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Alhambra (Islamic Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The name of the Alhambra comes from the Arabic locution al-Qasr al-Hamraʿ, meaning “Red Castle.” The fortified palatine compound was built on top of the elevated Sabika Hill in Granada, al-Andalus (Islamic lands in present-day Spain), at the bottom of the Sierra Nevada. The Islamic constructions span from the 11th to the 15th centuries. It is objectively a unique monument for two main reasons. First, it is the best-preserved example of princely domestic architecture in the entire Islamicate world in the Middle Ages. Despite areas in ruins, the graft of Charles V’s unfinished Renaissance palace in its bosom, and the successive post-1492 interventions on the premises’ layout and design, a significant part of the original complex is still standing. Substantial wall and ceiling decorations from the Nasrid era (1232–1492) have also survived. Second, the Alhambra distinguishes itself for materializing in art its Muslim royal patrons’ conscious acts of transculturalism between Mediterranean Islam and Western Christianity. The Alhambra’s Nasrid interior design incorporates many elements drawing from the art of the neighboring Christian polities, such as figurative paintings and heraldic patterns. But what is understood as the history of the Alhambra is by no means limited to the Islamic period that saw its creation. It does include the refurbishments and uses in Christian context throughout three centuries, as well as the period of oblivion and neglect followed by the monument’s rediscovery and reinvention in the 19th century under the impulse of the cultural-artistic movements known as Romanticism and Orientalism. In this post-Islamic history, the Orientalist-Romantic reimagining of the monument has been a major step on the path toward the rational realization of its historical and aesthetic importance, beginning with a direct and meticulous documentation of the premises by the 19th-century architects and designers Owen Jones and Jules Goury and the photographer Charles Clifford. The Alhambra became known to the extent of constituting for some a reference cliché of Islamic architecture. Yet, from the scholarly viewpoint, it remains mysterious. Hypothetically answered, many questions about the use and function of its halls, pavilions, and gardens, as well as the workings and meanings of its complex designs, still welcome fresh interpretations. Finally, it ought to be noted that the aesthetic impact of the Alhambra did not fade away with the advent of the Modernist era. In the 20th-century, the Alhambra constituted an inspirational source for the Arab imaginary and artistic creation on the increasingly transnational art scene. However, the present bibliography does not cover this aspect of the Alhambra’s legacy related to the interconnected cultural-historical phenomena of the decolonization, the rise of pan-Arabism and the shifting evolution of art production on the global arena. This is a complex subject of research still in progress to be approached in a separate inquiry.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. The Alhambra offers great material to delve in on a multifold front of research, including archaeology and history, the aesthetic-critical inquiry, and cultural and literary studies. On one hand, historians and archaeologists endeavor to decipher the multilayered period structures. On the other hand, the rich interior design combining geometric and floral decoration with calligraphy—and in some units, figurative representations—necessitates aesthetic and cultural studies relying on a plurality of views and methodological approaches that the present bibliography aims to reflect fairly. Upon these premises, the historiography on the Alhambra has followed a particular developmental curve. The key episode of the 19th-century rediscovery prepared the early-20th-century body of knowledge to which the scholarship of the 1970s and 1980s is indebted. This early era is marked by the pioneering works of the architect in charge of the Alhambra’s conservation, Leopoldo Torres Bálbas, who introduced the practice of scientific archaeology aiming to unearth the monument’s original Islamic layouts. Grabar’s landmark 1978 monograph (Grabar 1992, cited under Monographs), though criticized for its lack of historical ground, brought about a breakthrough by proposing a hermeneutics of the monument that comes close to what is today understood as the art-critical inquiry. Together with the seminal 1978 article by Jerrilynn Dodds in Art Bulletin (Dodds 1978, cited under Figurative Ceiling Paintings), this work set trends of interpretation from which the latest research still draws. The field of study took on another major turn in the early 1990s with José Miguel Puerta Vílchez, who, owing to his exceptional theoretical knowledge in semiotics and literary aesthetics, proceeded with a critical investigation of the compound’s designs methodologically clearly delineated. Puerta Vílchez 1990, cited under Patterned Ornament, Geometric Abstraction, and Calligraphy). Yet, due to little diffusion outside Spain, Puerta Vílchez’s precursor works emmerged on the international academic scene only about a decade after their publication. All along this historiographical unfolding, the editions “Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife” and its quarterly Cuadernos de la Alhambra have been and remain authoritative research resources; they are available online from Recursos de Investigación de la Alhambra.
  8.  
  9. Recursos de Investigación de la Alhambra.
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  11. The archives of this institution of the Patronato are available at this website.
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  14. Monographs
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  16. The monographs cited in this section cover panoramically the history and art of the Alhambra, while critically addressing and surveying the variegated questions and problems it poses. Each of them represents a phase in the research’s evolution and the epistemic approach to the monument. They are very useful for getting acquainted with the monument both in terms of knowledge and visual information, as they contain numerous illustrations. While Grabar 1992 inaugurated the critical reading of the monument, Fernández-Puertas 1997 was the first all-embracing study based on the updated archaeological findings available in the beginning of the 21st century, after the pioneering scientific results provided in Torres Bálbas 1953. Irwin 2004 follows this path in endorsing certain hypothesis formulated by other scholars, like Jerrilynn Dodds (cited several times in this article). Bermúdez López 2010 proposes a well-informed vulgarization of these works for a broad audience. More recently, Eggleton 2011 and Puerta Vílchez 2012 constitute the most advanced monographical studies on the subject.
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  18. Bermúdez López, Jesús. La Alhambra y el Generalife: Guía oficial. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2010.
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  20. This recent monograph was conceived by the institution of the Patronato de la Alhambra as a promotional work addressing a general audience. While it aims to gather the latest and most updated information on the monument, it lacks referencing and argumentation. Overall, the volume offers a richly illustrated and practical, rather than scholarly, guide of the compound.
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  23. Díez Jorge, Ma. Elena, ed. La Alhambra y el Generalife: Guía histórico-artística. Granada, Spain: Universidad de Granada, Junta de Andalucía, 2006.
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  25. Perhaps the most exhaustive exploration of the Alhambra that in the period of its publication integrated the acquisitions and findings of the historical, archaeological, and artistic studies. Carefully detailed and thematically organized essays provide, in a single volume, deep insights on the architecture in all its aspects and individual parts, its functions and aesthetic purposes, and a sociological reconstitution of its use in the light of Nasrid multiculturalism. Essays by Ma. Elena Díez Jorge, José Manuel Gómez-Moreno Calera, and Pedro A. Galera Andreu. English translation, by Bryan Robinson, published in 2008 as The Alhambra and the Generalife: An Art History Guide.
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  28. Eggleton, Lara E. “Re-envisionning the Alhambra: Readings of Architecture and Ornament from Medieval to Modern.” PhD diss., University of Leeds, 2011.
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  30. This recent (unpublished, but available online) dissertation is worth consulting. It critically surveys the scholarly findings on the Alhambra, while proposing innovative interpretations of the ill-understood and often questionably construed topic of ornament. Following a recent scholarly trend that rightly revalorizes the post-Islamic history of the constructions, emphasis is placed on redesigning and rechronicling more inclusively the historical perspective of the architecture and its decoration.
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  33. Fernández-Puertas, Antonio. The Alhambra. Vol. 1, From the Ninth Century to Yūsuf I (1354). London: Saqi, 1997.
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  35. A major reference, although only Volume 1 has been published. This richly illustrated work contains numerous detailed drawings and comprehensively studies and interprets the art and history of the Alhambra, including the interventions that ensued the surrender of Granada in 1492. After the different specialized investigations published by his predecessors. Fernández-Puertas had the ambition of delivering the most complete work ever produced on the subject. Yet, while his book has to be situated in its early period of production, its wealth of information and evidences does not equate with innovative interpretation.
