Full Description
In Articulating the Ḥijāba, Mariam Rosser-Owen analyses for the first time the artistic and cultural patronage of the 'Amirid regents of the last Cordoban Umayyad caliph, Hisham II, a period rarely covered in the historiography of al-Andalus. Al-Mansur, the founder of this dynasty, is usually considered a usurper of caliphal authority, who pursued military victory at the expense of the transcendental achievements of the first two caliphs. But he also commissioned a vast extension to the Great Mosque of Cordoba, founded a palatine city, conducted skilled diplomatic relations, patronised a circle of court poets, and owned some of the most spectacular objects to survive from al-Andalus, in ivory and marble. This study presents the evidence for a reconsideration of this period.
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction
1 Al-Dawla al-ʿĀmiriyya: Constructing the ʿĀmirid State
1 Succession Crisis
2 Regency
3 The Maghrib
4 Conspicuous Piety
5 The Rise to Power
6 Al-Manṣūr
7 The Culmination of Power
8 Rupture
9 Restoration
10 Inheritance
2 Appropriating Diplomacy: The ʿĀmirid Court
1 The 'Ceremonial Idiom'
2 Tools of Diplomacy
3 ʿĀmirid Diplomatic Relations
4 Diplomatic Exchange with the Maghrib
5 Objects of Exchange
3 'The Creation of Loyalty': Public and Private Staging of the ʿĀmirid Court
1 Elegance and Eloquence: the Literary Court
2 Private Poetry
3 A Culture of Learning
4 Architecture as Titulature: al-Madīnat al-Zāhira
1 Looking for al-Zāhira
2 Reconstructing the Palace
3 Reconstructing the City
4 Why Did al-Manṣūr Build al-Madīnat al-Zāhira?
5 What Did al-Madīnat al-Zāhira Look Like?
5 The Politics of Piety: Al-Manṣūr's Extension to the Great Mosque of Cordoba
1 The Pre-ʿĀmirid Mosque
2 The ʿĀmirid Mosque
3 Qurʾānic Inscriptions at the Great Mosque of Cordoba
6 The Dār al-Ṣināʿa: ʿĀmirid Patronage of the Luxury Arts
1 The Origins of the Dār al-Ṣināʿa
2 Iṣtināʿ: The Strategic Use of Objects
7 Building a Corpus of ʿĀmirid Art
1 Objects Associated with al-Manṣūr
2 Objects Associated with ʿAbd al-Malik al-Muẓaffar (r. 1002-8)
3 Objects Associated with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 'Sanchuelo'
4 ʿĀmirid Objects without Designated Patrons
5 The Language of ʿĀmirid Art
8 Poems in Stone: Imagery, Text and Meaning in ʿĀmirid Art
1 Poetic and Visual Imagery
2 Text and Image in ʿĀmirid Art
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Genealogy of the Banū Abī ʿĀmir, 711-1085
Appendix 2: Timeline of al-Manṣūr's Main Campaigns and Offices Held
Appendix 3a: Qurʾānic Inscriptions inside the Cordoba Mosque
Appendix 3b: Qurʾānic Inscriptions on the Eastern Façade of the Cordoba Mosque
Appendix 4: Inscriptions on Objects Made for the ʿĀmirids
Bibliography
Index
