Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Alhambra, Córdoba, Córdoba Great
Mosque, Granada, Seville, Toledo, Zaragoza
Further reading:
G.Goodwin, 
Islamic Spain,
Architectural Guides for
Travellers, London 1990. (This is the best available
general guide in English.)
M.Asin, 
Guadalajara Medieval, Arte y Arqueologia Arabe y
Mudéjar,
C.S.I.C. Madrid 1984.
C.Esco, J.Giraut and P.Senac, 
Arqueología Islamica de la
Marca Superior de al-Andalus,
Huesca 1988.
C.Ewart, ‘Tipología de la mezquita en Occidente de los
Amayas a los Almohades’, Congresso de Arqueología
Medieval Española, 1: 180–204, Madrid 1987.
E.Lambert, 
Art Musulman et Art Chrétien dans la Péninsule
bérique,
Paris and Toulouse 1958.
B.Pavón-Maldoado, 
Les Almenas Decorativas Hispano
Musulmanas,
Madrid 1967.
F.Prieto-Moreno, 
Los Jardines de Granada,
Madrid 1952.
E.Sordo and W.Swaan, 
Moorish Spain: Córdoba, Seville and
Granada,
trans. I.Michael, London 1963.
J.Zozaya, ‘Islamic fortifications in Spain; some aspects’,
Papers in Iberian Archaeology, B.A.R. 193, Oxford 1984.
squinch
Small arch in the corner of a building that converts a
square space to an octagonal area which may then
be covered with a dome.
stucco
Decorative plasterwork used in architecture.
Stucco is primarily an invention of the Iranian world
where it was used in the absence of suitable
stone for carving. It has a long history which can
be traced back as far as Parthian times, when it was
used to cover rubble masonry. During the Sassanian
period stucco continued to be used to enliven
surfaces on buildings made of baked brick or mud
brick. By the sixth century stucco was used in the
eastern Mediterranean although it was mostly a
characteristic of Iranian architecture. The advent of
Islam led to an unparalleled growth in its use
throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Many
of the earliest Islamic monuments employ stucco as
the main form of decoration, as dadoes, ceiling
decoration or sculpture. Usually the stucco was
carved or moulded, although it was often painted
as well.
The most adventurous uses of stucco can be
found in the Umayyad palaces of Syria and Palestine.
Stucco in serdab of main palace at Samarra
stucco

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At Khirbet al-Mafjar in the Jordan valley the lavish
decoration includes painted stucco statues of semi-
naked bathing girls and stucco representation of the
caliph himself. However, usually stucco was
restricted to its original function of covering walls and
ceilings with carved or moulded patterns. The largest
corpus of stucco work from the early Islamic period
has been found at the Abbasid capital of Samarra in
Iraq. The stucco from this site has been divided into
three groups or styles which may represent a
chronological development. Style ‘A’ consists of vine
leaves and vegetal forms derived from the Byzantine
architecture of Syria-Pal-estine; style ‘B’ is a more
abstract version of this; and style ‘C’ is entirely
abstract with no recogniz-able representational
forms. The first two styles appear to be carved, but
the third style was produced by wooden moulds.
The Samarra styles are significant as they reappear
later in buildings such as the Ibn Tulun Mosque
where the soffits of the arches are decorated with
style ‘B’ ornament. After the collapse of the Abbasid
caliphate stucco continued to be one of the main
forms of decoration and spread throughout the
Islamic world to India, Anatolia and Spain.