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  38. Grabar, Oleg. The Alhambra. Sebastopol, CA: Solipsist, 1992.
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  40. First published in 1978 by Harvard University Press, this is a major, albeit not unanimously appreciated, reference. For the first time, its author attempted to interpretatively read the building instead of evidencing and collecting data about its history. Against the archaeologically oriented mainstream, this innovative approach has been misunderstood. Yet the book offers interesting intuitions. Its strongest points are the meaningful thematic classification of the epigraphy and the reading of the abstract design as a form of iconography. The idea of the existence of a representational system in the Alhambra’s geometric decoration, however, remains a debatable question.
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  43. Irwin, Robert. The Alhambra. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
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  45. A navigation through the history of the Alhambra and its mysteries, premised upon an already well-established knowledge. Like many other scholars before him, Irwin deconstructs some old long-lasting assumptions while endorsing certain hypotheses in response to unsolved questions, such as the possible religious function of the Sala de Justicia (Hall of Justice).
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  48. Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel. Leer la Alhambra, Guía visual del monumento a través de sus inscripciones. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2012.
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  50. This multilingual monograph conveys the author’s sensible understanding of the Alhambra through his extensive hermeneutic works on the poetic inscriptions. Puerta Vílchez reasserts his chief idea of the Nasrid poetry as the instrument of a meaningfully articulated textual and visual expression. In Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian (includes a DVD).
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  53. Torres Bálbas, Leopoldo. La Alhambra y el Generalife, Los Monumentos Cardinales de España. Madrid: Editorial Plus-Ultra, 1953.
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  55. One of the canonical publications by the precursor of a scientific archaeology of the Alhambra. Torres Bálbas narrowed his goal to the original Islamic buildings and considered Christian interventions external additions. The contemporary archaeological philosophy has since revised this position, as it integrates this Christian part in the monument’s history.
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  58. Collaborative Themed Volumes
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  60. The collaborative volumes González Alcantud and Akmir 2008, González Alcantud and Malpica Cuello 2001, and Dodds 1992 gather experts who have worked together on one particular issue or important theme, such as the Alhambra’s cultural legacy in Spain and beyond, or its status as transcultural signifier. Rather than inclusively discussing the complex, they present case studies based on one significant question or aspect of the monument.
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  62. Dodds, Jerrilynn D. “The Alhambra.” In Al-Andalus: The Islamic Arts of Spain. Edited by Jerrilynn D. Dodds, 127–172. New York: Art and Harry Abrams, 1992.
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  64. Edited by a reputed art historian and specialist of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule, this all-inclusive landmark volume on the area’s arts and architecture includes a section dedicated to the Alhambra. Useful introduction to the three chief elements forming the site: the palaces, the city plan, and the gardens. Volume published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Alhambra, Granada (18 March–7 June 1992), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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  67. González Alcantud, José Antonio, and Abdellouahed Akmir, eds. La Alhambra: Lugar de la memoria y el diálogo. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2008.
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  69. Edited by anthropologists, this volume provides an insightful coverage of the great questions surrounding the history and myth of the Alhambra as a major Iberian multicultural currency. Ideal for graduate studies with a component on cultural criticism.
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  72. González Alcantud, José Antonio, and Antonio Malpica Cuello, eds. Pensar la Alhambra. Barcelona: Anthropos Editorial, 2001.
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  74. A solid account by some of the most authoritative Spanish scholars in the field of cultural and anthropological studies on the state of research on the Alhambra as historical and mythical object. Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses.
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  77. The Alhambra Historical Object
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  79. The Alhambra consists of a complex architectural palimpsest, as it evolved from a military defensive structure of power to a princely city with sophisticated facilities designed to sustain a court life focused as much on politics as on leisure and intellectual culture during both the Islamic and Christian eras. The works cited in these sections concern the variegated historical factors that framed the complex’s coming into existence and becoming, in particular the Islamic urban and architectural practices that produced it.
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  81. General History and Cultural Context
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  83. Although not recent, the historical work by Rachel Arié, who extensively studied the culture and history of al-Andalus in general, and Luis A. García Moreno is still authoritative on al-Andalus and on the Nasrid dynasty (see Arié and García Moreno 1994). Glick 1995 and Harvey 1992, together with the more recent studies in English, insightfully complement this resource. Some texts concern specific facets of the Alhambra’s history itself, including its foundation and evolution into a palatine compound under both Islamic and Christian patronage, the cultural and ideological framework underpinning its successive campaigns of construction, and other cultural questions raised by the monument, such as the interfaith relationships (Soifer 2009).
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  85. Arié, Rachel, and Luis A. García Moreno. España Musulmana. Vols. 8–15. Barcelona: Labor, 1994.
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  87. A seminal solid and unbiased all-inclusive historical account of al-Andalus by a French Hispanist-Arabist. Excellent and useful in contextualizing the Alhambra in its different Islamic historical phases. A good historical tool for undergraduate studies.
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  90. Díez Jorge, María Elena. El palacio islámico de la Alhambra: Propuestas para una lectura multicultural. Granada, Spain: Universidad de Granada, 1998.
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  92. Proposes a reading of the Alhambra as a place of cross-cultural encounter. This frame of viewing the monument appears further developed in the latest scholarship, inspired by the contemporary trend of transcultural studies in humanities.
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  95. Glick, Thomas F. Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979.
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  97. An excellent historical tool to understand the Alhambra in the broad context of the histories of both the Muslim and Christian Iberian Peninsula.
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  99.  
  100. Glick, Thomas F. From Muslim Fortress to Christian Castle: Social and Cultural Change in Medieval Spain. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995.
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  102. Examines in detail the transformational evolution of the princely-military architecture of al-Andalus and of the culture it fostered in light of the historical unfolding of the Christian conquest and its immediate aftermath.
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  104.  
  105. Harvey, L. P. Al-Andalus, 1250 to 1500. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
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  107. On top of delivering an in-depth account of al-Andalus in English, from the fall of Seville to that of Granada and shortly afterwards, this book also investigates the Muslim communities that lived in the Christian polities during the heights of the conquest. E-book published in 2014.
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  110. Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. London and New York: Longman, 1996.
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  112. Following Rachel Arié’ s seminal works, this useful historical account allows one to contextualize the Alhambra in the history of the Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula.
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  115. Robinson, Cynthia. “Alhambra/Al-Qasr al-Hamra.’” In Medieval Islamic Civilization, An Encyclopedia. Edited by Joseph W. Meri, 32–35. New York: Routledge, 2006.
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  117. Well-updated and detailed entry in this most useful encyclopedia.
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  120. Soifer, Maya. “Beyond Convivencia: Critical Reflections on the Historiography of Interfaith Relations in Christian Spain.” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 1.1 (2009): 19–36.
  121. DOI: 10.1080/17546550802700335Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  122. A close investigation of the making of the history of the interfaith relationship in Christian Spain during and after the 1492 conquest.
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  124.  
  125. Urban and Architectural Context
  126.  
  127. Looking at the Alhambra as a historical object requires addressing historical-archaeological questions of housing, urbanism, city environment, and architectural practice in al-Andalus—as well as in Islam in general. The works cited in this section approach these topics thematically, with major publications like Malpica Cuello 2007, Malpica Cuello 2002 and Malpica Cuello 2000 at the center, focusing on Nasrid Granada and its palace structure. Willmert 2010 and Salmerón 2007 investigate the relationship of the latter with both the cityscape and landscape, while Dickie 1992 and Dodds 1990 focus on the sociology of architecture in Medieval Spain. Bazzana 1992 completes these resources with a case study of the type of housing in this area as a backdrop to the research on the architecture and urbanism in Islamic Granada.
