About our abstract painting series

The culture of the Muslim world has developed a very specific type of ornamental design, which is grounded in the religious demands of Islam. The visual language of Islamic design employs a variety of intricate geometric patterns, floral elements and ornate calligraphy, all of which are used to decorate manuscripts, textiles, furniture, buildings, etc. AL HAMRA contemporary art projects presents a diverse collection of abstract paintings, ranging from simple and elegant elements to complex and highly ornate interlocking patterns, based mainly on Islamic artworks from the palaces and fortress of Alhambra, built in the Middle Ages for emirs of the Nasrid Emirate or Kingdom of Granada, to the traditional tile ornamentations in Moroccan old cities:

Arrayanes shadows and reflections, is a painting series based on the ceramic baseboard walls of the Patio de los Arrayanes (the Myrtles Court) pavilions in the Alhambra of Granada, which combines on canvas: colour, abstraction and geometry.

Examples of this series catalogue:

(Oil on canvas: Measurements 195.00 cm wide x 114.00 cm height)

Zillij art collection, is a tribute or homage to the modernity of a craft tradition by centuries, developed by the Muslim art in al-Andalus and al-Maghrib territories in the times of the cultural influence of Andalusian Nasrid Emirate from Granada.

Examples of this series catalogue:

(Oil on square canvas: Measurements 120.00 cm wide x 120.00 cm height)

Qatib art collection, is a painting series on monochrome background, based from the ceramic pieces of straight lines (Arabic Qatib) or broken lines (Qatib 'uy) used by Muslim craftsmen who created the most famous tiled traceries and lattices for covering floors, ceilings and baseboard walls of the Alhambra’s palaces in Granada and another heritage  sites.

Examples of this series catalogue:

(Oil on square canvas: Measurements 80.00 cm wide x 80.00 cm height)

Furmah art collection, is a painting series based on the elementary polygonal pieces (squares, stars, rhombuses, …) which composed the geometric design of zellige tile patterns in the Andalusian or Moroccan Muslim ceramic decorations. These small pieces, called ‘furmah‘, are manufactured, still today, by specialist artisans in a complex crafted process with origins in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East interlocking sheets tiles knowledge.

Examples of this series catalogue:         

(Oil on canvas: Measurements 162.00 cm wide x 130.00 cm height)

Jatm art collection, is a painting series based on a singular piece around which seems to revolve geometric composition of ceramic tiles that we can found in the main Spanish-Muslim ornamentation of the Alhambra in Granada or also in the North African Maghreb colourful zelliges, called the "ring" or Jatm, a star of eight points formed by the intersection of two squares, which usually combines with equal arm crosses finished with pointed ends, known as Daqmar sûm (moonlight).

Examples of this series catalogue:

(Oil on canvas: Measurements 130.00 cm wide x 97.00 cm height)

And monochromatic series with variations in grey, yellow, red, green and blue:

Click on images to enlarge. 
For more information about each series, look for the catalogue links in the right column.

The Language of Symmetry in Islamic Art

Throughout the ages mystics and theologians have used geometry as a contemplative focus, as it enables the viewer a vision of the underyling order of both the cosmos and the natural world. The cyclical movement of heavenly bodies, which Plato described as the ‘music of the spheres’, finds its Earthly reflection in the natural symmetries found throughout nature and most strikingly within the world of flowers, the proportions of which are governed by simple geometric laws. The origin of the word ‘cosmos’ is adornment (from which we derive the modern word ‘cosmetics’) and the adornment of sacred buildings with both floral and geometric patterns makes the viewer sensitive to the subtle harmonies uniting the natural world around us with the cosmos.

In Islamic art the geometric figure of the circle represents the primordial symbol of unity and the ultimate source of all diversity in creation. The natural division of the circle into regular divisions is the ritual starting point for many traditional Islamic patterns, as demonstrated in the drawings below.

The pattern above (15th century) from Yazd in Iran is derived from six regular divisions of the circle. From this a regular grid of triangles is established, on top of which the design is elaborated. Note how the complex tracery of pattern interweaves with the basic design which appears in white outline in the photograph above.

