Muqarnas: Geometrical and Stereotomic Techniques in Ancient Islamic Architectures: Ceilings and Domes of Mameluk Buildings in Old Cairo

Introduction

In the new Encyclopaedia of Islam, Doris Behrens-Abouseif (Behrens-Abouseif, 2015) defines muqarnas as: “a type of decoration typical for Islamic architecture all over the central and eastern parts of the Muslim world; for its counterpart in the Muslim West, see muqarbas”.

The term derives from the Greek korwnio, Latin coronis, Fr. corniche, Italian. cornice, (Germ. Karnies), and it is a popular term, or a mason’s technical term. Wolfhart Heinrichs (Heinrichs, 1997) has some doubts on this accepted etymology. The fact that there is a sin-sad-variation in this word means that the written tradition of its root is not very firm. The Greek word meaning everything that is curved’, can be used as an adjective meaning ‘crook-beaked’, ‘curved’ and as a noun referring to anything curved or bent. In the Lisan al-‘Arab, the architectural term muqnrnas is nowhere to be found. Various words are listed under both the sin and the sad form of the root q-r-n-s/s: it is the geographical morphological term qurnas (also qirnas) which is defined as “something like a nose projecting in a mountain.”. Accepting this, the Arabian verb qarnasa would mean:‘to furnish a structure with projecting overhanging elements’ and the past participle muqarnas, consequently, would originally have meant ‘(a structure) furnished with projecting overhanging elements.’ In the Persian lexicographical tradition the architectural meaning of muqarnas is well documented, as a structure which they used to make in the form of the qurnas, the latter being the nose of the mountain. It should be mentioned that in the Persian tradition the architectural term muqarnas often seems to have had a much meaning, covering any kind of cupola with paintings. Although the plausibility of the etymology qurnas - muqarnas cannot be denied, Heinrichs points out that it does have certain weaknesses. However, it also appears to have a number of advantages over its competitors.

The term muqarna refers to an often merely decorative element, but at times also a structural one, typical of Islamic architecture and composed of a series of niches embedded within an architectural frame, geometrically connected and forming a three-dimensional composition around a few basic axes of symmetry. This method of building vaults, developed around the middle of the 10th century in north-east Iran and later spread throughout the Arabic world.

Figure 1.

Leon Auguste Asselineau, 1853: the Hall of the Abencerrages, the Alhambra, Granada – Spain

The muqarnas vault is composed of three-dimensional geometrical elements with a multifaceted surface, called blocks, being assembled; juxtaposed in horizontal rows, projecting one on the other, so as to cover apses, domes, hackles, transitions between tambours and domes, minaret projections or wall discontinuities (gates, windows, corner solutions, etc.) mainly for aesthetic reasons, but also for structural purposes, creating, awesome spaces. They look like beehives and sometimes like a cave-like vault with stalactites (only in certain types of muqarnas in the Mamluk and Mozarabic areas, like the Alhambra in Granada. (see Figure 1).

The result is a three-dimensional geometric weave of complex multifaceted mesh with an ever-varying pattern strongly affecting the space of vaulted and domed settings, creating in this way extraordinary light/shade effects. At first sight muqarnas look more like sculpture equipment, almost inlay work in surfaces, rather than an architectural motif, although they are the result of a geometric and building process based on the standardization of blocks.