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  129. Bazzana, André. Maisons d’Al-Andalus: Habitat médiéval et structures du peuplement dans l’Espagne Orientale. 2 vols. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 1992.
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  131. A seminal study of urbanism and housing in al-Andalus. It is very useful for contextualizing the Alhambra in its broader urban environment. French scholarship has traditionally been in the front row of Islamic urban and housing studies.
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  133.  
  134. Dickie, James. “Granada: A Case Study of Arab Urbanism in Muslim Spain.” In The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, 88–111. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1992.
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  136. Concisely presents the Islamic history of the city of Granada, which obviously constitutes the background of the building project of the Alhambra.
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  138.  
  139. Dodds, Jerrilynn D. Architecture and Ideology in Early Medieval Spain. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990.
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  141. Important study for understanding the historical backdrop of the architectural practice as an expression and framework of power in al-Andalus. However, some of this author’s views on Nasrid art, based on source and history-centered readings, have been rightly criticized by Lara Eggleton in her dissertation (see Eggleton 2011, cited under Monographs).
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  144. Malpica Cuello, Antonio. Granada, ciudad islámica: Mitos y realidades. Granada, Spain: Liberbolsillo, 2000.
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  146. A study of the Islamic city of Granada that deconstructs the misconceptions and fantasies the topic gave rise to. Helps conceptualize the Alhambra in its Islamic urban context.
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  148.  
  149. Malpica Cuello, Antonio. La Alhambra De Granada, un estudio arqueológico. Granada, Spain: Universidad de Granada, 2002.
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  151. Three publications among many others by one of the most authoritative archaeologists of the Alhambra in recent times. They contain updated and reliable archaeological findings concerning the monument’s functionality in the double perspective of urbanism in Islam and the concept of the princely city in al-Andalus.
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  153.  
  154. Malpica Cuello, Antonio. La Alhambra, ciudad palatina nazarí. Málaga, Spain: Sarriá, 2007.
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  156. Examines the Alhambra as a princely city for the Nasrid dynasty.
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  158.  
  159. Salmerón, Pedro. The Alhambra Structure and Landscape. Translated by Diana Kelham. Granada, Spain: La Biblioteca de la Alhambra, 2007.
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  161. Analyzes the Alhambra from within and without, in correlation to both its natural and cultural surroundings. Provides very interesting insights on the visuality, appearance, and anatomy of the Alhambra as architectural body. (Originally published in 2000 in Spanish, La Alhambra, estructura y paisaje).
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  164. Willmert, Todd. “Alhambra Palace Architecture: An Environmental Consideration of its Inhabitation.” Muqarnas 27 (2010): 157–188.
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  166. Another stimulating, pragmatic, and relevant investigation targeting the question of the Alhambra’s relationship with its specific physical-geographical environment.
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  168.  
  169. Retrieving the Original of Particular Architectural Units
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  171. When it comes to exploring the Alhambra as an altered and incomplete archaeological site, the research endeavors to reconstitute and identify the original Islamic structures. The citations below attempt to unravel the space organization of the Alhambra’s architectural conglomerate, while in the subsequent section the citations more specifically touch upon the archaeology of the interior design, decoration, and furnishings. Echevarria 2008 undertakes to retrieve the Hall of Justice’s original function in the Nasrid cosmopolitan courtly context, while Rubio Domené 2008, Vílchez Vílchez 2000 and Bermúdez y Pareja 1974–1975 focus on the bath. Mileto and Vegas 2007 is particularly focused on the archaeology of court of the Myrtles, while Ruiz Sousa 2001 and Bermúdez y Pareja 1976 focus on the Palacio de los Leones and that adjacent to it, the Comares. Vílchez Vílchez 2001 specifically targets the old part of the Partal.
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  173. Bermúdez y Pareja, Jesús. “El Baño del Palacio de Comares, en la Alhambra de Granada: Disposición primitiva y alteraciones.” Cuadernos de la Alhambra 10–11 (1974–1975): 99–116.
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  175. An archaeological case study of the royal bath in the Alhambra.
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  177.  
  178. Bermúdez y Pareja, Jesús. “Identificación del Palacio de Comares y del Palacio de los Leones en la Alhambra de Granada.” Actas del XXIII Congreso Internacional de Historia del Arte, Granada 1973 1 (1976): 55–56.
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  180. This article brought forth the first archaeological elements about some key architectural units of the Alhambra, but they are to be consulted complementarily with the latest scholarly advancements.
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  182.  
  183. Echevarria, Ana. “Painting Politics in the Alhambra.” In Special Issue: Courting the Alhambra: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to the Hall of Justice Ceilings. Edited by Cynthia Robinson and Simone Pine. Medieval Encounters 14.2–3 (December 2008): 199–218.
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  185. Utilizes the evidence of the paintings of the “Hall of Justice” in conjunction with reading period texts in order to illuminate the complex Islamic-Christian relationships during the Nasrid rule. This scholar’s works are recommended for further insights on the culture of Islam in Spain.
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  187.  
  188. Mileto, Camilla, and Fernando Vegas. “Understanding Architectural Change at the Alhambra: Stratigraphic Analysis of the Western Gallery, Court of the Myrtles.” In Revisiting al-Andalus, Perspectives on the Material Culture of Islamic Iberia and Beyond. Edited by Glaire D. Anderson and Mariam Rosser-Owen, 193–206. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.
  189. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004162273.I-304Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  190. The latest archaeological chronicling of the Court of the Myrtles, in an excellent volume dedicated to the material culture of al-Andalus and beyond.
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  192.  
  193. Rubio Domené, Ramón. “La Sala de las Camas del Baño Real de Comares de la Alhambra.” Cuadernos de la Alhambra 43 (2008): 153–171.
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  195. A note on one particular unit of the bath compound (hammam) of the Alhambra, the resting room, that presents an elaborate structure and lavish decoration.
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  197.  
  198. Ruiz Sousa, Juan Carlos. “El Palacio de los Leones de la Alhambra: Madrasa, Zawiya y Tumba de Muhammad V?” Al-Qantara 22.1 (2001): 77–120.
  199. DOI: 10.3989/alqantara.2001.v22.i1.227Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  200. Inaugurates the interesting current of interpretation suggesting that the enigmatic Palace of the Lions might have had a religious and funerary function and significance.
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  202.  
  203. Vílchez Vílchez, Carlos. Al-Hammam: Baños árabes de la provincia de Granada. Granada, Spain: Diputación Provincial, 2000.
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  205. Two case presentations of the Partal and of the vestiges of the bath Islamic institution in the Granada region.
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  207.  
  208. Vílchez Vílchez, Carlos. El palacio del Partal alto en la Alhambra. Granada, Spain: Proyecto Sur, 2001.
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  210. An important case study that reconstitutes the history of the compound’s first Nasrid palatine site under the reign of Sultan Muhammad (r. 1273–1303). After the Christian conquest, this part of the Alhambra became the city of Granada’s administrative center until it was abandoned in the 18th century. Vandalized and destroyed, its investigation began in 1929 with the scientific archaeologist Leopoldo Torres Bálbas.
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  213. Retrieving the Original of Particular Elements of Design
  214.  
  215. The archaeology of the Alhambra necessarily includes investigating its elements of design, décor and furnishing items. There are many case studies of variegated material, and they are all valuable. A sample of these analyses includes Rubio Domené’s two practical exposes on the variegated decorative techniques used in the Alhambra (Rubio Domené 2010a and Rubio Domené 2010b); García Cueto 2000, which examines the ceiling of the Quarto Dorado; Lopez Pertiñez 2000, which deals with Nasrid wood work; Martin Peínado 2000, which investigates evidences about Nasrid methods of tilework; Ruiz Sousa 2000, an interpretation of the muqarnas decoration in the Palace of the Lions; Salameh 1998, a study of the Puerta del Vino; and Cabanelas 1988, focusing on the Comares domed ceiling.