A family of geometric tiles (above) derived from the octagram (khatam – 8 pointed star) form a ‘jigsaw’ puzzle, which through different combinations can generate a myriad of stunning designs. These are typical of the ceramic cut tile pieces used in mosaics though out Morocco (al-Maghrib), where they are known as ‘zillij’ and  Andalucia (al-Andalus), where they are known as ‘alicatado’, from the early medieval period onwards. These shapes are still cut by hand in modern day Morocco.

In the Alhambra (14th C), Spain, geometric pattern is perfectly integrated with biomorphic design (arabesque) and calligraphy.  These are the three distinct, but complementary, disciplines that comprise Islamic art. They form a three-fold hierarchy in which geometry is seen as foundational. This is often signified by its use on the floors or lower parts of walls, as shown in the image above.

The decorative elements deployed use a range of symmetries that have now been classified as belonging to distinct mathematical groups, but the subtlety and beauty of the designs is unparalleled in modern mathematical thinking.

Islamic designers used the full range of Archimedean tilings (comprised of simple polygons) first discovered by the Greeks, but added to and expanded upon these with extraordinary visual and spatial ingenuity. The pattern above (after Paul Marchant) is based on elements of medieval designs typically found in Cairo. Notice the pattern of underlying polygons: hexagons, triangles, squares, dodecagons. The underling tiling pattern is usually hidden beneath the final design, as if behind a veil, but the viewer is always given an intimation of the hidden order and this is part of what gives the designs their meditative power.

With a compass and ruler a master craftsman can demonstrate a method for setting out a pattern which employs 10-fold radial symmetry. Note the construction of the decagram (10-pointed star). This is the key generative motif for Persian ‘girih’ patterns.

The four examples above show how to derive a range of classic motifs from the decagram (there are several more). These form the basis of 12th century Iranian ‘girih’ patterns, which have been linked to Roger Penrose’s famous non-periodic tilings, i.e. patterns that can extend to infinity without regular repetition.

(From an article published by Richard Henry / artist and teacher in Islamic geometric pattern. He works in painting, print and tile-mosaic. He has developed a number of courses for the British Museum in London’s World Arts and Artefacts program and has taught internationally).

Introduction to Geometric Design in Islamic Art

The principles and teachings of Islam as a way of life, a religious code, and a legal system were promulgated by Muhammad (ca. 570–632 A.D.), an Arab merchant from Mecca. These teachings were revealed to him over a period of many years beginning in 610 and were subsequently codified in the text known as the Qur’an. The word of God, as set out in the Qur’an and handed down in the sayings of Muhammad (known as Hadith, or Traditions), forms the core of the religion.

The primary premise of the Islamic faith is monotheism, a renunciation of all deities except one, Allah, who alone is the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of life. Islam is Arabic for  ”submission,“ here to the single entity of Allah. The recognition of Muhammad as Allah’s last prophet, a prophet like Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the others that preceded Muhammad, is also a key element of the belief.

Neither the Qur’an nor the Traditions contain specific mandates against figural representation in art. However, both sources take a firm stance against idolatry and the worship of images. These precepts were interpreted strictly by early Islamic religious leaders and exegetes as an injunction against the depiction of human or animal figures, although extant examples of architectural decoration, objects in all media, and illustrated manuscripts belie that stricture. Four types of ornamentation can be found in Islamic art: calligraphy, figural forms (human and animal), vegetal motifs, and geometric patterns. These patterns, either singly or combined, adorn all types of surfaces, forming intricate and complex arrangements.

While geometric ornamentation may have reached a pinnacle in the Islamic world, sources for the basic shapes and intricate patterns already existed in late antiquity in the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Islamic artists appropriated key elements from the classical tradition, then elaborated upon them to invent a new form of decoration that stressed the importance of unity, logic, and order. Essential to this unique style were the contributions made by Islamic mathematicians, astronomers, and other scientists, whose ideas and technical advances are indirectly reflected in the artistic tradition.

The basic instruments for constructing geometric designs were a compass and ruler. The circle became the foundation for Islamic pattern, in part a consequence of refinements made to the compass by Arabic astronomers and cartographers. The circle is often an organizing element underlying vegetal designs; it plays an important role in calligraphy, which the Arabs defined as “the geometry of the line”; and it structures all the complex Islamic patterns using geometric shapes. These patterns have three basic characteristics:

1. They are made up of a small number of repeated geometric elements. The simple forms of the circle, square, and straight line are the basis of the patterns. These elements are combined, duplicated, interlaced, and arranged in intricate combinations. Most patterns are typically based on one of two types of grid -one composed of equilateral triangles, the other of squares. A third type of grid, composed of hexagons, is a variation on the triangular schema. The mathematical term for these grids is “regular tessellation” (deriving from Latin tesserae, i.e., pieces of mosaic), in which one regular polygon is repeated to tile the plane.

