CIUHCT welcomes Chemané Arias on 16 June at 5:30 pm, who will give the lecture The Cosmological Poem of the Comares Hall in the Alhambra: Architecture, Sufism, and Nasrid Sociopolitics, in which he proposes a new interpretation of one of the most emblematic spaces of the Alhambra, in Granada.
The Hall of Ambassadors (Comares), one of the largest throne rooms in medieval Europe and the ultimate example of Western Islamic art, has been recognized for its strong cosmological dimension. Richly decorated with woodwork, stucco, and inscriptions that include Quranic texts and poetry, this space reveals multiple layers of symbolic meaning.
In this presentation, the hypothesis will be explored that the poem inscribed on the throne’s iwan can be interpreted in light of the thought of Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib, vizier of the Nasrid kingdom and probable author of the text. The analysis highlights the presence of key concepts from Islamic psychology and cosmology.
