Name of Object:

Door of the ante-chamber of the maqsura

Location:

Raqqada, Kairouan, Tunisia

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Raqqada.

Original Owner:

The Zirid prince, al-Mu‘izz ibn Badis

Date of Object:

Hegira, second quarter of the 5th century / AD 11th century

Museum Inventory Number:

B 101

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Carved cedarwood.

Dimensions:

Height 284 cm, width 221 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Zirid

Provenance:

Kairouan.

Description:

This huge rectangular door is made up of a main-door framework containing two pass-doors. The door is divided into panels separated by uprights and cross-pieces which stand out in relief, carved with rich floral decoration. This decoration also covers the main surrounding framework, on which alternating relief panels (long hexagons and diamond shapes) make a base for even more striking carving. These panels are filled with furled tri-lobed fleurons all connected to a curving stem, which, according to some mysterious symmetry, seems to weave in and out in ever more fantastical convolutions. The top centre panel of the frame is a 16-sided star polygon, even more boldly and exuberantly decorated with pine cones and chalices, palm leaves and stalks, some carved with certain symmetry. One feels that this is the beginning of a break-away from the decorative repertoire of the minbar of the Great Mosque of Kairouan (built AH 248 / AD 866) towards the Fatimid art of Egypt, which itself had absorbed some Abbasid themes.
The simpler decoration of the internal panels of the door and of the pass-doors is confined to a few geometric motifs. Some of these panels seem to have been restored during the Hafsid period.

View Short Description

The decoration and manufacturing technique of this door are identical to those used for the maqsura (recess) at the Great Mosque of Kairouan. The framing and decoration of the panels that make up the two halves are simple and limited to geometric motifs, presenting similarities with Egyptian Fatimid art.

How date and origin were established:

The decoration and structure of this door are absolutely identical to those of the maqsura built by the Zirid prince, al-Mu'izz ibn Badis. In fact, some believe it to be the door of the maqsura itself. But taking into consideration the differing dimensions of the two objects in question, especially the height, and the absence of any calligraphic inscription, some studies have concluded that this door was the entrance to a room adjacent to the maqsura and which is now the imam's audience-chamber. It is likely to have been the room from which the prince and his attendants entered the maqsura to join in prayers. This would date the door from the same period as the maqsura of al-Mu'izz (second quarter of the 5th / 11th century).

How Object was obtained:

Until the mid-1960s, this door was part of the relics of the Great Mosque of Kairouan and was kept in one of its storage rooms. As from 1978, it was displayed in the museum of the Great Mosque and then, in 1992, transferred to the Museum of Islamic Art at Raqqada. It will be on display in the second section, which is now undergoing refurbishment (2005).

How provenance was established:

The decoration leaves no doubt that the door is Kairouanese. The cedarwood used in its construction probably came from the forests of northwest Tunisia or from Sicily.

Selected bibliography:

Ifriqiya: Thirteen Centuries of Art and Architecture in Tunisia, pp.159–62.

Citation of this web page:

Mourad Rammah "Door of the ante-chamber of the maqsura" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;tn;Mus01;13;en

Prepared by: Mourad RammahMourad Rammah

Né en 1953 à Kairouan, docteur en archéologie islamique, Mourad Rammah est le conservateur de la médina de Kairouan. Lauréat du prix Agha Khan d'architecture, il publie divers articles sur l'histoire de l'archéologie médiévale islamique en Tunisie et participe à différentes expositions sur l'architecture islamique. De 1982 à 1994, il est en charge du département de muséographie du Centre des arts et des civilisations islamiques. Mourad Rammah est également directeur du Centre des manuscrits de Kairouan.

Copyedited by: Margot Cortez
Translation by: David Ash
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: TN 20

RELATED CONTENT

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 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Zirids


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The Fatimids | Mosque and Palace

MWNF Galleries

Furniture and woodwork

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