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  217. Cabanelas, Darío. El techo del Salón de Comares en la Alhambra: Decoración, policromía, simbolismo y etimología. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 1988.
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  219. Well-detailed description and attempt to reconstitute the domed structure of the “Comares Hall” (or Hall of the Ambassadors) as it might have appeared originally. However, the symbolic interpretation is arguable (for the hermeneutics of this domed space see the section on the Alhambra Aesthetic Object).
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  221.  
  222. García Cueto, David. “La techumbre del Cuarto Dorado de la Alhambra.” Ante el Nuevo milenio: Raíces culturales, proyección y actualidad del arte español, XIII Congresso Nacional de Historia del Arte 1 (2000): 113–122.
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  224. Examines the techniques and features of an original Nasrid painting on a wooden ceiling, partially redone shortly after 1492.
  225. Find this resource:
  226.  
  227. Lopez Pertiñez, Maria Carmen. “Puertas de madera nazaríes: Estructura y decoración; La Puerta de la Sala de las dos Hermanas en la Alhambra de Granada.” Ante el Nuevo milenio: Raíces culturales, proyección y actualidad del arte español, XIII Congresso Nacional de Historia del Arte 1 (2000): 145–151.
  228. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  229. Analyzes the Nasrid craft of wooden doors, the products of which were used to furnish the Alhambra’s halls.
  230. Find this resource:
  231.  
  232. Martin Peínado, Beatriz. “La consolidación de los restos del antiguo zócalo de la Rauda de la Alhambra.” Cuadernos de la Alhambra 36 (2000): 155–166.
  233. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  234. Scrutinizes the crucial evidence brought forth by remains of old strips of tiling that today appear in fragments lining the ceramic tiles in situ. Abstract in English.
  235. Find this resource:
  236.  
  237. Rubio Domené, Ramón. “Téchnicas decorativas en la Alhambra: Conocimiento y restauración.” In La invención del estilo Hispano-Maghrebí: Presente y futuro del pasado. Edited by José Antonio González Alcantud, 379–393. Barcelona: Anthropos, 2010a.
  238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  239. A useful survey of the Alhambra’s decorative materials, accompanied by an expose about the techniques and philosophy of restoration.
  240. Find this resource:
  241.  
  242. Rubio Domené, Ramón. Yeserías de la Alhambra: Historia, técnica y conservación. Granada, Spain: Editorial Universidad de Granada, 2010b.
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  244. This book concentrates on the archaeology, technical aspects, and conservation of the carved stucco decoration.
  245. Find this resource:
  246.  
  247. Ruiz Sousa, Juan Carlos. “La cupola de mocárabes y el Palacio de los Leones en la Alhambra.” Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte 12 (2000): 9–24.
  248. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  249. Construes the theme of the muqarnas (honeycomb-looking three-dimensional design) cupola of the Palace of the Lions as a symbolic form, in accordance with the author’s hypothesis about this unit’s religious function.
  250. Find this resource:
  251.  
  252. Salameh, Ibrahim. “Estudio de los elementos decorativos de la Puerta del Vino en la Alhambra de Granada.” Arqueología y Territorio Medieval 5 (1998): 135–151.
  253. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  254. Meticulous identification and deciphering of the patterns adorning the Gate of Wine.
  255. Find this resource:
  256.  
  257. Periods of Restoration
  258.  
  259. The numerous campaigns of restoration of the Alhambra at different periods, necessarily based on the different archaeological philosophies that the practice has created and followed over time, have left the Alhambra as it stands today. They also have been central to the perception and reception of the monument, locally and globally, and to the construction of the historical narrative about it. These references will help to track and understand this history of the making of the Alhambra as historical-mythical object. Rodríguez Domingo 2007 examines the 19th-century rehabilitations of the Alhambra, and Calatrava 2007 and Vílchez Vílchez 1988 look at those of the early 20th century. Raquejo 1990 (cited under Nineteenth-Century Scholarship and Craftsmanship Inspired by the Alhambra) looks more specifically at the British approach to the monument. Rodríquez Domingo 1998 focuses on the making of the Alhambra as national treasure, while Bargebuhr 1968 attempts to trace the origins of the complex’s site in the 11th century.
  260.  
  261. Bargebuhr, Frederick P. The Alhambra: A Cycle of Studies on the Eleventh Century in Moorish Spain. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1968.
  262. DOI: 10.1515/9783110818598Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. This early book concentrates on the period of the foundation of the Alhambra as a citadel during times of internal warfare in al-Andalus. It conveys particular views, such as the hypothesis of a Jewish construction at the origin of the later palaces. But if they cannot be discarded, these interpretations have been questioned by many experts, among them Robert Irwin.
  264. Find this resource:
  265.  
  266. Calatrava, Juan. “Architectural Restoration and the Idea of ‘Tradition’ in Early Twentieth-Century Spain.” Future Anterior 4.2 (2007): 40–49.
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  268. A theoretical reflection on the archaeological practice in Spain that enlightens the decisions and initiatives that have been taken about the case of the Alhambra.
  269. Find this resource:
  270.  
  271. Rodríquez Domingo, José Manuel. “La Restauración Monumental de la Alhambra: De Real Sitio a Monumento Nacional, 1827–1907.” PhD diss., University of Granada, 1998.
  272. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  273. Useful to consult if accessible. This unpublished dissertation examines the cultural construction of the Alhambra as a national monument.
  274. Find this resource:
  275.  
  276. Rodríguez Domingo, José Manuel. “La Alhambra restaurada: De ruina romántica a fantasía oriental.” In Luz sobre papel: La imagen de Granada y la Alhambra en las fotografías de J. Laurent. Edited by María del Mar Villafranca Jiménez and Rafael Ruiz Pablos, 83–98. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2007.
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  278. This article sheds light on the multiple frames of viewing the Alhambra that its 19th-century rediscovery gave rise to.
  279. Find this resource:
  280.  
  281. Vílchez Vílchez, Carlos. La Alhambra de Leopoldo Torres Balbás: Obras de Restauración y Conservación 1923–1936. Granada, Spain: Editorial Comares, 1988.
  282. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. This study provides a critique of the momentous archaeological interventions and initiatives to save and retrieve the Islamic Alhambra by the great archaeologist. Interesting insights on the Torres Balbás’s views and pioneering philosophy of archaeology in the pre–civil war context of early-20th-century Spain.
  284. Find this resource:
  285.  
  286. The Alhambra Aesthetic Object
  287.  
  288. In the Nasrid period, the Alhambra was subject to a complex aesthetic programming motivated by political and spiritual aspirations, as well as by purely artistic ideals. While reflecting modes of designing and century-old traditions of architectural decoration common in al-Andalus and coeval North Africa, this Nasrid program materialized the Sultans’ own vision of art and architecture as an exclusive expression of their kingship philosophy and courtly aesthetics. Artists and craftsmen worked for this sole purpose of constructing a unique palatine entity bearing the ipseitic signs of each dynastic patron. This vision appears translated in the Alhambra’s mixed decorative registers and poetic calligraphy, and in the chief institution of the garden. The publications dealing with these artistic complexities are grouped under five thematized rubrics.
  289.  
  290. Patterned Ornament, Geometric Abstraction, and Calligraphy
  291.  
  292. The Alhambra’s walls display the Hispano-Maghrebi tradition of intricate geometric decoration mixed with patterned ornament and calligraphy. The studies in this section aim to both expose the structural features and unravel the aesthetic workings of this conjunction of registers that by no means is self-evident. The meaningful correlation between the inscriptions’ semantics and the architectural space, design, and function, and the corollary question of ornament, the most elusive aspect of the Alhambra’s design, are open to interpretation. Broug 2013 and el-Said 1993 enlighten the mathematical structures of the geometric registers in the monument’s decoration, while Bush 2009 and Puerta Vílchez 2007 examine the role of the calligraphy in it. Gonzalez 2001 and Gonzalez 2003 inaugurate the phenomenological method in order to interpret the designs combined in the Comares Hall, as well as the art of geometric abstraction throughout the compound. Puerta Vílchez 1990 offers a semiotic reading of the architecture.