2. They are two-dimensional. Islamic designs often have a background and foreground pattern. The placement of pattern upon pattern serves to flatten the space, and there is no attempt to create depth. Vegetal patterns are may be set against a contrasting background in which the plantlike forms interlace, weaving over and under in a way that emphasizes the foreground decoration. In other instances, the background is replaced by a contrast between light and shade. Sometimes it is impossible to distinguish between foreground and background. Some geometric designs are created by fitting all the polygonal shapes together like the pieces of a puzzle, leaving no gaps and, therefore, requiring no spatial interplay between foreground and background.

The mathematical term for this type of construction is “tessellation.” The conception of space in Islamic art is completely different from Western models, which usually adopt a linear perspective and divide the picture space into foreground, middle ground, and background. Artists of the Islamic world were largely uninterested in linear perspective. Of the various styles of Islamic art, it was in Persian painting that a type of three-dimensional space was used in which figures could interact, but this space presented multiple viewpoints and simultaneously featured bird’s-eye and worm’s-eye views.

3. They are not designed to fit within a frame. Geometric ornamentation in Islamic art suggests a remarkable degree of freedom. The complex arrangements and combinations of elements are infinitely expandable; the frame surrounding a pattern appears to be arbitrary and the basic arrangement sometimes provides a unit from which the rest of the design can be both predicted and projected.

(Extract from ‘Islamic Art and Geometric Design / Activities for learning’. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2004).

Towers of the Alhambra, a curiosity board game

Towers of the Alhambra, a new game of skill and strategy created by the author and inventor Paco López Martín, is a two-player game inspired in the Monument, played on an inlaid woodcraft board with 35 squares, made of Sycamore, Oak and Walnut tree woods and 10 pieces (towers) made of gold and copper.  Size of board: 38 x 27.5 cm.

The set also includes a study on the towers of the Alhambra, written by Paco López with the support of Alhambra and Generalife archaeology advisor Jesús Bermúdez. The study comes in Spanish, English and French, and contains history, anecdotes and legends concerning the towers. The set is completed with a DVD containing the game instructions, also in three languages.

Players move five Alhambra towers to try to conquer the opponent’s fortress. Of the ten towers used in the game, five are based on towers along the northern wall of the Alhambra and are finished in old gold, while the other five correspond to the southern wall and are finished in copper.

Towers of the Alhambra is not just any game. “It is also a collector’s item, and great care has gone into every detail”. Several professionals were involved in creating the pieces, including Granadan sculptor Juan Manuel Gabarrón, who designed the miniature towers, and marquetarian Tomás Lara Bimbela, expert craftsman in ‘taracea’, the Moorish inlaid wood design works. (See also our post: Taracea, an Arabic influence crafts from Granada).

This Nasrid strategy game, it’s a fun, instructive, educational tool, and can be acquired at the Alhambra Museum Gift and Book Shops and from www.alhambratienda.es

Table games as ‘alquerque’ and checkers, were popular in mediaeval courts, particularly chess, the game of strategy based on the battlefield that requires great skill and intelligence. The game was introduced into the Spanish Middle Age kingdoms by the Muslims, although the name comes from a Persian word ‘shatranj’ (that in Spanish was rendered as ajedrez).

This game is from the family of Halma (‘Jump’ in Greek), devised by George Howard Monk in 1883 (supposedly inspired on previous English game called Hoppity, 1854) and more popularly known in its version of Chinese Checkers  from publication with star-shaped board, published in Germany in 1893 with the title of Stern-Halma. In these games the pieces jump, onto each other above, to fill out the checkerboard squares opposite. Although this family of games can be linked in form of movement with the traditional game of Checkers or Draughts, the pieces are not removed.

