El Alhambra: The Walled City of Granada

We are now in Meknes, Morocco! Tiffany and I have unpacked already, pictures have been posted here and we are settling in. But i need to back track a bit because I left a very important piece of Granada to still be discussed.

The Alhambra. For those of you who know Arabic, you might be confused because al means the so i am in fact saying the the alhambra. Well Europeans do this quite frequently because when they start naming things they usually have not yet learned the language (Rio Grande River). Hambra means red castle, most likely referring to the color of the materials used to build it. I am using a book called Granada and the Alhambra to fill in the info that I don't remember from the tour, but all the pictures are mine.

The Alhambra was built by the Nasrids. They were the last reigning Muslim dynasty in Spain and they ruled from 1238 to 1492. Muhammad Ibn Yusuf Ibn Nasr Ibn al-Ahmar( or Alhamar the Magnificent for short) ruled over Granada, Malaga, Almeria, part of Jaen, Cordoba, Seville, and Cadiz. He succeeded where the others failed because he decided it would be a good idea to become a vassel of King Ferdinand III of Castile. This meant that he no longer had to worry about attacks from the Spanish people and could better focus his attentions on the defense from the Arabs. Alhamar began the building of the Alhambra as soon as he took power. It is located up atop Sabika hill and Alhamar had a weir constructed to deliver water to the top. He also had the walls built and a military fortress was built on top of an ancient, most likely roman one. The fortress(the Alcazaba) is triangular in shape because this makes it easier to defend than a square or a circle. It was also used as the king's living quarters(Alcazaba means palace) until a better palace could be built. The Alhambra was never breached, even during the surrender of the city to the Christians in 1492. There is a long line of kings until Boabdil, the last Nasrid king, handed the city over to Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon in 1492 so instead of going through king by king, I'm just going to tell you about the important features.

If you haven't noticed by now, Islamic architecture is very plain and unadorned on the outside, but brilliantly decorated and beautiful on the outside. This is in stark contrast to the European buildings which are very intricate on the outside but are rather plain on the inside. This is explained by a pretty general Muslim philosophy of living your life looking inward. Inward to your soul, inward to your family, and inward to your home. Everything you do in life is supposed to be for God, for you, and for your family not for the world. The Alhambra provides excellent examples of the major styles of Islamic architecture at its finest. Being a palace for kings, everything from floor to ceiling is amazingly complex and beautiful.

Stucco is the most widespread method used to decorate in Islamic architecture. It is mixed, molded or carved, and then finished to give it a shine and durability. Then it would be painted with bright colors or gold leaf.

Example of detailed stucco molding. This would have been painted. This pattern frames the king's entrance in the Mexuar coutryard.

Muqarna are prisms shaped out of wood or stucco. They are used to decorate everything from arches to ceilings. Many of the ceilings in the palaces are covered with Muqarna. The vaulted ceilings form a large 8 pointed star and the Muqarna come down to represent stalactites in all sorts of geometric patterns. The idea of having stalactites comes from the story about Mohammad sheltering himself in a cave on his flight from Mecca to Medina. 

Cieling of the Cupola of the Hall of the Abencerrajes covered in Muqamas.

Entrance to the Courtyard of the Lions. The arches are adorned with Muqamas.

Decorative wood ceilings were made of cedar. They were either intricately carved and painted or inlaid with other types of wood to create geometric patterns.

Inlaid and carved wood ceiling. I don't remember which section of the Alhambra this was.

Azulejos and Alictados (Tiles and Ceramics) are very detailed and required a time consuming process to get them just right. They decorate every ince of every floor and the bottom half of every wall in the Alhambra. Decorative tiles began being used and developed in the 11th century and the skill progressed greatly in North Africa and Spain. 

Wall surround in the Patio of the Mytles (Patio de los Arrayanes)

Calligraphy is widely used in Islamic architecture. Often a blessing from God or a poem written as though the building itself was speaking are written around the door frames and walls. 

The calligraphy often divides a tiled section of wall from a stuccoed section. 

This is such a long post already and I've only described the basic architectural elements of Islamic design. I think the specifics of the Alhambra will have to wait until another time. Check back soon!

The City of Pomegranates

Granada is a beautiful city in southern Spain. It has an amazing mix of cultures which gives it very cool architectural and design elements. There are lots of arabic elements found in the architecture; big arches, arabic script, mosaic tiles. These all blend together with the European facades and Spanish style roofs. 

I love the details around the windows and on the lamp in the picture to the left. Same with the picture above. The tiling around the arches and the pattern in the window pane is very interesting. 

I wish the front door of my house looked like this.

"In 1238, Ibn al-Ahmar rose up against Ibn Hud and conquered parts of the province of Granada. He established the kingdom of Granada, which extended from the mountains of Sierra Nevada to Gibraltar and which was originally made up of the province of Granada (where he set up his court), the provinces of Malaga and Almeria, and part of the provinces of Cordoba, Jaen, Sevilla, and Cadiz." http://granadamap.com/history.htm

Granada was ruled by the Moors (Berber and Arabic peoples from North Africa. They believed in Islam and conquered much of the Iberian peninsula, the term Moor was used by Europeans to describe the people, not one they used to describe themselves) beginning in the early 700s during the Ummayyid dynasty which was an important portion of Islamic history. The Moors had control of Granada until Ferdinand and Isabella took over in 1492, the same year that Isabella approved Christopher Columbus' adventure in the Americas. This was the height of Spanish power. Isabella and Ferdinand united all of Spain and moved to Granada. 

In order to conquer an area, the rulers had to convince the people that a new way of life was better than the old. They outlawed the old religions, in this case Islam and Judaism, and forced people to convert. The tore down old religious buildings and built new ones. Many of the churches in Granada were originally Mosques. 

This church in the Placeta de San Nicholaus was originally a Mosque. Converting these building was fairly easy. The minarets were used to give the call to prayer 5 times a day for Muslims. Since they were tall and already had good acoustics they were easily transformed into bell towers for Catholic churches.

There is currently only one Mosque in Granada and it has been built just recently. Change is very slow and it has only been about 500 years since the conquest. In United States history, 500 years is a very long time, but in Europe and the Middle East it is barely any time at all. 

When Isabella and Ferdinand took over, they tore down one of the main mosques and built a massive cathedral. Everything is personalized for the king and queen. Their initials can be seen on the pews and the columns and on adornmants outside the cathedral. The Cathedral has a very different design than most Catholic cathedrals. The building is shaped like a cross. The top of the cross, or the head, is a large circular shaped area that contains the alter on the inside. A large pathway goes around and is separated from the alter by a series of arches.  The center line of the cross makes up the congregational area. This was very innovative for its time because usually there was a separation for the nobles and the lower classes. There would be a wall dividing them so the lower classes were unable to see the alter. This cathedral has no separation so all were able to see. Along the sides are a series of small chapel areas that noble families could buy. They then filled them with expensive and ornate religious objects for all to see. They were able to bury their dead in these chapels and mostly show off their wealth. 

In this picture you can see the circular shape of the Cathedral.

This is one of the old entrances to the Cathedral. These doors are no longer used. 

Granda means pomegranate in Spanish and the city is covered in them. Pomegranates are featured in most of the architectural designs and patterns in the tiles and the sidewalks. It's become a game to spot the pomegranates.