  293.  
  294. Broug, Eric. Islamic Geometric Design. London: Thames and Hudson, 2013.
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  296. Beautifully illustrated, well-presented, and thorough examination of the tradition of geometric design in Islam, of which the Alhambra, with its expansive system of shapes and lineaments, constitutes one of the most important examples. Very practical source for undergraduate courses.
  297. Find this resource:
  298.  
  299. Bush, Olga. “The Writing on the Wall: Reading the Decoration of the Alhambra.’” Muqarnas 26 (2009): 119–148.
  300. DOI: 10.1163/22118993-90000146Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  301. Largely indebted to previous studies, this article redevelops the idea that the Alhambra’s decoration consists of mirroring textual and visual discourses centered on the Nasrid sovereign’s persona and the dynastic ideology of sovereignty.
  302. Find this resource:
  303.  
  304. Gonzalez, Valérie. Beauty and Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic Art and Architecture. London: I. B. Tauris, 2001.
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  306. Introduces the phenomenological method in the study of Islamic art. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the phenomenology of the Alhambra’s geometric design and the viewer’s primary experience it induces. Chapter 2 correlates the aesthetic workings of this design with the aesthetic thought in Qurʾan 27:44, inscribed on one wall of the compound.
  307. Find this resource:
  308.  
  309. Gonzalez, Valérie. “The Comares Hall in the Alhambra and James Turrell’s Space That Sees: A Comparison of Aesthetic Phenomenology.” Muqarnas 20 (2003): 253–278.
  310. DOI: 10.1163/22118993-90000047Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. Compares the Comares Hall’s geometric structure with a minimalist construction by the contemporary American artist James Turrell in order to illuminate the phenomenology of the sacred taking place in this hall. Highlights the Alhambra’s transcultural aesthetic values and scope.
  312. Find this resource:
  313.  
  314. Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel. Los códigos de utopía de la Alhambra de Granada. Granada, Spain: Diputación Provincial, 1990.
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  316. Pioneering investigation of the calligraphic décor as a semiotized verbal construction promoting the Nasrid dynasty’s political vision and metaphysical ideals in correlation with the architecture’s visual forms.
  317. Find this resource:
  318.  
  319. Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel. “La Alhambra de Granada o la calligrafía elevada al rango de arquitectura.” In 7 paseos por la Alhambra. Edited by María Angustias Cabrera Orti, Rafael Pérez Gómez, et al., 299–386. Granada, Spain: Proyecto Sur de Ediciones, 2007.
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  321. Underscores the role of calligraphy in the Alhambra’ s architectural program and its specific aesthetic conception in osmosis with space, form, and ornament.
  322. Find this resource:
  323.  
  324. el-Said, Issam. Islamic Art and Architecture: The System of Geometric Design. Edited by Tarek el-Bouri and Keith Critchlow. London: Garnet, 1993.
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  326. Focuses on the mathematical structures of the geometry in Islamic art. Well illustrated and endowed with the explanatory drawings necessary to comprehend the topic as an artistic application of mathematical principles.
  327. Find this resource:
  328.  
  329. The Poetic Inscriptions
  330.  
  331. The Alhambra bears throughout poetic calligraphy that was especially composed for its palaces and their Nasrid patrons. While the bulk of J.M. Puerta Vílchez’s publications on poetry in the Alhambra are essential to its study, Puerta Vílchez 2013 and Puerta Vílchez 2001 have also contributed to the knowledge of this topic in variegated ways. Alongside reputed Arabists such as Emilio García Gomez (García Gomez 1996) who founded the field of inquiry by doing the painstaking job of gathering and deciphering the evidences of the inscriptions themselves, others have pursued the hermeneutics of this poetry in correlation to the Alhambra’s architecture, or have illuminated the poetic culture that is at the source of subtends the conspicuous presence of verbal compositions on its walls.
  332.  
  333. Bush, Olga. “‘When My Beholder Ponders’: Poetic Epigraphy in the Alhambra.” Artibus Asiae 66.2 (2006): 55–67.
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  335. Following an established line of inquiry, the author analyzes the programmatic linkage between poetry and forms in the Mirador de Lindaraja.
  336. Find this resource:
  337.  
  338. Cabanelas, Darío. “Inscripciones Poéticas del Partal y del Palacio de Comares.” Cuadernos de la Alhambra 10–11 (1974–1975): 117–199.
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  340. One among the first case-critical studies of the poetic inscriptions in the Alhambra.
  341. Find this resource:
  342.  
  343. Cabanelas, Darío. “El Poema de la Fuente de los Leones.” Cuadernos de la Alhambra 15–17 (1979–1981): 4–88.
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  345. One of the first attempts to interpret the enigmatic poem inscribed on the famous fountain in the Palace of the Lions.
  346. Find this resource:
  347.  
  348. García Gomez, Emilio. Ibn Zamrak, el Poeta de la Alhambra. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra, 1975.
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  350. In-depth presentation of the Nasrid statesman, courtly poet, and panegyrist of Sultan Muhammad V, who composed verses for the Alhambra’s calligraphic decoration.
  351. Find this resource:
  352.  
  353. García Gomez, Emilio. Poemas árabes en los muros y fuentes de la Alhambra. Madrid: Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos en Madrid, 1996.
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  355. The latest edition of a comprehensive and insightful survey of the Alhambra’s poetic inscriptions, translated into Spanish, by the Arabist García Gomez.
  356. Find this resource:
  357.  
  358. Ibn al-Hatib, Lisan al-Din. Historia de los reyes de la Alhambra: El resplandor de la luna llena acerca de la dinastía nazarí. Translated by José María Casciaro Ramírez and Emilio Molina López. Preliminary study by Emilio Molina López. Granada, Spain: Editorial Universidad de Granada, 2010.
  359. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  360. Key primary source by the Andalusi poet Ibn al-Hatib, in Arabic (Al-lamha al-badriyya fi l-dawlat al-nasriyya), and translated into and commented on in Spanish. Provides a genuine sense of the Nasrid practice of using the art of poetry for political ends.
  361. Find this resource:
  362.  
  363. Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel. “El Vocabulario Estético de los Peomas de la Alhambra.” In Pensar la Alhambra. Edited by José Antonio González and Antonio Malpica Cuello, 69–88. Barcelona: Anthropos Editorial, 2001.
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  365. Exegesis of the poetic language in the Alhambra’s epigraphy, aiming to expose its conjunctivity with the architectural visuality. A helpful text to start with for exploring this complex duality of textuality/visuality.
  366. Find this resource:
  367.  
  368. Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel. “La construccíon poética de la Alhambra.” Revista de poética medieval 27 (2013): 263–285.
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  370. Redeveloping themes previously explored, in this article the author enhances the specificity of the Alhambra as the product of an original aesthetic project particularly focused on the association between architecture and poetry.
  371. Find this resource:
  372.  
  373. Architecture and Literary Culture in al-Andalus
  374.  
  375. The semantic scope of the Alhambra’s inscriptions exceeds the realm of poetics and touches upon religion, ethics, and politics, suggesting that the monument must also be studied in the broader light of the courtly literary practices in al-Andalus. This corpus of publications explains the intertwined roles of palace culture, writing, and scriptures in these practices. Following upon Cabanelas 1984, Robinson 2008 and Robinson 2002 investigate the double economy of court culture and architecture and its relationship to politics in post caliphal al-Andalus and during the Nasrid period. Gonzalez 2002 illuminates an aesthetic paradigm in the Qurʾan alluded to in the Alhambra’s epigraphy. Rubiera Mata 1988, Rubiera Mata 1982, and Santiago Simón 1983 focus on the literary nature of the references, and on the poets themselves who constructed the Alhambra as poetic edifice.
