Frieze

This rectangular panel is decorated with a Qur'anic inscription from the Sura (‘the pilgrimage’) in flowery and twisted kufic script, on a vegetal ground composed of veined, smooth palm leaves and pinecones. The forms of the letters are rounded, prolonging the anterior forms of the Almohad and Almoravid eras, even if their shape is less slender. The vertical strokes end in trilobed half florets or with palmettes, in a calligraphic form known as ‘flowered’, which comes from a tradition attributed to ninth-century Egypt[1], on the funerary stelae of Kairouan and the Andalusian palace of Madinat al-Zahra. Furthermore, the vertical strokes are interlaced, and some describe the ‘knot of happiness’, a motif of Chinese origins and already present on twelfth-century metal and ceramics in Iran and the Near East[2]. More generally, the ‘twisted’ script was used in Iran in the twelfth century, like, for example, on the Bobrinsky[3] bucket, as well as on Near-Eastern objects from the same era.

The vegetal decorations are treated in an elaborate manner, around a scroll. It includes anterior motifs, like the digitate palm leaves that were already used during the Almoravid era. However, there are some differences in the rendering and modelling of the leaves. The palm leaves have two lobes, one of which curves around itself, giving the impression of several planes.

This frieze is a precursor of Marinid art. It marks the transition between the rigidity, simplicity, and power of Almohad art, and the abundance and ornamentation of fourteenth-century Marinid art. While remaining faithful to the Almohad heritage, the Marinids wanted to regenerate, on the one hand, Almoravid art and, on the other, Andalusian art from the Umayyad period of Córdoba and the Taifa princes.

The use of cedar was a thirteenth-century innovation. In the fourteenth century, at the height of Moroccan woodworking, the use of this imputrescible wood became typical of Marinid architecture, in which it was widely used for domes and roof structures, as well as in the courtyards of religious and civil buildings  (corbels, sills, friezes, tympana, piers, doors, twin windows, and balustrades). This wood was only used in other countries much later; hence, in Egypt, it only appeared in the Ottoman period.

In the fourteenth century, new decorative designs were introduced that covered large surfaces, such as flowered small arches, and dense interweaving floral motifs. The large polygonal stars were omnipresent and cursive calligraphy replaced the kufic script. The Marinid style, which perpetuated and enriched the Andalusian heritage, was then prolonged during the Saadian and Alaouite eras.

[2] Coupe, Syria, twelfth century, New-York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 34.71.

[3] The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.