The Art of the Umayyad Period in Spain (7111031) | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Time... 1.

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

The Art of the Umayyad Period in Spain (7111031)

On July 19, 711, an army of Arabs and Berbers unified under the aegis of the Islamic Umayyad caliphate landed on the Iberian Peninsula. Over the next seven years, through diplomacy and warfare, they brought the entire peninsula except for Galicia and Asturias in the far north under Islamic control; however, frontiers with the Christian north were constantly in flux. The new Islamic territories, referred to as al-Andalus by Muslims, were administered by a provincial government established in the name of the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus and centered in Crdoba. Of works of art and other material culture only coins and scant ceramic fragments remain from this early period of the Umayyad governors (71156). When the Umayyad caliphate of Damascus was overthrown by the cAbbasids in 750, the last surviving member of the Umayyad dynasty fled to Spain, establishing himself as Emir cAbd al-Rahman I and thus initiating the Umayyad emirate (756929). cAbd al-Rahman I (r. 75688) made Crdoba his capital and unified al-Andalus under his rule with a firm hand, while establishing diplomatic ties with the northern Christian kingdoms, North Africa, and the Byzantine empire and maintaining cultural contact with the cAbbasids in Baghdad. The initial construction of the Great Mosque of Crdoba under his patronage was the crowning achievement of this formative period of Hispano-Islamic art and architecture. The Umayyads reclaimed their right to the caliphate during the reign of cAbd al-Rahman III (r. 91261), who became the first Spanish Umayyad emir to declare himself caliph (929). Under the Umayyad caliphate (929 1031), Crdoba became perhaps the greatest intellectual center of Europe, with celebrated libraries and schools. Hispano-Umayyad art reached its apogee during the lengthy reign of cAbd al-Rahman III and his son al-Hakam II (r. 96176) and the regency of the powerful cAmirids, particularly al-Mansur (9781002), chamberlain to the nominal ruler, the child-prince Hisham II (r. 9761013 with interruption). Despite their open rejection of cAbbasid political authority, the Umayyads of Crdoba emulated the opulent palatial arts of the centers of cAbbasid power, Baghdad and Samarra. There was also influence from the Fatimid rulers, who had established an independent Shici caliphate in North Africa in 909 and occupied Egypt in 969. Perhaps in response to these eastern Mediterranean cultural impulses, which coexisted with a strong indigenous artistic component, there began to appear in Crdoba a revival of the Umayyad period, almost a nostalgia for the time when the Umayyads ruled the Islamic world from Damascus. Art patronage as a sign of kingship and authority is a theme that emerged from these creative appropriations from abroad and the past. Luxurious objects such as boxes of carved ivory and gilt silver, bronze animal statuary, and richly figured silks were commissioned for palaces decorated with ornate marble capitals, stucco wall panels, and marble fountains. cAbd al-Rahman III's palace city at Madinat al-Zahra set the standard for artistic taste in the caliphate, and al-Hakam II's addition to the Great Mosque of Crdoba marked the imposition of a palatial level of luxury and hierarchy on this religious monument.

Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Department of Islamic Art. "The Art of the Umayyad Period in Spain (7111031)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sumay/hd_sumay.htm (October 2001) Further Reading Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, ed. The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions)

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Aanavi, Don. "Western Islamic Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 27, no. 3 (November, 1968). JSTOR | PDF

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sumay/hd_sumay.htm

2012.02.16.