  376.  
  377. Cabanelas, Darío. Literatura, Arte y Religión en los Palacios de la Alhambra. Granada, Spain: Universo de Granada, 1984.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. Cabanelas was one of the first scholars to concisely present the general phenomenon of the meaningful combination of the three intellectual domains of literature, visual forms, and religion in the Alhambra.
  380. Find this resource:
  381.  
  382. Gonzalez, Valérie. Le piège de Salomon, La pensée de l’art dans le Coran. Paris: Albin Michel, 2002.
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  384. Exegesis of Qurʾan 27:44 mentioned in the Alhambra’s epigraphy. Argues about the paradigmatic function of the Solomonic parable in the practices of art and architecture in Islam.
  385. Find this resource:
  386.  
  387. Robinson, Cynthia. In Praise of Song: The Making of Courtly Culture in al-Andalus and Provence, 1065–1135 A.D. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic, 2002.
  388. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  389. Excellent analysis of the literary, poetic, and intellectual practices at the post-caliphal courts of al-Andalus in the framework of the palace institution. It constitutes a valuable aid to understanding the roots of the Nasrid aesthetic culture, conceiving literature as the twin of architecture.
  390. Find this resource:
  391.  
  392. Robinson, Cynthia. “Arthur in the Alhambra? Stories, Pictures and Nasrid Royal Self-Fashioning in the Ceiling Paintings of the Sala de Justicia.” Medieval Encounters 14.2–3 (December 2008): 164–198.
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  394. This article deepens Jerrilynn Dodds’s pioneering idea of the Arthurian source of the illustrated narratives in the paintings of the Palace of the Lions. It demonstrates the Nasrids’ adaptation of these narratives in order to promote the dynasty’s ideology.
  395. Find this resource:
  396.  
  397. Rubiera Mata, María Jesús. Ibn al-Yayyab, el otro poeta de la Alhambra. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra-Intituto Hispano-Árabe de Cultura, 1982.
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  399. Completes the other studies on the famous poets of the Alhambra by looking into a less known Nasrid artist who contributed to the poetic compositions on the Alhambra.
  400. Find this resource:
  401.  
  402. Rubiera Mata, María Jesús. La arquitectura en la literatura árabe: Datos para una estética del placer. Madrid: Hiperión, 1988.
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  404. Pionnering and extremely informative presentation of the primary Arabic sources, discussing both historical and imaginary palatine constructions in medieval Islam. Provides Spanish translations of excerpts from Arabic texts. Useful for any research on Islamic palatine culture in the Middle Ages.
  405. Find this resource:
  406.  
  407. Santiago Simón, Emilio. El Polígrafo Granadino Ibn al-Jatib y el Sufismo: Aportaciones para su Estudio. Granada, Spain: Excma. Diputación Provincial, Instituto Provincial de Estudios y Promoción Cultural: Departamento de Historia del Islam de la Universidad, 1983.
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  409. Analyzes the Sufi element of the Nasrid intellectual Ibn al-Khattib’s thought and poetry. This work brings forth concrete material to support the theory of the mystic dimension of the Alhambra’s aesthetic.
  410. Find this resource:
  411.  
  412. The Figurative Ceiling Paintings
  413.  
  414. One of the most puzzling aspects of the Alhambra palace’s aesthetic program is the presence of figurative representations in visual contrast with the remainder of the architectural decoration, which is abstract and abstractive. Although some paintings clearly indicate the activity of Christian artists at the Nasrid court and the dynasty’s politic of transculturalism, the function and meaning of these figurations in relation to the architectural space remain enigmatic. The most interesting or plausible interpretations are presented in Dodds 1978, Dodds 2008, Borland 2008, Luyster 2008, Robinson 2008, and Rodríguez Porto 2008.
  415.  
  416. Borland, Jennifer. “The Forested Frontier: Commentary in the Margins of the Alhambra Ceiling Paintings.” Medieval Encounters 14.2–3 (December 2008): 303–340.
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  418. A symbolic reading of the iconographic background of the ceiling paintings in the “Hall of Justice.” This reading deserves attention as interpretive possibility, but it also seems to be a bit of a stretch. It is, in sum, interesting but with reservations.
  419. Find this resource:
  420.  
  421. Dodds, Jerrilynn D. “The Paintings in the Sala de Justicia of the Alhambra: Iconography and Iconology.” Art Bulletin (1978): 186–197.
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  423. Seminal article that identified an Arthurian source of some of the painted images. It expounds the questioning about the artifacts’ meaning in relation to both the architectural unit’s function and its broader Iberian cultural context.
  424. Find this resource:
  425.  
  426. Dodds, Jerrilynn D. “Hunting in the Borderlands (for Oleg Grabar).” Medieval Encounters 14.2–3 (December 2008): 267–302.
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  428. Further delves into the semantic-semiotic meaning of the narratives in the Sala de Justicia’s painted imagery, in particular its hunt symbolism, in light of both the political rivalry and cultural interconnectedness between the Nasrids and their Christian neighbors.
  429. Find this resource:
  430.  
  431. Luyster, Amanda. “Cross-Cultural Style in the Alhambra: Textiles, Identity and Origins.” Medieval Encounters 14.2–3 (December 2008): 341–367.
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  433. Compellingly argues about the affiliation of the figurative art in the Sala de Justicia with the medieval tradition of tapestry in Europe. The argument cleverly relies on the documented practice of textile display and use in the Alhambra.
  434. Find this resource:
  435.  
  436. Robinson, Cynthia. “Marginal Ornament: Poetics, Mimesis, and Devotion in the Palace of the Lions.” Muqarnas 25 (2008): 185–214.
  437. DOI: 10.1163/22118993-90000132Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  438. Rightly deconstructs some subjective apprehensions of the Alhambra’s architectural decoration while, at the same time, supporting the questionable argument of the existence of a literal representational system in it. This article also substantiates the hypothesis about the religious-mystic activities that may have been held in the Palace of the Lions.
  439. Find this resource:
  440.  
  441. Rodríguez Porto, Rosa María. “Courtliness and its Trujamanes: Manufacturing Chivalric Imagery across the Castilian–Grenadine Frontier.” Medieval Encounters 14.2–3 (December 2008): 219–266.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. Through the comparison with illustrated narratives at the Spanish Christian courts, this text situates the literary based figurative registers of the Sala de Justicia in a broader web of cross-cultural practices in the medieval Iberian peninsula that thematize power and ethics through the media of literature and art.
  444. Find this resource:
  445.  
  446. The Gardens
  447.  
  448. Forming a chief pattern in the Alhambra’s architectural program, the gardens responded as much to pragmatic desires of pleasure and leisure as to needs to express spiritual thoughts and political ideals in the material realm of art. In this aspect, however, the Alhambra’s gardens are far from being unique, for they belong to the medieval tradition of architectural landscaping in Islam. These texts endeavor to retrace the history of this Islamic garden culture while also uncovering the significances of domesticated and aestheticized nature in princely architecture inspired by the paradigmatic description of Paradise in the Qurʾan. It should be noticed, though, that uncertainty surrounds the exact nature of the Qurʾanic paradigm’s role in the practice of garden designing in Nasrid Granada and elsewhere in the medieval Muslim world. While certainly the Qurʾanic Paradise was in the designers and commissioners’ mind, other paradigms from Islamic and Arabic pre-Islamic poetry have nurtured the practice as well. It is therefore far from certain that in the Alhambra the gardens constituted explicit representations of the Islamic Paradise, as in the early modern case of the Taj Mahal in Mughal India. Tito Rojo and Casares Porcel 2011, Fairchild Ruggles 2000, and Dickie 1992 all deal with the garden in al-Andalus, which is put in the broader Islamic perspective in Brookes 1987. Puerta Vílchez 2011, Sáenz de Buruaga and Val de Omar 1996 and Rabbat 1985 examine in particular the theme of water in Islamic and Andalusi gardens. Fairchild Ruggles 1997 proposes a semantic reading of the specific area of the Nasrid Mirador de Lindaraja.
