Editing Almohad Caliphate (section)

=== Art ===

==== Calligraphy and manuscripts ====
The Almohad dynasty embraced a style of cursive [[Maghrebi script]] known today as "Maghrebi thuluth" as an official style used in manuscripts, coinage, documents, and architecture.<ref name=":8" /> However, the more angular [[Kufic|Kufic script]] was still used, albeit in a reworked form in Qur'an epigraphy, and was seen detailed in silver in some colophons.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Streit |first=Jessica |title=Monumental Austerity: The Meanings And Aesthetic Development Of Almohad Friday Mosques |publisher=Cornell University |type=PhD |year=2013 |page=52 |hdl=1813/34025 }}</ref><ref name=":7">Bongianino, Umberto (18 May 2021). ''Untold Stories of Maghrebi Qur'ans (12th-14th centuries)'' (Lecture).</ref> The Maghrebi thuluth script, frequently written in gold, was used to give emphasis when standard writing, written in rounded Maghrebi mabsūt script, was considered insufficient.<ref name=":8" /> Maghrebi mabsūt of the [[al-Andalus]] region during the 12th to 14th centuries was characterized by elongated lines, stretched out curves, and the use of multiple colors for vocalizations, as derived from the people of Medina.<ref name=":7" />

Scribes and calligraphers of the Almohad period also started to [[Illuminated manuscript|illuminate]] words and phrases in manuscripts for emphasis, using [[gold leaf]] and [[lapis lazuli]].<ref name=":9">Barrucand, Marianne (1995). ''Remarques sur le decor des manuscrit religeux hispano-maghrebin du moyen-age''. Paris: Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. p. 240-243. {{ISBN|2-7355-0241-4}}.</ref><ref name=":8" /> While much of the script was written in black or brown ink, the use of [[Polychrome|polychromy]] for diacritical text and vocalizations also marked a departure from previous caliphates' calligraphic styles.<ref name=":7" /> Blue dots were used to indicate elif, orange dots denoted [[hamza]], and yellow semicircles to marked [[shadda]]h.<ref name=":7" /> Separate sets of verses were denoted by various medallions, with distinctive designs for each set. For example, sets of five verses were ended with bud-like medallions while sets of ten were marked by circular medallions, all of which were typically painted in gold.<ref name=":9" /> Manuscripts attributed to this caliphate were characterized by interlacing geometric or recti-curvilinear illuminations, and abstract vegetal artwork and large medallions were often present in the margins and as thumbnails.<ref name=":9" /> Composite floral [[finial]]s were also frequently used in decorating the margins and corners of the page.<ref name=":9" /> Color schemes focused on primarily using gold, white, and blue, with accentuating elements in red or pink.<ref name=":9" />

During the Almohad dynasty, the act of bookbinding itself took on great importance, with a notable instance of the Almohad caliph [[Abd al-Mu'min]] bringing in artisans for a celebration of the binding of a Qur'an imported from [[Córdoba, Spain|Cordoba]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Khemir|first=Sabiha|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Al_Andalus_The_Art_of_Islamic_Spain|chapter=The Arts of the Book|title=Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain|publisher=MetPublications|year=1992|isbn=978-0-87099-636-8|editor-last=Dodds|editor-first=Jerrilynn|location=New York, N.Y.|page=124}}</ref> Books were most frequently bound in goatskin leather and decorated with polygonal interlacing, [[Goffering iron|goffering]], and stamping. The primary materials used for the pages were goat or sheep [[vellum]].<ref name=":5" /> However, the Almohad dynasty also saw industrial advancements in the spread of paper mills in [[Seville]] and [[Marrakesh]], leading to the introduction of paper for Qur'an manuscripts, illuminated doctrine books, and official documents.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":10">Barrucand, Marianne (2005). ''Les Enluminares de l'Epoque Almohade: Frontispices et Unwans''. Estudios Arabes e Islamicos. p. 72-74.</ref> Most Qur'anic manuscripts were close to square-shaped, though other religious texts were typically vertically oriented. With the exception of a few large-scale Qur'ans, most were modestly sized, ranging from 11 centimenters to 22 centimeters on each side, with 19 to 27 lines of script each page.<ref name=":10" /> In contrast, large-sized Qur'ans were typically approximately 60 centimeters by 53 centimeters and had an average of five to nine lines of script to a page, typically in Maghrebi thuluth.<ref name=":10" />

