Koran Manuscripts

Textiles
 Robe from the north Caucasus, silk with senmurvs in roundels, 9th century
 Zandaniji textile preserved in church treasury, Central Asia, 8th century

Pottery and Glass

 Earthenware bowls with blue glazed decoration
 Bowl with incised and splashed decoration

 Glass beaker with lustre decoration, 8th-9th century
 Luster tiles from mihrab, Great Mosque at Kairouan, 862
 Early lustreware pottery
 Relief-cut glass bowl, 9th-10th century

Metalwork

 “Post-sassanian" silver
 Ewers, and other vessels of gold, bronze and brass, 8th-9th centuries
 
 

The last Umayyad caliph, Abd al-Rahman, fled to Spain where he founded a dynasty that ruled Spain until 1009. Muslims lost territory in Spain after 1009, by 1260 they controlled only a small kingdom in Granada. Ummayad Spain was the outstanding center of learning and culture in western Europe.

*Great Mosque, Cordova
                -begun by Abd al-Rahman in 784-6
                -enlarged by Abd al-Rahman II (r. 833-852); mid 9th century
                -enlarged by al-Hakam II, mihrab and dome (present
                Villaviciosa Chapel), 961-976
                -enlarged by al-Mansur (Minister of Caliph Hisham), 987
                -transformed into a Christian cathedral after the reconqista.
 
 

INTERIOR OF GREAT MOSQUE

DOME IN FRONT OF MIHRAB

Palace of Madinat al-Zahra, begun 936
 
 

The Fatimids were Shi'ites (partisans of Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law, and of the principle of hereditary succession to the caliphate), claiming descent from the Prophet through his daughter Fatima. They had initially seized power in Tunisia then took Egypt in 969. Their princely city called al-Qahira ("the Victorious"), Cairo became the center of the cultural life of western Islam. The Fatimids controlled Egypt from 969-1171.

Azhar Mosque, founded 969/973, extensively rebuilt, remodelled and enlarged
*Aqmar Mosque, 1125

*Fatimid painting from palace in Cairo, 11th century
Wood carving

*Fortifications of Cairo 1087-1091
        Bab al-Futuh (Gate of Conquests)
        Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory)
        Bab Zuwayla (Gate of the People of Zuwayla)
 
 

The Buyids had maintained independence from the central Islamic government in a region south of the Caspian Sea and gradually took over large parts of Iran. They reached Bagdad in 945 and forced the Caliph to resign from political power.  Their dynasty lasted from 932-1062; only their textiles and metalwork survive.  The Samanids controlled the Iranian province of Khurassan (east of the Buyids) and parts of Central Asia from 819-1005. They founded cities at Nisapur and Samarkand.

*Samanid Mausoleum, Bukhara, 914/43?
Nayin Mosque, probably 10th century
*Gunbad-i Qabus 1006-7, near Gurgan

Wall painting and stucco from Nishapur, 9th century

Study Question:  Compare and contrast the architecture and decoration from Fatimid Egypt and Samanid Iran.