Arab buildings in Seville

In Seville, as in Toledo, one sees the influence of the Arabs in every step, albeit in a different sense. If you look at most of the modern Arab houses in Seville, you will see that they are built in the Arab style. If you look at the folk dancing and local music in Seville, you will see that they are in the Arab style. If you look at the women of Seville, in particular, you will see that Arab blood runs through their veins.

The tower called La Giralda (the Tower of the Air Game) is the oldest Arab building in Seville. It is a beautiful square building made of pink brick, and it resembles the Tower of St. Mark in Venice.

And the most African minaret, and I think that it was built as a minaret for the Great Mosque that was built by Al-Mansur in 1195 AD.

The exterior faces of the Giralda Tower are covered with a network of engraved inscriptions, and with arched windows, some of which are shaped like horseshoes, and others like picarines. A gilded metal ball was once atop the tower, which the Spanish removed and built a bell tower in its place. They then placed a statue on top of this tower as a symbol of faith.

The Seville Palace is an ancient Arab palace, dating back to different periods. Construction began in the eleventh century, and most of it was built in the thirteenth century. Its foundations were built by Arab workers during the reign of the tyrant Bottropolis. Then Charles I attempted to embellish it, adding Greco-Roman decorations that demonstrated the corruption of the craftsman’s taste.

Figure 6-19 : The Hall of the Lions in the Alhambra (from a photograph) .

The Christian kings made the palace of Seville their home, and it is the only building of its kind preserved in Spain. Whoever looks at the halls of this palace, decorated with various colors, which the Duke of Montpans removed the lime from after the Spanish had limed it according to their customs, will see what its red halls were like before the Spanish also limed it. The hall of the girls, one hundred of whom the Christians used to offer as tribute to the Moroccan kings in Seville every year, as it was narrated, and also

The Ambassadors’ Hall is one of the most magnificent halls in the Seville Palace. This Ambassadors’ Hall is a wonder apart from the cheap decorations that have been added to it. If we exclude the Arab buildings of Damascus and some of the Arab mosques of Cairo, we have not seen in any other palace than the Seville Palace those ceilings covered with carved wooden panels, painted and gilded, which our most expensive palaces boast of having the like of.

In fact, Seville is the most vibrant and civilized city in Spain, and it is the opposite of Granada, which has preserved the brutality of the Middle Ages and its intense hatred of foreigners.

Arab buildings in Granada:

The grandeur of Andalusian Arab architecture is evident in the Alhambra Palace, built in the 14th century AD.

The Alhambra Palace is built on the slopes of Mount Chiller, which overlooks the city of Granada and the vast, fertile meadows, and is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world.

If one looks at the Alhambra from below the rocks that crown it, one sees square towers of crimson colors, the top of which touches the clouds, and the bottom of which reveals dense green vegetation. If one passes under the trees that surround it, with the birds chirping on them and the gurgling of water running in the irrigation canals and channels near it, and enters that famous palace, one sees what the poets sang about, especially the author of Al-Mashriqiyat (Victor Hugo), who recited, saying:

O red one! O palace adorned by angels as imagination willed, and made a sign of harmony! O fortress of honor, decorated with carvings like flowers and branches, and leaning toward collapse! When the silver rays of the moon reflect off your walls through your Arab arches, a voice is heard at night that enchants the hearts.

It is impossible to describe Alhambra accurately, and only a drawing pen can do that, and that is what we are using. The pictures of Alhambra that we have published in this book are enough to express everything that can be said.

Everything about the Alhambra is wonderful. One marvels at its walls decorated with elegant, engraved Arabic inscriptions, its pediment-like arches, and its domes with their enchanting hanging muqarnas, once painted with lapis lazuli, purple, and garnet.

Figure 6-20 : Window details in the Alhambra.

The Alhambra does not resemble the palaces of Europe at all, as is the case with many Arab palaces. It is devoid of any introduction, and its decorations are confined to its interior, in which we find everything wonderful, even if it is small. It does not have the dull, cold, luxurious interior of our European palaces, which were designed to be admired by visitors, not to suit their inhabitants.

Looking at the Alhambra, we can imagine the lives of the Arab kings. From its windows, the eye sees nothing but endless horizons. It evokes memories of what used to happen in its rich gardens, once home to the kings of Granada. They were among the most beautiful seductresses of the East and West, who would enjoy its groves and inhale the scent of its rare flowers.

The owner of these wonders was surrounded by a group of artists, scholars, and writers who were the most prominent figures of that era. That owner could count other kings among those who envied him, and he could write on the door of his palace, as the Indian king about whom the story was told did: “If there is a paradise on earth, it is this one!”