We can understand the rules in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJCONHMQcr0

The JATM art collection

The collection of AL HAMRA contemporary art projects called JATM is a pictorial series based on as singular piece around which seems to revolve geometric composition of ceramic tiles that we can found in the main Spanish-Muslim ornamentation of the Alhambra in Granada or also in the North African Maghreb colourful zellige (followers of this tradition and craftsmanship to nowadays), called the ‘ring’ or Jatm (also transliterated from Arabic language by khatam or khatim):  a star (Najm) of eight points formed by the intersection of two squares by rotating 45 degrees in diagonal, which usually combines directly with equal arm crosses finished with pointed ends, known as ‘moonlight’ or Daqmar sûm.

More complex patterns can be developed using the jatm (khatam) or its variant as a centerpiece. The following diagram shows how a pattern that employs a symmetry is built around a central jatm using a grid of four circles around a central circle.

By the middle-ages, the eight-point star had become widely used as a symbol in Islamic art, and known as khatim sulayman, ‘seal of the prophets’, as in the seal of a signet ring.  The phrase ‘seal of the prophets’ is also used in the Koran and has a particular ideological meaning for Muslim world.

Further symbolism of the eight-point star can be discovered by examining its role in Islamic ornamentation and pattern building. The eight-point star is referred to by artisans of the craft of zillij (geometrical mosaics made with ceramic tile work used mainly as an architectural ornament) in Morocco as sibniyyah or sabniyyah, which is a derivative of the number seven sab’ah. Why is this? It must surely be that it is conceived of as seven plus one.

The photo at side shows detail of a zillij pattern used to decorate a wall in the medina of Fes (Morocco). The pattern contains multiple uses of the eight-point star, both as a centerpoint and an encompassing shape of the pattern.

In conclusion, among the colour and composition, the jatm or Khatam stands as a symbol of early astronomy, interconnectedness, and faith in the ultimate harmony of Creation. In this way, the jatm represents the highest virtues in Muslim culture: learning, community, faith, and love of beauty.

The following pictures show several examples of the JATM art collection with various patterns based around an eight-point star that radiates outwards into various ‘moonlight’ crosses and star formations:




(Click on the image to enlarge)

(Click on the image to enlarge)

And monochromatic variations in grey, yellow, red, green and blue:

(Click on the image to enlarge)

For more information about the series, you can download the complete catalogue by opening the link in the right column of the page.

Patterns in Islamic Art: Recommended Books

Surface patterns on works of art created in the Islamic world have been prized for centuries for their beauty, refinement, harmony, intricacy, and complexity.

Each one of these recommended books focuses on Islamic geometric patterns, exploring their structure and meaning, and providing an introduction to Islamic art while learning about the variety of geometric patterns employed by artists to embellish a wide range of works of art, including textiles, ceramics, metalwork, architectural elements, and manuscripts.

Islamic Designs in Color

By N. Simakoff

Published by Dover Publications (1993) New Edition

Over 160 rich, sumptuous designs, reproduced from rare 19th-century edition. Royalty-free motifs drawn from carpets, tiles, carved wood, plates, decorative painting of buildings and furnishings, metalwork, jewellery and more include geometrics, florals and other designs in many shapes and sizes, with rich selection of borders.

 162 designs on 68 plates

Islamic Geometric Design

By Eric Broug
Published by Thames & Hudson (2003)

The beauty of Islamic geometric designs, and the breathtaking skill of the craftsmen who created them, are admired the world over. The intricacy and artistry of the patterns can seem almost beyond the powers of human ingenuity. In this handsomely illustrated volume, author analyses and explains these complex designs for the first time in their historical and physical context.  Own original drawings accompany magnificent photographs of mosques, madrasas, palaces and tombs from the Islamic world, ranging from North Africa to Iran and Uzbekistan, and from the 8th to the 19th centuries.

The creators of these patterns were usually anonymous and there is little evidence for their working practices, but a close and detailed study of the designs can tell us much. Chapters are devoted to each of the main ‘families’ of geometric design – fourfold, fivefold and sixfold – and to the complex ‘combined’ patterns. Every design is carefully explained, and illustrated with a wealth of stunning photographs and clear, meticulously detailed drawings.

Readers can follow the design processes by which these patterns were created and even 
learn to reproduce and invent geometric patterns for themselves, using exactly the same tools as the Islamic craftsmen of old: a ruler and a pair of compasses.

