetism. Considerably re¬
stored, the Alhambra provides the contemporary
viewer with an opportunity to come into contact — at
however great a remove —with a culture that for a
time provided a brilliant light to a world otherwise
largely groping in darkness.
THE EDITORS
11

ISLAMIC SPAIN
IN HISTORY
I
The Red Citadel
Iberian Peninsula, shared unequally by Spain and Twenty sultans of one royal house — it was known as
Pamigalj projects as a squarc-ghapcd pendant froffl Nasrid, after Nasr the grandfather of its founder — for }
Western Europe* Walled to the north by the Pyrenees, two and a half centuries enjoyed this majestic residence,
washed fey an eeean and a sea, the peninsula eneases which is not only the last but, because it was never
Europe’s major plateau, hot in summer and in winter taken by assault, the bcst-prcscrvcd monument of a
bleak. But in the south, a flattened triangle is attached long-lived culture. And although it was achieved at the
to the rough square, its point toward Africa. This tri¬ ebb tide of this culture — when the Muslims ruled only
angular province, furthermore, is often described as a tiny peripheral kingdom, and that as vassals of the
African because of its warm climate and because of the advancing Christians to the north — it is a place of
shrubs and plants that it shares with the torrid conti perfection, not fragments, suggesting spiritual balance,
nent across the straits. Like Africa itself, the province not decay. It recalls, perhaps, those great artists — Goe¬
is far from monotonous, The" semitropical conditions the in words, Monteverdi in music, Titian or Picasso in
along the coast contrast with the Alpine rigors of a paint — who have produced great works as they have .j
§n6w-eapp£d range — the Sierra Nevada — running par¬ grown old. The last work may differ subtly from what
allel to the coast and surging to peaks of over eleven went before; it may contain premonitions of demise;
thousand foot. One valley to the northwest of this range but as the work of a creative spirit it can blend in
contains the richest soil in Spain. Systematically irri¬ triumphant summation the themes of a lifetime. The
gated for at least twelve centuries, the vega is green in Alhambra shows in its structures and decoration the
spring with wheat, barley, and yines, its fields and hill¬ aptitudes and tastes, the likes and dislikes, of a civiliza¬
sides thick with citrus and mulberries. tion whose Eastern traces are India’s Taj Mahal and
The dominant city of the region containing this the mosques of Samarkand.
verdant plain — whose scattered villas were compared The view of the Alhambra from outside is impressive
by an Arab poet to “Oriental pearls in an emerald set¬ but not unique. It is not the impression that the mod¬
ting”—is Granada. Most derive its name from the ern visitor will most remember. The plain, walled j
pomegranate whose foliage is russet in spring, whose enceinte will look familiar, for the dynasty previous to
fruit form crimson grenades at the end of summer. the Nasrids, the Almohades, had built numerous such
Others derive it from a compound supposedly meaning strongpoints to defend their embattled faith. But the
“hill of strangers.” What is certain is that, from the massive plainness of the Alhambra’s exterior has an
early eighth century to the late fifteenth, Granada was older ancestry in the East — Christian as well as
no stranger to Muslim immigration from Africa. And Islamic. The Byzantines, mindful of Christ’s words
here, on a thirty-five-acre plateau atop a last spur of the about the whited sepulcher, all glory without and filth
Sierra Nevada, Spanish Islam produced its last royal within, had given their great brick churches exteriors
palace, the Alhambra. as stark and bare as silos, but concealing a veritable
14
paradise of mosaic and marble inside. This style be- The Alhambra occupies a natural acropolis. On its
% came general throughout the Middle East. northern side there is a sheer fall of rock to the Darro
From Persia and Baghdad in the east to Granada in River, a subtributary of the Guadalquiver. The gorge
the west, ordinary people, no less than rulers, built was an impregnable defense. The towers that punc¬
their houses with plain facades. They still do, for this tuate the northern walls conceal habitations, not
Eastern style conforms with the deepest spirit of Islam. entrances. On the southern side, toward the plain, were
Just as the Muslim woman traditionally reserves her the guarded entrances in the massive walls.
charms for her husband, cumbrously concealing her The visitor today, like the American writer Wash¬
body and even her face in shapeless cloth, so the East¬ ington Irving nearly a century and a half ago, enters
ern house customarily turns a plain, windowless face by the massive Gate of Justice. This southern entry is
to the dusty lane or noisy bazaar. Outside there is approached by a long road ascending through lofty
nothing to arouse envy — no ornaments to be stolen or elms, planted by the Duke of Wellington in his war
defaced. A massive studded door marks the one legit¬ against Napoleon and joined by chestnuts and other
imate break in the unornamented wall. Inside are shady trees. A large open hand is sculpted in the key¬
delights, if the owner is rich, or if not, simple comfort. stone of the horseshoe-shaped entry arch. This symbo¬
The delights, the comforts, are reserved for those with¬ lizes the five requirements of the Islamic faith: belief
in, above all for those who come as guests, for Islam in the oneness of God, prayer, fasting in the month of
outdoes all other cultures in its concern for hospitality. Ramadan, pilgrimage to Mecca, and the giving of alms.
And since Islam has a desert origin, it is useful to It underscores the primary function of every Muslim
remember, in approaching the Alhambra, the contrast sultan, which was the upholding of the law of Islam.
between the perilous desert and the oasis, where even He ruled, at least in theory, according to the system
an enemy may stay three days without fear. of the laws of God as revealed in the Koran and ex¬
Just as the desert can glow to beauty in moonlight pounded by jurists, not according to his own impulses
or at dawn, so the changing light of day gives the bare or the votes of his subjects.
walls of the Alhambra changing shades of red. The From the arch — a useful reminder of the religious
walls owe their redness to bricks made from a ferrous basis of Islamic power — the visitor passes into a great
mud. A primitive fort dating from the ninth century esplanade now known as the Place of the Cisterns. Al¬
was known as al-QaVah al-Hamra, “the Red Citadel,” though the plateau had its own aqueduct, there was
presumably from being made of these bricks. When in always the danger of besieging enemies cutting off the
1238 the first Nasrid ruler urged on the building of water, so rain was stored, as it was elsewhere in the
his fortress palace, the walls of the rising edifice glowed Mediterranean, in great chambers cut from the rock.
crimson in the light of the torches. The name was fixed The visitor anxious to understand this Islamic palace
forever and remains today. need not bother here in the vast esplanade with what
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