Reframing the Alhambra: Architecture, Poetry, Textiles and Court Ceremonial
Ana Carreño Leyva
Olga Bush
2018, Edinburgh UP, 978-1-47441-650-4, $150 hb.
This volume offers an intriguing interdisciplinary look at the Alhambra, the last Muslim bastion in al-Andalus, built in Granada from the 12th to the 15th century. Although the palace complex has been studied extensively, the author, a visiting scholar of Islamic art and architecture at Vassar College, “reframes” it by addressing not only its famous architecture, but also the poetry carved in its walls, and the textile designs and court ceremonials of the period. She then shows how these media interrelate scientifically, artistically and transcendentally. Most significantly, she explores the application of fractal theory—the replication of a geometric structure where each part is identical to the whole—in the Alhambra, filling out her treatment of a structure that, ultimately, reflects both spirituality and state power.
You may also be interested in...
Celebrate Women's History Month With These Reads on Women Throughout History
To help honor Women’s History Month, AramcoWorld brings you a list of 10 female-focused reads that celebrate women throughout history.
Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature Winner Gives Voice to Marginalized
“No one else will be destined to write a life story as squalid as mine, although it’s all true,” comments the elusive protagonist of Algerian author Ahmed Taibaoui’s noir novel.
In the Aftermath of Rome's Collapse, These Communities Shaped the Mediterranean
Three regions of the post-Roman Mediterranean, from 400 CE to 1000 CE—the Latin West, Byzantium and the early Islamic world—are the focus of this work.