Name of Object:

Decorative wooden panel

Location:

Jerusalem

Holding Museum:

Islamic Museum, al-Aqsa Mosque / al-Haram al-Sharif

About Islamic Museum, al-Aqsa Mosque / al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem

Original Owner:

Caliph 'Abd al-Malik bin Marwan (r. AH 65–86 / AD 685–705) or Caliph al-Walid bin 'Abd al-Malik (r. AH 86–96 / AD 705–15)

Date of Object:

Hegira 1st century / AD 8th century

Museum Inventory Number:

Wooden Pieces 123

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Cedarwood with decorative carving.

Dimensions:

Height 193 cm, width 55 cm, depth: 8–10 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Umayyad

Provenance:

Jerusalem.

Description:

A cedarwood panel comprising wood imported mainly from Lebanon that was part of a wider scale procurement process which took place during the implementation of the grand Umayyad project to erect the Haram al-Sharif. The development of the Haram included the construction of the Dome of the Rock, al-Aqsa Mosque and other buildings. The panel presented here is one of a collection of pieces similar in size and carving technique, although different with regard to the decorative program. The Islamic Museum has acquired 16 of these panels, while the Palestinian Museum (Rockefeller Museum) holds some pieces from the collection. In addition to these decorative cedarwood panels, the Islamic Museum holds a large collection of undecorated pieces, including undecorated wooden beams, some of which extend to more than 10 m in length, and date back to the Umayyad period. These panels and beams were retrieved during restoration works at al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and form a basic resource for the study of woodworking techniques used in Umayyad constructions. Additionally, the Islamic Museum has acquired other collections of woodwork dating to the Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. The comprehensive woodwork collection at the Museum is considered to be a rare resource for the study of Islamic woodworking throughout the ages.
This panel has been carved in low relief, which has led to a notable projection of the decoration. The decoration consists of whirling vegetal motifs and various geometric forms. The decorative style is not dissimilar to that of the Umayyad period, which combined several different styles including Byzantine, Sassanid, Coptic, and local Syrian.
The piece under discussion is adorned with decoration. Central to the overall scheme is a vase in the form of a goblet out which emerges a whirling plant in the shape of three pairs of branching and intertwining leaves that lengthen along the extent of the panel. The decoration is contained within a rectangular frame that is contained on the outside by vegetal motifs; these aim towards connecting this panel with its neighbours, thereby facilitating the transfer from one decorative theme to the next.

View Short Description

This piece of woodwork was used in the building of the Dome of the Rock. Its is thought to be the oldest Islamic woodwork still extant in its original location. The wood is decorated with very beautiful geometric and vegetal motifs and is a reflection of Umayyad decorative arts whose sources derived from different pre-Islamic arts.

How date and origin were established:

The date for this panel has been established by comparison with other related pieces: for example, the decoration and technique used to carve this piece were compared with similar woodwork at Khirbat al-Mafjar (Hisham's Palace) in Jericho. Comparisons have also been drawn with other Umayyad pieces.

How Object was obtained:

The piece was initially placed in the al-Aqsa Mosque following construction, by order of 'Abd al-Malik or his son al-Walid, and subsequently transferred from al-Aqsa Mosque to the Islamic Museum in 1938.

How provenance was established:

Jerusalem was narrowed down as the place of production by means of documents pertaining to the restoration of al-Aqsa Mosque, which have been preserved by al-Aqsa Mosque Restoration Committee.

Selected bibliography:

Abu Khalaf, M., Islamic Art through the Ages: Masterpieces of the Islamic Museum of al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem, 1998.
Hamilton, R. W., The Structural History of al-Aqsa Mosque: A Record of Archaeological Cleaning from the Repairs of 1938–42, London, 1949.
Marçais, G., “The Panels of Carved Wood in al-Aqsa Mosque at Jerusalem”, in Creswell, K. A. C., (ed), Early Muslim Architecture (Vol. 2), Oxford, 1940.

Citation of this web page:

Nazmi Al-Ju'beh "Decorative wooden panel" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;pa;Mus01;1;en

Prepared by: Nazmi Al-Ju'behNazmi Al-Ju'beh

Nazmi Al-Ju'beh is an archaeologist and historian and Co-Director of RIWAQ, Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah, Palestine. He studied at Birzeit University in Palestine and at Tübingen University in Germany. He taught at Birzeit University and at al-Quds University. He was Director of the Islamic Museum, al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem, and directed various cultural heritage projects in Palestine, including surveys of archaeological and architectural sites. He was a major contributor to Pilgrimage, Sciences and Sufism: Islamic Art in the West Bank and Gaza (Vienna: MWNF, 2004) and is the author of numerous publications on the history, archaeology and cultural heritage of Palestine.

Copyedited by: Majd Musa
Translation by: Amal Sachedina (from the Arabic).
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: PA 01

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Islamic Dynasties / Period

Umayyads


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