Building a Corpus of ʿĀmirid Art

Abstract

What is most amazing about this hall, and what ignites the vision, is its decoration. The eyes remained locked to the great frieze which ran around it on its lower part; it was of white marble, polished so that its surface resembled ivory, because of the purity of its shine and the clarity of its colour. It was worked with figures of animals, birds and trees with fruits, and many of these figures connected by tree branches and fruits, capriciously, and they corresponded to one another in a game of forms, so that he who looked at them fixedly had the sensation that they moved, or that they made signs to him. But each figure was isolated from the others, and had a different form and ignited the gaze from top to bottom. This frieze was bordered on top by an engraved inscription which ran all around the hall from its entrance, which hardly lacked in being more elegant than the penning of a calligrapher; its letters had a marvellous form; they could be read from a long distance and contained beautiful verses dedicated to their constructor al-Ma ʾmūn. Ibn Jabīr, late eleventh century1