The most important sections of the Alhambra Palace became famous thanks to photography and drawing. The Hall of the Lions, the Room of the Two Sisters, the Chamber of the Banu Sirajes, and the Hall of Justice became famous. The reader who carefully examines the photos we have published of these sections in this book will see that they are not less famous. The fame ended with the Hall of the Lions in particular. Gisole Duprenge said: “One is unable to describe what one feels when one passes through the Hall of the Pool and enters the Hall of the Lions, where one sees the arcades decorated with varied arches ornamented with floral engravings, hanging decorations, and lacework that was colored gold. His eyes fall upon a forest of slender columns, some placed singly, some double, and some grouped together in a wonderful way, through which one sees the sparkle of the flowing waters of the Lions’ Fountain.”

The story goes that the thirty-six Banu Siraj were beheaded at that fountain, and the people say that every night the specter of those dead menacingly appears.

The lions of that fountain do not bear any real resemblance to any animal, for they are imperfect in shape, as intended by the sculptors who wanted them to be a kind of decoration.

Visitors to the Alhambra can hardly believe, at first glance, that the decorations on its walls are carved on plaster, not on stone, as is the case in Cairo and India. Those visitors who contemplate the smooth, polished center of these decorations find it impossible that they were not carved on marble. I did not see that they were plaster until a member of the Academy, Monsieur Friedel, analyzed a small piece of it for me.

All the Alhambra carvings were made of plaster mixed with a little organic matter, and we can only acknowledge the skill of making that plaster, which has withstood the vicissitudes of the weather for five hundred years without failing. I do not believe that a European engineer today can promise to make a type of plaster that can last such a long time without deterioration.

The survival of the Alhambra’s walls is not evidenced by the suitability of the Spanish climate for it, as the parts of it that were restored long after the Arabs were expelled have been damaged. This damage is easily recognized by the cracks in those restored parts, their depressions, and their swelling.

All the artists who visited the wonderful Alhambra told with unbelievable pain the news of the terrible destruction caused by the Spaniards was unbelievable. Charles V demolished a significant part of it to erect a heavy structure in its place, and all the Spanish governments considered it a collection of ancient ruins, useless for anything but the use of its materials. Monsieur Deville said in his book on Spain: “The enamel panels that decorated the Alhambra a few years ago were sold to make mortar, the bronze door of its mosque was sold like antique copper, and the elegant wooden doors of the Beni Serrajes Court were burned like firewood. Then, after selling whatever could be removed from it, the beautiful courts were taken to be used as prisons for criminals and stores for provisions.”

The Spaniards wanted to purify the walls of the Alhambra, which were decorated with beautiful Arabic inscriptions, so they covered them with a thick layer of lime. It appears that the lime-covering, which the Spaniards and the English loved equally, was something desired by some civilized peoples who could see nothing better for decoration. It was something that gradually appealed to those Europeans who saw in it a manifestation of equality and a common unity of form.

It was not long after the artists complained about the destruction of the Alhambra Palace, and the Spanish authorities decided to preserve what remained of this enchanting palace after the people of Granada were told, more than once, that they possessed one of the wonders that attracts tourists from all sides. Some of the lime that covered those Arabic inscriptions was removed, and restoration began, and the Spanish are working on it slowly because there are no workers in Spain capable of completing this restoration, which is easy when looking at the models.

Next to the Alhambra is another Arab palace called the Generalife. The Spanish had so extensively plastered the walls of this palace that you can no longer imagine its original state. It no longer deserves the enthusiasm with which tourists describe it, except for its garden.

As for the city of Granada, I do not advise anyone to visit it after Arab poets described it as the most beautiful city that the sun shines on and as the Damascus of Andalusia.

I cannot describe the condition of Granada in the past, but modern Granada was nothing but a large, gloomy, dirty village with nothing worth mentioning except its cathedral.

The luxurious and the red, in addition to the fact that it is located in a place that is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world, and its modern houses were not built in a known style, and I searched deeply for its decorations that famous contemporary writers told us about, but I did not find a trace of them.

Indeed, New Granada was nothing but a dead city, and its people were known to be ignorant, dull, and distant from the villages. It was the opposite of Seville, where you could see a touch of life and where you could find booksellers that you would not find in Granada.

I will suffice myself to mention the above-mentioned Arab buildings. If we add to them the Alcázar of Segovia and some of the buildings we discuss in the chapter devoted to investigating the influence of the Arabs in Europe, we will have a sufficient picture of the Arab monuments that exist now in Spain, which are remnants of a flourishing era, and which alone are sufficient to indicate the greatness of the Arabs, even if nothing of their sciences and literature has come down to us.