256 pages, over 800 illustrations

Islamic Geometric Patterns

By Eric Broug
Published by Thames & Hudson (2008)

Traditional Islamic craftsmen weren't mathematicians, they had practical knowledge of geometry, their tools for making geometrical designs were a compass and a ruler. This book uses the same design principle. It demonstrates how Islamic craftsmen would draw a hexagon and a pentagon with only their tools of a compass and a ruler. The method used in this book is new and innovative; it makes it easy for enthusiasts of any age to learn how to make their own designs. 

The book contains twenty different geometrical designs, ranging from simple to complex. All designs are related to a location in the Islamic world where they can be found. For example, there are designs from:

- the Great Mosque of Cordoba, Spain
- the Mustansiriya Mosque in Baghdad, Iraq
- the Esrefoglu Mosque in Beysehir, Turkey
- the Sheikh Abd al-Samad Complex in Natanz, Iran
- the tomb of Bibi Jawindi in Uch, Pakistan
- the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria
- the Tomb of Jalal al-Din Hussein in Uzgen, Kirgizstan

The book is accompanied with an interactive CD-Rom that contains all twenty designs presented as animations, printable grid paper PDF's, printable colouring designs, interactive photographs and an extensive photo-gallery showing highlights of Islamic geometrical compositions. 

128 pages

Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach
  

By Keith Critchlow

Published by Inner Traditions (1999) New Edition

Keith Critchlow is Director of Research and Director of Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts at the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture. An internationally known lecturer on Islamic art, he is the author of Pythagorean Geometry. He lives in England. 

The classic study of the cosmological principles found in the patterns of Islamic art and how they relate to sacred geometry and the perennial philosophy.

Explains how these patterns guide the mind from the mundane world of appearances to its underlying reality.

For centuries the nature and meaning of Islamic art has been wrongly regarded in the West as mere decoration. In truth, because the portrayal of human and animal forms has always been discouraged on Islamic religious principles that forbid idolatry, the abstract art of Islam represents the sophisticated development of a non naturalistic tradition. Through this tradition, Islamic art has maintained its chief aim: the affirmation of unity as expressed in diversity.

In this fascinating study the author explores the idea that unlike medieval Christian art, in which the polarization of such forms and patterns was relegated to a background against which to set sacred images, the geometrical patterns of Islamic art can reveal the intrinsic cosmological laws affecting all creation. Their primary function is to guide the mind from the mundane world of appearances toward its underlying reality. 

Numerous drawings connect the art of Islam to the Pythagorean science of mathematics, and through these images we can see how an Earth centred view of the cosmos provides renewed significance to those number patterns produced by the orbits of the planets. The author shows the essential philosophical and practical basis of every art creation -whether a tile, carpet, or wall- and how this use of mathematical tessellations affirms the essential unity of all things. An invaluable study for all those interested in sacred art, Islamic Patterns is also a rich source of inspiration for artists and designers.

192 pages with 150 colour and black-and-white drawings of Islamic patterns
 

Islamic Design: A Genius for Geometry

By Daud Sutton

Published by Walker & Company (2007)

Daud Sutton is director of the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation's design studio Editio Electrum, specializing in the fine reproduction of carpet pages from ancient manuscripts. He lives in England.

An exploration of the construction and meaning of Islamic geometric patterns.

Throughout their long history the craft traditions of the Islamic world evolved a multitude of styles applied to a great variety of media but always with unifying factors that make them instantly recognizable. Harmony is central. There are two key aspects to the visual structure of Islamic design: calligraphy using Arabic script (one of the world's great calligraphic traditions) and abstract ornamentation using a varied but remarkably integrated visual language. Focusing on Islamic geometric patterns, simple and complex, man-made and in nature, this book offers unique insight into Islamic culture.

64 pages 
                                  

Arabic Geometrical Pattern and Design

By J. Bourgoin

Published by Dover Publications (1973) New Edition

Nearly 200 examples exhibit the wide range of Islamic art, including hexagon and octagon  designs, combinations of stars and rosettes, and many variations on other geometric patterns. Twenty-eight examples from traditional sources in Cairo and Damascus include sanctuary doors, openwork windows, and inlaid marble pavements and ceilings.

204 pages

ARRAYANES: shadows and reflections

ARRAYANES: shadows and reflections is a picture series painted by AL HAMRA contemporary art projects artists group, based on the tile mosaics of the walls of the Patio de los Arrayanes (the Court of the Myrtles)* pavilions in the Alhambra of Granada, which combines on canvas: colour, abstraction and geometry.