[[Hadith Bayad wa Riyad|Hadith Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ]], the love story of Bayad and Riyad, is one of the few remaining illustrated manuscripts dated to 13th century Almohad caliphate.<ref name=":5" /> Its use of miniatures displays a clear connection with previous illustrated tradition from the eastern Islamic world. However, it deviates in its depictions of the frontispiece, interior, and teaching scenes, which show similarities to scientific manuscripts from the central Islamic world, typically considered to have consisted of the Arabian peninsula, northeast modern Iran, and the Fertile Crescent.<ref name=":11">Robinson, Cynthia (2007). Contadini, A. (ed.). ''Love Localized and Science from Afar: "Arab Painting", Iberian Courtly Culture, and the Hadith Bayad wa Riyad''. Brill. pp. 104–114. {{ISBN|978-90-474-2237-2}}.</ref> Depictions of architecture specific to the Almohad caliphate are also evident in several places in the manuscript.<ref name=":11" />[[File:Quran of Abu Hafs al-Murtada (Morocco exhibit).jpg|thumb|A copy of the [[Quran|Qur'an]] personally transcribed by Caliph [[Abu Hafs Umar al-Murtada|al-Murtada]], circa 1266]]The penultimate Almohad caliph, [[Abu Hafs Umar al-Murtada|Abu Hafs al-Murtada]], was a notable calligrapher in his own right and composed poems and copied Qur'ans. A known bibliophile, he frequently endowed books to madrasas and mosques and established the first public manuscript transcription center in Marrakesh.<ref name=":8" /> One of the large Qur'ans that he copied has been preserved in Marrakesh and is the oldest surviving example in the western Islamic world of a Qur'an personally produced by a sovereign ruler. The 10-volume tome is written on parchment and bound with a leather cover decorated with a geometric motif, exhibiting the first dated use of gold tooling on a manuscript binding.<ref>Bloom, Jonathan M.; Blair, Sheila S. (2009), "Almohad", ''The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture'', Oxford University Press, {{doi|10.1093/acref/9780195309911.001.0001/acref-9780195309911-e-70}}, {{ISBN|978-0-19-530991-1}}, retrieved 2021-05-04</ref> The verses are written in Maghrebi mabsūt script and the end of each verse is marked by a gold circle divided into eight uniform segments. Using large Maghrebi script, there are five to 10 lines to a page, with relatively few words to each line. There is lavish use of gold, and this Qur'an, as with other Qur'ans of this size, was likely intended for court use.<ref>Blair, Sheila (2008). ''Islamic Calligraphy''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh. pp. 227–228. {{ISBN|978-1-4744-6447-5}}.</ref>

==== Textiles ====
{{See also|Almoravid and Almohad textiles}}
[[File:Las Navas de Tolosa banner2.jpg|thumb|The "Las Navas de Tolosa banner", an Almohad banner captured by [[Ferdinand III of Castile|Ferdinand III]] in the 13th century]]
The Almohads initially eschewed the production of luxury textiles and silks, but eventually they too engaged in this production. Almohad textiles, like earlier Almoravid examples, were often decorated with a grid of roundels filled with ornamental designs or Arabic epigraphy. However, textiles produced by Almohad workshops used progressively less figural decoration than previous Almoravid textiles, in favour of interlacing geometric and vegetal motifs.<ref name=":42">{{Cite book|last=Partearroyo|first=Cristina|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Al_Andalus_The_Art_of_Islamic_Spain|title=Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|year=1992|isbn=0-87099-637-1|editor-last=Dodds|editor-first=Jerrilynn D.|location=New York|pages=105–113|chapter=Almoravid and Almohad Textiles}}</ref>

