Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir: A Study in Early Mohammadan ArchitectureBell, Gertrude Lowthian
History
Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir: A Study in Early Mohammadan Architecture
Bell, Gertrude Lowthian
Iraq -- Antiquities; Mosques; Ukheidar
courts, and the tendency towards an asymmetrical disposition, point to a
reversion to the methods of the ancient East. Symmetry plays no part in
the palace-planning of Babylonia and Assyria. From the earliest to the
latest, from the Chaldaean palaces[172] to the palace of Nebuchadnezzar
at Babylon,[173] through all the intervening palaces in Assyria, at
Nimrûd, at Quyundjik, at Khorsâbâd and at Assur, no principle of
symmetry is to be observed. Nor yet is it to be found, except quite
fortuitously, in the Hittite khilâni palaces (the late khilâni,
north-west of G in Fig. 5, is one of the few instances), although they
originated in the symmetrical gateway; and it is markedly absent in the
northern Hittite palaces and temples at Boghâz Keui, though in other
respects they have little in common with the southern Hittite
monuments.[174] Assyrian temples more nearly approach to a symmetrical
disposition, but only under influences foreign to Assyria, influences
which can be traced back to the end of the twelfth century before Christ
in the Anu-Adad temple at Assur. The old Assyrian scheme, of which we
have one example in the temple of Assur, at Assur, built by
Shamshi-Adad, was derived from the Babylonian temple plan and, like the
Babylonian, it was asymmetrical. The imported plan is characterized by
the substitution of longitudinal for latitudinal chambers.[175] But
these foreign, probably Western influences (for they were responsible
also for the creation of Solomon’s temple, apparently a symmetrical
building),[176] could not reduce Assyrian architecture to an ordered
plan, and the temples in Sargon’s palace at Khorsâbâd fall far short of
symmetry,[177] while in Babylonia the longitudinal chamber, i.e. the
imported plan, was never adopted, and until the latest period, the
temples, like the palaces, remained entirely unsymmetrical.[178] The
plan of Quyundjik, which is the most complete record of any Assyrian
palace which has yet been published, throws considerable light upon
Chehâr Qapû (Plate 77). Courts XXVII and XXX in the temple area, courts
XVIII, XIX, XX, and XXII in the domestic quarters, exhibit an
unsymmetrical grouping of latitudinal and longitudinal chambers very
much akin to that of the courts of Chehâr Qapû. In court XVI we have a
foreshadowing of the ṭarmah scheme. (Place believes the rooms in court
XVI to have been storehouses for wine, from the quantity of jars found
in them.)[179] It would be ridiculous to push a minute comparison too
far, seeing that a period of over 1,000 years separates the two
buildings, but a certain resemblance in details and, still more, a
general correspondence on the fundamental principle of asymmetry leads
me to suspect that a primaeval tradition survived through all the
innovations of Greece or Rome, Parthia or Persia, and that, at the end
of the sixth century, it had sufficient vitality to guide the craftsmen
to Khusrau Parwêz in the composition of a monumental building. Survivals
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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