In the photo on the left side you can see an example of this collection, created with oil paints on 6 canvases of large size.

Otherwise, the Alhambra, this UNESCO World Heritage site, in Granada (Spain), is highly embellished with calligraphic script, arabesque and geometric patterns. The complex patterns used suggest the palaces’ designers and artisans were quite skilled in mathematics. While the elaborate decorations cover most surfaces of the compound’s buildings and gardens, the repetition and symmetry used in the designs establish a subtel sense of order.

Near the Tower of Comares (the official residence of the emir or king), movements of light and shadow across the arches and walls bring ever-changing views to the Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes) and the courtyard pool, (see the photo at the end of post), provides a wonderful reflection of the Royal Palaces and their decorative motifs of stucco and tile works.

(Detail of tile wall decoration)

(Detail of stucco and tile works)


Then, symmetry, shadows and reflections are the influence of our ARRAYANES artwork series:

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

All of these original paintings of the ARRAYANES art collection are available for sale. For more information about it, please contact by e-mail at alhamra.artworks@gmail.com

(To download the complete collection catalogue, click on the belonged icon in the right column of the webpage)

* The Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes) has received different names throughout time. Its current name is due to the myrtle bushes that surround the central pond and the bright green colour of which contrasts with the white marble of the courtyard. It was also called the Court of the Pond or the Reservoir (Patio del Estanque or de la Alberca) because of the central pond, which is 34 metres long and 7.10 meters wide. The pond divides the court and receives its water from two fountains (one at each end of the pond). There are chambers on both sides of the patio and several porticoes on the shorter sides of it. These porticoes rest on columns with cubic capitals, which have seven semicircular arches decorated with fretwork rhombuses and inscriptions praising God. The central arch is greater than the other six and has solid scallops decorated with stylised vegetal forms and capitals of mocarabes (stucco ornamentation). 

MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN by Albert F. Calvert

"Moorish remains in Spain: being a brief record of the Arabian conquest of the Peninsula; with a particular account of the Mohammedan architecture and decoration in Cordova, Seville & Toledo" is a book written in 1905 by Albert Frederick Calvert and published in London and New York by John Lane in the year of 1906, is an architectural presentation of the legacy of Islam in Andalusia. Including details of the great mosque in Cordova and also architectural gems from Seville, with illustrations, coloured plates and decoration sketches. The book also includes a historical account of the Muslim presence in Spain, and in the Preface of the book the author said: “The inception of my work on The Alhambra, to which this book is designed to be the companion and complementary volume, was due to the disappointing discovery that no such thing as an even moderately adequate souvenir of the Red Palace of Granada, “that glorious sanctuary of Spain,” was in existence. It was written at a time when I shared the very common delusion that the Alhambra was the only word in a vocabulary of relics which includes such Arabian superlatives as the Mosque at Cordova, the Gates and the Cristo de la Luz of Toledo, and the Alcazar at Seville. I had then to learn that while the Alhambra has rightly been accepted as the last word on Moorish Art in Spain, it must not be regarded as the solitary monument of the splendour and beauty with which the Arabs stamped their virile and artistic personality upon Andalus. In the course of frequent and protracted visits to Spain I came to realise that the Moors were not a one city-nation; they did not exhaust themselves in a single, isolated effort to achieve the sublimely beautiful. Before the Alhambra was conceived in the mind of Mohammed the First of Granada, Toledo had been adorned and lost; Cordova, which for centuries had commanded the admiration of Europe, had paled and waned beside the increasing splendor of Seville; and the "gem of Andalusia" itself had been wrested from the Moor by the victorious Ferdinand III. But each in turn had been redeemed from Gothic tyranny by the art-adoring influence of the Moslem. Their dominion, their politics, and their influence is a tale of a day that is dead, but it survives in the monuments of their Art, which exist to the glory of Spain and the wonder of the world. The Arabian sense of the beautiful sealed itself upon Cordova, and made the city its own; it blended with the joyous spirit of Seville; it forced its impress upon the frowning forehead of Toledo. To see the Alhambra is not to understand the wonders of the Alcazar; the study of Moorish wizardry in Toledo does not reveal, does not even prepare one, for the bewildering cunning of the Mosque in Cordova…”

And in his introduction words, Calvert said: “The conquest of Spain by the Moors*, and the story comprised in the eight centuries during which they wielded sovereignty as a European power, forms a romance that is without parallel in the history of the world. Under Mohammedan rule Spain enjoyed the first and most protracted period of comparative peace and material prosperity she had ever known.”