  449.  
  450. Brookes, John. Gardens of Paradise: The History and Design of the Great Islamic Gardens. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987.
  451. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  452. Lays down the main issues, themes and concepts such as the Qurʾanic Paradise underpinning the research on the trope of the garden in Islamic context. This work thus puts the Alhambra’s example in the broader perspective of the Islamic tradition of architectural landscaping.
  453. Find this resource:
  454.  
  455. Dickie, James. “The Hispano-Arab Garden: Notes Toward a Typology.” In The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, 1016–1035. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1992.
  456. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  457. This article has contributed to the development of case studies on the concept of the garden in Al-Andalus.
  458. Find this resource:
  459.  
  460. Fairchild Ruggles, D. “The Eye of Sovereignty: Poetry and Vision in the Alhambra’s Lindaraja Mirador.” Gesta 36.2 (1997): 180–189.
  461. DOI: 10.2307/767237Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  462. Construes the combination of lavish decoration and poetry in the semi-open garden area of the Lindaraja Mirador as the expression of dynastic politics of gazing as well as a politicized apprehension of the act of gazing.
  463. Find this resource:
  464.  
  465. Fairchild Ruggles, D. Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Al-Andalus. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. Elaborates about the conceptualization, multifunctionality and semiotic significances of the garden in the framework of courtly culture in al-Andalus.
  468. Find this resource:
  469.  
  470. Puerta Vílchez, José Miguel. La poetica del agua en el Islam- Poetics of Water in Islam. Bilingual edition. Gijón, Spain: Trea, 2011.
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  472. This superlative book scrutinizes the wide spectrum of values and meanings of water in Islam, including the legacy of Arabic pre-Islamic poetry centered on this element. The vast poetic, ontological and spiritual inquiry is applied to the gardens in al-Andalus and of the Alhambra. Innovatively illustrated with contemporary artworks by Muslim artists.
  473. Find this resource:
  474.  
  475. Rabbat, Nasser. “The Palace of the Lions, Alhambra, and the Role of Water in its Conception.” Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre 2 (1985): 64–73.
  476. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  477. Addresses the question of the water infrastructure in the Palace of the Lions’ particular space, which intricately combines covered and open-air areas.
  478. Find this resource:
  479.  
  480. Sáenz de Buruaga, Gonzalo, and Val de Omar, Maria José. “Mystical Dimensions of Water in the Alhambra.” In Proceedings of the Seminar Al-Andalus, Centuries of Vicissitudes and Accomplishments. Vol. III. Edited by Maktabat al-Malik ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-ʻĀmmah, 67–81. Civilisations, Architecture and Arts. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: King Abdul Aziz Public Library, 1996.
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  482. Stimulating mystical interpretation of the theme of water in the Alhambra. In this aspect, this article burtresses the hermeneutics of the Alhambra as a place of faith expression through artistic materiality.
  483. Find this resource:
  484.  
  485. Tito Rojo, José, and Manuel Casares Porcel. El jardín hispanomusulmán: los jardines de al-Andalus y su herencia. Granada, Spain: Granada Universidad, 2011.
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  487. A comprehensive critique of the garden tradition in al-Andalus and its legacy in Christian Spain. An earlier article exists in English: “From the Andalusí Garden to the Andalusian Garden: Remnants and Re-Creation,” in Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity, Questions, Methods and Resources in a Multicultural Perspective, edited by Michel Conan (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007), pp. 287–306.
  488. Find this resource:
  489.  
  490. The Alhambra Reimagined and Re-created Object
  491.  
  492. The post–Christian-conquest life of the Alhambra was eventful. But it is only relatively recently that this second life has been acknowledged as an integral part of the complex’s history. The Romantics, the Victorians, and the Orientalists saved the Alhambra from dire neglect, but they also created a strange and ambiguous aura effect around it that uncovered the florilegium of subjective projections and misconceptions about the art of Islam in the Western aesthetic consciousness. This aura effect nevertheless lent the monument an unprecedented visibility in the modern world and prompted efforts of restoration and preservation. The studies in this last section explore the different angles and moments of this segmental historical unfolding of modern Alhambra, up to the present day. However, much remains to do in this aspect of the research, as the scholarship has traditionally privileged the compound’s Islamic history.
  493.  
  494. Perceptions and Approaches to the Alhambra in the Christian Context
  495.  
  496. The Christian conquerors’ reception of the Alhambra in the aftermath of 1492 and the increasingly distanced visions of it as an emblematic Islamic construction in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries do not have the same tenor and content. These references help to illuminate this evolutionary process of perception and approaches to the monument that has created its modern history and mythology. Eggleton 2012 proposes the most advanced and inclusive study of the modern Alhambra, while a comprehensive overview of the arts in Islamic Spain is provided by Rosser-Owen 2010. Heide 2010 and Ferry 2007 focus particularly on the British perception and appropriation of the monument, while Brothers 1994 and Rosenthal 1985 examine these same processes in the Renaissance.
  497.  
  498. Brothers, Cammy. “The Renaissance Reception of the Alhambra: The Letters of Andrea Navagero and the Palace of Charles V.” Muqarnas 11 (1994): 79–102.
  499. DOI: 10.2307/1523211Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  500. Hermeneutics of a chief primary source about the perception of the Alhambra in the aftermath of the 1492 conquest. This study aids the comprehension of the fate of the Alhambra in the early modern period.
  501. Find this resource:
  502.  
  503. Eggleton, Lara. “History in the Making: the Ornament of the Alhambra and the Past-Facing Present.” In Special Issue: Islamic Art Historiography. Edited by Moya Carey and Margaret S. Graves. Journal of Art Historiography 6 (June 2012): 6-LE/1.
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  505. Discusses in great detail the rediscovery of the Alhambra in the 19th century and its consequences on the scholarship’s development. Noticeably however, the last part of this account (pp. 25–28) on the recent research is partial and incomplete, as some important works have been omitted.
  506. Find this resource:
  507.  
  508. Ferry, Kathryn. “Owen Jones and the Alhambra Court at the Crystal Palace.” In Revisiting al-Andalus, Perspectives on the Material Culture of Islamic Iberia and Beyond. Edited by Glaire D. Anderson and Mariam Rosser-Owen, 225–244. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.
  509. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004162273.I-304Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  510. Insights on the inspirational process that enticed Owen Jones to create an Alhambresque style of design in Victorian England.
  511. Find this resource:
  512.  
  513. Heide, Claudia. “The Alhambra in Britain: Between Foreignization and Domestication.” Art in Translation 2 (2010): 201–222.
  514. DOI: 10.2752/175613110X12706508989497Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Explores the process of the British romanticizing vision of the Alhambra and the effects of the phenomenon called “Alhambrism” on the aesthetic consciousness in Britain.
  516. Find this resource:
  517.  
  518. Rosenthal, Earl E. The Palace of Charles V in Granada. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
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  520. An in-depth and highly informative study of the different conversions and interventions in the Alhambra’s architectural fabric under Christian royal patronage in the early modern period. However, some of Rosenthal’s findings have been challenged by the Italian architect and critic Manfredo Tafuri in his chapter “The Granada of Charles V,” in Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 181–218.
  521. Find this resource:
  522.  
