Poets of Alhambra

Alhambra was merely a fortress before Muhammad ibn Nasr founded the Kingdom of Granada and started building palaces which transformed it into a royal citadel. It grew into a city where court officials and their families resided and worked. It also included barracks for the elite guards. But interestingly, it is much more than all of that, it is an architecture of words, a living book. The walls, ceilings, arches, niches, and vaults are all inscribed with Quranic verses, prayers, poems, dedicatory verses, and devout inscriptions. Arabs regard their language as their most precious possession. To a Muslim, the prophet’s miracle was the language of the Quran. It is only fitting to use the most valued characteristic as a decorative style. Also, since the Kingdom of Granada was the last Arab kingdom in the peninsula, they lived with a sense of impermanence; they used their language to mark their presence for eternity. Alhambra houses the largest collection of Arabic poetry murals. There are 53 poems known to be inscribed in Alhambra, 40 of which are still found there, and 13 are recorded in literary sources. Each poem was specifically composed for a particular place. For example, a niche by the gate would have a poem describing the jar of water it housed. The poem in the picture above describes the view it’s overlooking and some details about the colored glass ceiling it had. The 53 known poems were written by four poets: Ibn Aljayyab, Lisan Aldin Ibn Alkhatib, Ibn Zumrak, and Ibn Farkoun. Alhambra embodies a culture that was obsessed with knowledge and was an expert in the art of luxurious living.

Written by Tarfah Alrawaf

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