*The term ‘Moor’, or the Spanish equivalent ‘Moro’, derives from the Latin Maurus and was first used in Roman times to denote the inhabitants of the province of Mauretania, which included large portions of modern-day Algeria and Morocco. Since the Middle Ages the term has been used by Europeans to refer generally to Muslim populations of Morocco and former inhabitants of al-Andalus, absenting any clear ethnic or regional distinctions. The term ‘Moorish’ continues to be used widely in contemporary descriptions of the historic art and architecture of these areas. (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s.v. ‘Moor’).

Albert Frederick Calvert (1872-1946), was an author, traveller and mining engineer, born on 20 July 1872 at Kentish Town, Middlesex, England, son of John Calvert, mining engineer, and his wife Grace. He was brought up principally by his grandfather John Calvert (1814-1897), a widely travelled mineralogist who claimed extensive gold discoveries in Australia in the 1840s. Leaves from the Calvert Papers (1893) by Albert's secretary G. Hill is a misleading account of his family history.

As explorer, Calvert visited Australia in several times, at first the western territories in 1890, after, during 1891-1892, the southern lands from Lake Gairdner to the upper Murchison River for a two British exploration companies and before the third journey, Calvert circumnavigated Australia collecting material for his book, The Discovery of Australia (London, 1893). Returning to London, he married Florence Holcombe at Kentish Town on 28 March 1894.

In 1895 Calvert landed at Albany. He was joined by a journalist, an artist, his private secretary and a mining engineer. They visited Perth and the eastern goldfields. Calvert visited Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney before returning to London where he published My Fourth Tour in Western Australia (1897).

In 1896 the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia accepted his offer to finance an expedition to search and open a stock route from the Northern Territory to the western goldfields.

As a mining investment consultant and as a prolific writer, for a decade he was obsessed with Western Australia. Described in London as 'Westralia's golden prophet', Calvert was courted, wined and dined, and indulged in yachting, motoring and racing. His West Australian Review, published in London in 1893-94, dealt mainly in mining information, commentaries and forecasts. His fourteen other Australian books covering forests, Aboriginals, pearls, history, minerals and his own travels were cheap, readable and topical, but often careless.

Calvert was managing director of Big Blow Gold Mines and Consolidated Gold Mines of Western Australia on the Pilbarra goldfields, and consulting engineer for the Mallina gold-mines. Management difficulties and a bankruptcy caused by racing losses in 1898 killed his interest in Australia and he turned to a new area: Spain and Africa. Thirty-six books on Spain and Spanish art published by 1924 won him appointment as a knight of the Orders of Alfonso XII and of Isabella the Catholic.

After a visit to Nigeria in 1910, Calvert published two books on that country followed by five on German Africa published during World War I. Initiated as a Freemason in 1893, he became something of an authority on Masonic history in later life, though his work is not now highly regarded. Depending on Masonic help in his last years, Calvert died of cerebro-vascular disease in the Archway Hospital, Islington, London, on 27 June 1946, survived by his wife and four sons.

Other writings of Albert F. Calvert about Muslim art and architecture in Spain are:

• Royal palaces of Spain:  a historical and descriptive account of the seven principal palaces of the Spanish kings, published in 1909.
• Valencia and Murcia, a glance at African Spain, published in 1911.
• Toledo, a historical and descriptive account of the "City of generations", published in 1907.
• Granada and the Alhambra, a brief description of the ancient city of Granada, with a particular account of the Moorish palace, published in 1907.
• The Alhambra: being a brief record of the Arabian conquest of the Peninsula with a particular account of the Mohammedan architecture, published in 1906.
• Cordova, a city of the Moors, published in 1907.
• Seville, a historical and descriptive account of "the pearl of Andalusia", published in 1907.
• Granada, present and bygone, published in 1908.

Examples of the plates from the book:

(Click on the images to enlarge)

The QATIB series of AL HAMRA Contemporary Art Projects also was inspired by these plates or similar:

(Click on the image to enlarge. For more information about this series, to look for the catalogue link)