Baghdad, The Shining City in Islamic Civilization - IX
Baghdad, The Shining City in Islamic Civilization - IX
Hasan A. Yahya, a writer from Palestine
In the third quarter of the tenth century, Mesopotamian painters were invited to Egypt to paint frescoes. The story is told by Maqrizi, who refers to a History of Painters, which can be placed in the eleventh century. The passage is reminiscent of Mesopotamia. The paintings of lapis lazuli, vermilion, verdigris, and other colors were covered over with varnish. We are told that the relief of these frescoes was remarkably executed in the style of the Basra painters.
Samarra sent for glassmakers and potters from Basra, and for more potters and color mixers from Kufa. A Chinese text insists that Chinese artists taught painting in Akula (the Syriac name for Kufa), in Lower Mesopotamia. The problem, which has not been solved, is an interesting one since it concerns a region which later became famous for its book decorations.
Although we do not know exactly where these industries and crafts were located in the earlier period, we know that Mesopotamia was much advanced in weaving and ceramic techniques and in brick and wood sculpture.
Fortunately, an Arabic text tells of the quality of the ceramic mural tiles that were sent from the Mesopotamian capital, along with other materials, to decorate the mihrab of the Great Mosque of Qairawan: "These precious faence panels were imported for a reception room that the Aghlabid emir wanted to build, and also beams of teakwood from which to make lutes. He had the pulpit for the Great Mosque made of it. The mihrab was brought in the form of marble panels from Iraq. He placed the faence tiles on the facade of the mihrab. A man from Baghdad made tiles which he added to the first ones." And, indeed, Georges Mar,cais, who studied this decoration carefully, wrote, "Two origins can be distinguished. One, with a more skillful and a richer design using enamel of various colors, consisted of exotic pieces; the other, of simpler, larger decorations in one color, consisted of locally manufactured pieces." We find "a very wide decoration composed of very simple geometric com- binations interlaced with floral forms, as in the linear groove decoration of columns and carved wood."
Many specimens of pieces of ceramic vessels were found in the Samarra excavations. These too are of yellow and green glazed pottery. When the Arab historians describe the famous Cupola of the Donkey, with its gently rising ramp, they speak also of the minaret with the spiral ramp in the Samarra mosque.
All the briefly mentioned documents give evidence of a great unity of style, and Baghdad can be credited with a floral decoration which, although already conventional, was not yet geometric.
Great admiration should be expressed for this civilization born in Baghdad. In this center of universal culture were found polite manners, refinement, general education, and the confrontation of religious and philosophical thought which made the Mesopotamian city the queen of the world during that period. (514 words) www.askdryahya.com
Source:
- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/wiet.html and Islamic History,
- Yahya, Hasan A. Brief Islamic History, 2010, Createspace
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