One of the best-known textiles traditionally attributed to the Almohads is the "Las Navas de Tolosa Banner", so-called because it was once thought to be a spoil won by [[Alfonso VIII of Castile|Alfonso VIII]] at the [[Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa]] in 1212. More recent studies have proposed that it was actually a spoil won some years later by [[Ferdinand III of Castile|Ferdinand III]].{{Sfn|Dodds|1992|p=|pp=326–327}} The banner was then donated to the [[Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas|Monastery of Santa Maria la Real de Huelgas]] in [[Burgos]], where it remains today. The banner is richly designed and features blue Arabic inscriptions and white decorative patterns on a red background. The central motif features an eight-pointed star framed by a circle inside a larger square, with smaller motifs filling the bands of the frame and the corner spaces. This central design is surrounded on four sides by Arabic inscriptions in [[Naskh (script)|Naskhi]] script featuring Qur'anic verses ([[As-Saff|''Surah'' 61]]: 10–12), and another horizontal inscription in the banner's upper part which praises God and [[Muhammad]]. Recent studies have argued that the banner is of 14th century origin rather than of Almohad origin, due to its similarities with captured Marinid banners kept at the [[Cathedral of Toledo]] and to its similarities with Nasrid motifs. It remains uncertain whether it was crafted either in Fez under the Marinids or in Granada under the Nasrids.<ref name=":1322">{{Cite book |last=Ali-de-Unzaga |first=Miriam |title=Maroc médiéval: Un empire de l'Afrique à l'Espagne |publisher=Louvre éditions |year=2014 |isbn=9782350314907 |editor-last=Lintz |editor-first=Yannick |location=Paris |pages=98 |language=fr |chapter=La bannière de Las Huelgas dite de "Las Navas de Tolosa" |editor-last2=Déléry |editor-first2=Claire |editor-last3=Tuil Leonetti |editor-first3=Bulle |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/12770170}}</ref><ref>See also:
* {{Cite journal |last=Pavón Maldonado |first=Basilio |date=1985 |title=Arte, símbolo y emblemas en la España musulmana |url=https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/26606 |journal=Al-Qantara |language=es |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=448 |hdl=10261/26606 |issn=0211-3589}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ruiz Souza |first=Juan Carlos |title=Maravillas de la España medieval: Tesoro sagrado y monarquía |publisher=Junta de Castilla y León |year=2001 |editor-last=Bango Torviso |editor-first=Isidro G. |location=Madrid |pages=35 |language=es |chapter=Botín de guerra y Tesoro sagrado |chapter-url=https://www.ucm.es/al-acmes/file/ruiz-souza-2001-boti%CC%81n-de-guerra-y-tesoro-sagrado-maravillas.cata%CC%81logo}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ali-de-Unzaga |first=Miriam |title=Word of God, Art of Man: The Quran and its Creative Expressions |publisher=Oxford University Press and the Institute for Ismaili Studies |year=2007 |isbn=9780199591497 |editor-last=Suleman |editor-first=Fahmida |pages=239–270 |language=en |chapter=Quranic inscriptions on the so-called 'Pennon of Las Navas de Tolosa' and three Marīnid banners}}
</ref>
<!-- The Las Navas de Tolosa banner probably deserves its own article eventually, with a summary left here instead of the full discussion, since its origin is uncertain but most likely post-Almohad. -->

==== Metalwork ====
[[File:Lion de Monzon 09420.JPG|thumb|The Monzón Lion, a bronze fountain from Al-Andalus dating from the 12th-13th century]]
The French historian [[Henri Terrasse]] described [[University of al-Qarawiyyin|al-Qarawiyyin's]] bronze grand [[chandelier]], commissioned by Caliph [[Muhammad al-Nasir]], as "the largest and most beautiful chandelier in the Islamic world."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Qantara - Large chandelier of the Qarawīyyīn Mosque|url=https://www.qantara-med.org/public/show_document.php?do_id=1022&lang=en|access-date=2021-02-21|website=www.qantara-med.org}}</ref><ref name=":03">{{Cite book|last=Terrasse|first=Henri|title=La Mosquée al-Qaraouiyin à Fès; avec une étude de Gaston Deverdun sur les inscriptions historiques de la mosquée|publisher=Librairie C. Klincksieck|year=1968|location=Paris}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=i24NEWS|url=https://www.i24news.tv/ar/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1/%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A/%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A7/1569146827-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%B1-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%89-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B3|access-date=2020-09-11|website=www.i24news.tv}}</ref> The chandelier consists of a 12-sided cupola on top of which is mounted a large cone crowned around its sides with nine levels of candlesticks. The visible surfaces of the chandelier are carved and pierced with intricate floral arabesque motifs as well as [[Kufic]] Arabic inscriptions. The chandelier is now the oldest surviving chandelier in the western Islamic world, and it likely served as a model for the later and nearly equally famous Marinid chandelier in the [[Great Mosque of Taza]].{{Sfn|Lintz|Déléry|Tuil Leonetti|2014|p=334}}

Another important piece, the so-called Monzón Lion, also dates from the Almohad period during the 12 or 13th century and is held in the [[Louvre|Louvre Museum]] today. It is an example of figural bronze sculpture from al-Andalus that continues in the tradition of earlier objects such as the 11th-century [[Pisa Griffin]] (kept at the [[Pisa Cathedral|Cathedral Museum]] of [[Pisa]]) and the 10th-century Stag of Córdoba<ref>{{Cite web|title=Qantara - Spout of a fountain in the form of a stag|url=https://www.qantara-med.org/public/show_document.php?do_id=209&lang=en|access-date=2021-02-21|website=www.qantara-med.org}}</ref> made in [[Medina Azahara|Madinat al-Zahra]] (now kept at the [[Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of Córdoba|Archeological Museum of Córdoba]]). It was found in [[Monzón de Campos|Monzón]], near [[Palencia]], but it is not known where exactly in the Iberian Peninsula it was made. As Palencia was outside the Almohad realm, it may have been made by Andalusi craftsman for a Christian patron. The lion, which served as a fountainhead, is sculpted in a highly stylized manner and its articulated tail is adjustable. Its surface is covered in incised decoration consisting of tapestry-like motifs, and a broad Kufic inscription on its side features well-wishes for its owner.{{Sfn|Lintz|Déléry|Tuil Leonetti|2014|p=390}}{{Sfn|Dodds|1992|p=270}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Qantara - Lion with an articulated tail|url=https://www.qantara-med.org/public/show_document.php?do_id=1037|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-21|website=www.qantara-med.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415160550/https://www.qantara-med.org/public/show_document.php?do_id=1037 |archive-date=2021-04-15 }}</ref>

