Decoration at Qusayr Amara

The sumptuousness of the painted ornamentation here is in sharp contrast with the modest scale of the building, and reveals a host of different influences[1].

Most famous of all is the fresco of the kings. The inscriptions in Arabic and Greek allow us to identify the Sassanid ruler coiffed as on Iranian coins, the emperor of Byzantium, the Visigoth Roderick and the Negus of Abyssinia. Also depicted are the emperor of China and the khaqan of Turkey. The presence of Roderick, who died in 711, is an aid to dating the site. Here the influence of pre-Islamic Iran is both iconographic and stylistic: we are reminded of the Sassanid custom of royal portraits; and the figures are presented frontally and hieratically, the bodies being obscured by the decorative mass of the costumes. The kings appear to be swearing allegiance to the Muslim sovereign.

The prince sitting on the throne in the central alcove in the audience chamber seems to be of Byzantine inspiration, while the elaborate throne and the figures to each side are reminiscent of those found in Syriac manuscripts.

The one-person "works and days" scenes, set in the square frames[2] typical of Roman, Byzantine and Western medieval manuscripts[3], portray the building trades.

Europe also provided stylistic models. The richly ornamented, full-bodied women – dancers and musicians – with their black outlines[4] and large eyes, are reminiscent of the Coptic portraits from Antinoe and the goddesses of ancient Syria. In the hot room naked female figures are shown accompanied by children.

There are also hints of Roman art, as in the many figures shown alone in geometrical networks decorated with plant motifs.[5] The subjects are varied, covering all the royal pastimes, and some may be direct copies of ancient models. The animal-musician, a subject that would live on into the Renaissance, is also to be seen in a Roman mosaic from Susa, now in the Louvre. Personifications of Poetry, Philosophy, History and Victory[6] are identifiable thanks to inscriptions in Greek. In the apse of the audience chamber a figure stretched out under a sheet is being observed by a cherub and a Cupid. Another scene shows wrestlers portrayed in the ancient manner with, to their left, a struggle between a lion and a gazelle reminiscent of that at Khirbat al-Mafjar. Taken from the ancient East, this subject is often symbolic of the use of power.

In the same room[7] a wild-ass hunt recalls not only Roman mosaics,[8] but also the favourite activity of Sassanid monarch Bahram Gur.

The large scene on the southeastern side of the audience room shows a female figure resembling the Roman Aphrodite beside a rectangular pool. Women are watching her from a balcony, hidden behind an openwork screen.

The almost whirling poses of the dancers[9] recall those of the bacchantes of ancient times.

The constellations and signs of the zodiac on the dome in the hot room were probably copied from an ancient globe of the world. The first-ever depiction of the sky in Islamic art, this decor reflects the interest Muslim scientists took in the subject, which was one of their main areas of research and led to the creation of, for example, observatories, astrolabes and texts on astronomy. We are reminded here of illustrations from A Treatise on Fixed Stars of 1009,[10] the constellations being personified as in ancient times.

[2] The eastern vault of the audience room.

[3] See for example Fragment de livre d’heures appartenant à un recueil factice. 1500–1550, Amiens, B.m., ms. 0107, f. 020, 107.

[4] In the tepidarium and the audience room.

[5] The vaults of the audience room and the frigidarium.

[6] The walls of the audience room.

[7] The western wall.

[8] Floor mosaic in the third century Piazza Amerina villa in Sicily..

[9] Intrados of the southern arch of the audience room.

[10] This work was based on studies by ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, who revised Ptolemy's calculations around 965.