  523. Rosser-Owen, Miriam. Islamic Art from Spain. London: V&A Publishing, 2010.
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  525. Tells, chronologically, the history of the arts from al-Andalus, including the Mudejar and Romantic-Orientalist reinventions. This book includes an enlightening section dedicated to the impact of Nasrid art and architecture on the European decorative arts, and on the creation of the Alhambrism movement in Britain. Translated into Spanish as Arte Islámico de España (Madrid: Turner Libros, 2010).
  526. Find this resource:
  527.  
  528. Nineteenth-Century Scholarship and Craftsmanship Inspired by the Alhambra
  529.  
  530. The 19th-century saw the first phase of the scholarship dedicated to documenting and understanding the Alhambra. The initiative had an experimental character and was deeply informed by the subjectivities of Romanticism and Orientalism. Yet one of the fascinating aspects of the phenomenon is that the purely intellectual and aesthetic interest in the Alhambra in this period also gave rise to artistic creations. The citations in this section gather original works from the 19th century together with publications, translations, and studies of this material by contemporary scholars. Calatrava 2011, Jones 2008, Goury, et al. 1842, Girault de Prangey 1836–1839, and Laborde 1808 form the original corpus, while Rosser-Owen 2011 and Raquejo 1990 constitute academic studies based on this material.
  531.  
  532. Calatrava, Juan, ed. Owen Jones y la Alhambra. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2011.
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  534. A beautifully illustrated and insightful collaborative volume on the 19th-century English architect and designer who re-created the Alhambra for the 1851 Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace, London, and created the Alhambresque current in Britain.
  535. Find this resource:
  536.  
  537. Girault de Prangey, Joseph-Philibert. Monuments Arabes et Moresques de Cordoue, Séville et Grenade, Dessinés et Mesurés en 1832 et 1833. 3 vols. Paris: Veith et Hauser, 1836–1839.
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  539. One of the first visual documentations of the Alhambra produced in the 19th century, put in the perspective of an ensemble of Spanish monuments of Islamic and Islamic-inspired architectural tradition.
  540. Find this resource:
  541.  
  542. Goury, Jules, Owen Jones, and Pascual de Gayangos. Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra, from Drawings Taken on the Spot in 1834. Vol. 1. London: O. Jones, 1842.
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  544. The original collaborative documentary work that decisively helped reveal the Alhambra to the modern world. Original plans, elevations, sections, and details of decoration from drawings made in situ. Includes a survey of the inscriptions and an historical introduction by Pascual de Gayangos. Digitized version available online from the Internet Archive.
  545. Find this resource:
  546.  
  547. Jones, Owen. The Alhambra Court in the Crystal Palace. London: Euston Grove, 2008.
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  549. This book, first published in 1854, relates the construction of the “Alhambra Court” housed in the Sydenham Pavilion for the 1851 Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace. The original engravings document this fascinating account of the event and unveils the architect and designer’s mind. Published in Spain as El Patio de la Alhambra en el Crystal Palace (Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2010).
  550. Find this resource:
  551.  
  552. Laborde, Alexandre. Itinéraire descriptif de l’Espagne. Paris: H. Nicolle, 1808.
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  554. This early publication predates Girault de Prangey 1836–1839. It included engravings of the Comares Palace, the bath (hammam), and the Generalife gardens.
  555. Find this resource:
  556.  
  557. Raquejo, Tonia. El Palacio Encantado: La Alhambra en el Arte Británico. Madrid: Taurus Ediciones, 1990.
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  559. Another informed study of the aura effect of the Alhambra in the artistic practice in Great Britain of the Victorian and post-Victorian eras.
  560. Find this resource:
  561.  
  562. Rosser-Owen, Miriam. “Coleccionar la Alhambra: Owen Jones y la España Islámica en el South Kensington Museum”/ “Collecting the Alhambra: Owen Jones and Al-Andalus at the South Kensington Museum.” In Owen Jones y la Alhambra. Edited by Juan Calatrava, 42–69 (English, 159–168). Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2011.
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  564. Fascinating history of the collection of Owen Jones items inspired by the Alhambra housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
  565. Find this resource:
  566.  
  567. Nineteenth-Century Literature and Photography Inspired by the Alhambra
  568.  
  569. The authorship inspired by the Alhambra constitutes the last, but not the least, topic of the citations in this bibliography. Interestingly, this literary production mixes reality and fiction, comprising both travelers’ anthropological accounts and creative writing. The works are therefore very telling of the modern Alhambra and of the mythology that gave rise to it. In particular, the Anglo-Saxon literature of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th-centuries is plentiful, represented by Trevelyan 1985 and Irving 2011. Included in this section are also studies on travelers’ impressions and appreciations of the abandoned site of the Alhambra: Eggleton 2013, Lundström 2012, and Galera Andreu 2010. Although by no mean the only reference of its kind, Piñar 2003 represents the oeuvre in photography inspired by the Alhambra.
  570.  
  571. Eggleton, Lara. “‘A Living Ruin’: Palace, City and Landscape in Nineteenth-Century Travel Descriptions of Granada.” Architecture Theory Review 18.3 (December 2013): 372–387.
  572. DOI: 10.1080/13264826.2013.875612Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  573. This article focuses on the accounts provided by the 19th-century traveler-writers who discovered the abandoned Alhambra in the process of falling into ruins. These accounts were previously examined by Pedro A. Galera Andreu in his book La Alhambra Vivida (Galera Andreu 2010), which also includes earlier traveler writings.
  574. Find this resource:
  575.  
  576. Ford, Richard. A Handbook for Travellers in Spain. Schweinfurt, Germany: Ulan, 2012.
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  578. Among the detailed information it delivers, this book, written in 1845, is useful for its vivid account of the locals’ attitudes toward the Hispano-Muslim artistic heritage in 19th-century Granada. Includes observations on the Alhambra’s condition of preservation in the period.
  579. Find this resource:
  580.  
  581. Galera Andreu, Pedro A. La Alhambra Vivida. Córdoba, Spain: La Biblioteca de la Alhambra, 2010.
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  583. A greatly informative critical presentation of the Alhambra’s modern history, through the vivid testimony of travelers’ writings between the 16th and 19th centuries.
  584. Find this resource:
  585.  
  586. Irving, Washington. Tales of the Alhambra. Raford, VA: SMK Books, 2011.
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  588. A celebrated Orientalizing piece of American literature, these famous tales were first published in 1832 under the title The Alhambra: A Series of Tales and Sketches of the Moors and Spaniards. The tales mix fiction and history, and were inspired by the author’s direct impressions and observations of the monument consigned in notebooks.
  589. Find this resource:
  590.  
  591. Lundström, Marie-Sofie. “Experiencing the Alhambra, an Illusive Site of Oriental Otherness.” International Journal of Islamic Architecture 1.1 (2012): 83–106.
  592. DOI: 10.1386/ijia.1.1.83_1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  593. Discusses sensitively the Orientalist constructs of the Alhambra in global culture and literature through the examples of the French poet Théophile Gautier and the Finnish painter Albert Edelfelt.
  594. Find this resource:
  595.  
  596. Piñar, Javier. Images in Time: A Century of Photography at the Alhambra 1840–1940: Catalogue for the Exhibition at the Palace of Charles V, Granada, 15 Jan.–15 Jun. 2003. Granada, Spain: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2003.
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  598. A very interesting catalogue of photographs that both documents the different states of the monument’s preservation and reflects the gaze on it throughout the hundred years after the period of its rediscovery, up to the beginning of its archaeological rehabilitation.
  599. Find this resource:
  600.  
  601. Trevelyan, Raleigh. The Shades of the Alhambra. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1985.
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  603. Provides a poetized vision of the history, culture, and art of the Nasrids by a writer and editor of English literature.
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