Other surviving metalwork objects from the Almohad period include a series of braziers and lamps discovered in Córdoba and now kept at the Archeological Museum of Córdoba. One of them, a hexagonal brazier, features both incised and pierced decoration. Along with prominent decorative Kufic inscriptions, it has an architectural motif of [[merlon]]s resembling the decorative sawtooth-shaped merlons found along the tops of Moorish and Moroccan buildings of the same period.{{Sfn|Lintz|Déléry|Tuil Leonetti|2014|p=383}}{{Sfn|Dodds|1992|p=274}}

==== Ceramics and tilework ====
[[File:Marrakesh Kasbah Mosque ceramic fragments (Morocco exhibit).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Fragment of [[Kufic]] inscription on ''[[cuerda seca]]'' tiles formerly around the minaret of the [[Kasbah Mosque (Marrakech)|Kasbah Mosque]]]]
[[Jonathan Bloom]] cites the white and green glazed tiles on the [[minaret]] of the [[Kutubiyya Mosque]], dating from the mid-12th century in the early Almohad period, as the earliest reliably-dated example of ''[[zellij]]'' in Morocco.<ref name=":06">{{Cite book |last1=Bloom |first1=Jonathan |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Minbar_from_the_Kutubiyya_Mosque |title=The Minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque |last2=Toufiq |first2=Ahmed |last3=Carboni |first3=Stefano |last4=Soultanian |first4=Jack |last5=Wilmering |first5=Antoine M. |last6=Minor |first6=Mark D. |last7=Zawacki |first7=Andrew |last8=Hbibi |first8=El Mostafa |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Ediciones El Viso, S.A., Madrid; Ministère des Affaires Culturelles, Royaume du Maroc |year=1998 |isbn= |location= |pages=26 |language=en}}</ref> The tiles currently installed on the minaret are modern reproductions of the original decoration, but some of the original tiles were preserved in a collection kept at the [[El Badi Palace|Badi Palace]].{{Sfn|Lintz|Déléry|Tuil Leonetti|2014|p=329}} The same collection has also preserved fragments of the original tile decoration on the minaret of the [[Kasbah Mosque (Marrakech)|Kasbah Mosque]], including fragments of a [[Kufic]] inscription which is no longer present on the minaret today. These latter fragments are also the earliest surviving example of ''[[cuerda seca]]'' tilework (a technique originating in al-Andalus) being used in an architectural context.{{Sfn|Lintz|Déléry|Tuil Leonetti|2014|p=332}}

==== Painted decoration ====
The Kutubiyya Mosque's minaret in Marrakesh originally had polychrome painted decoration around the windows and blind arches on its exterior façades, featuring a mix of [[Islamic geometric patterns|geometric]] and vegetal [[arabesque]] motifs.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Salmon|first=Xavier|title=Maroc Almoravide et Almohade: Architecture et décors au temps des conquérants, 1055-1269|publisher=LienArt|year=2018|location=Paris}}</ref> In Seville, some Almohad-era houses have been excavated in various locations in the city, particularly on the site of the present-day cathedral. At least one of these excavations have revealed the remains of mural decoration featuring interlacing geometric decoration.{{Sfn|Lintz|Déléry|Tuil Leonetti|2014|p=327}} [[Islamic geometric patterns|Decorations]] of a [[Turkish bath|hammam]] dating back to the Almohad period were uncovered in a bar in [[Seville]] during renovations in 2020.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|date=2021-02-18|title=Islamic 12th-century bathhouse uncovered in Seville tapas bar|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/islamic-12th-century-bathhouse-uncovered-in-seville-tapas-bar|access-date=2021-02-18|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> The decorations feature red ochre paintings of [[Octagram|concave hexadecagons]] and eightfold rosettes on engraved white lime mortar in a pattern that fits the hammam's geometric skylight holes.<ref name=":3" />