WOMEN AND THE ALHAMBRA. THE

FEMALE PRESENCE IN POLITICAL,

ARCHITECTURAL, PICTORIAL AND

SYMBOLIC SPACES

LAS MUJERES Y LA ALHAMBRA. PRESENCIA FEMENINA EN ESPACIOS

POLÍTICOS, ARQUITECTÓNICOS, PICTÓRICOS Y SIMBÓLICOS

BÁRBARA BOLOIX-GALLARDO

LECTURER IN ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SEMITIC STUDIES

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA

bboloix@ugr.es

AbstrAct: the Alhambra, as the main expression of the path of the Nasrid dynasty in history, was an en-

clave where both men and women were present during the trajectory of the kingdom of Granada (13th-15th

centuries). Despite their conscious historiographic «veiling», the latter had a considerable influence in both

the political development and the spatial and aesthetic configuration of this palace. Therefore, its analysis

and reconstruction are not possible today without the application of a gender perspective. Throughout this

paper, we will try to identify the feminine presence in the political, architectural, pictorial, and symbolic

fields at the Alhambra, in order to contribute to a better understanding of both the importance and the

mark that Nasrid women left in this monument.

Keywords: Alhambra, women, politics, architecture, visual culture, poetry, gender studies

resumen: la Alhambra, como máxima expresión del paso de la dinastía nazarí por la historia, fue un en-

clave en que tuvieron presencia tanto hombres como mujeres durante la trayectoria del reino de Granada

(siglos XIII-XV). A pesar de su consciente «velación» historiográfica, estas últimas llegaron a tener un peso

considerable tanto en el desarrollo político como en la configuración espacial y estética de este palacio, cuyo

análisis y reconstrucción no deben ser posibles a día de hoy sin la aplicación de la perspectiva de género.

A lo largo de este trabajo, pretendemos identificar la presencia femenina fundamentalmente dentro de los

ámbitos político, arquitectónico, pictórico y simbólico alhambreños, con el fin de contribuir a un mejor

conocimiento de la importancia y de la huella que las mujeres nazaríes tuvieron y dejaron en este monu-

mento.

PAlAbrAs clAves: Alhambra, mujeres, política, arquitectura, cultura visual, poesía, estudios de género

cómo citAr / how to cite: BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Las mujeres y la Alhambra. Presencia femenina en es-

pacios políticos, arquitectónicos, pictóricos y simbólicos, Cuaderno de la Alhambra. 2020, 49, págs. 347-363

. ISN 0590-1987

CUADERNOS DE LA ALHAMBRA I núm. 49 I 2020 I págs. 347-363

Recibido: 19 octubre 2020 | Revisado: 2 noviembre 2020 | Aceptado: 12 noviembre 2020 | Publicado:24 diciembre 2020

ISSN: 0590 - 1987 I eISSN: 2695-379X I Depósito legal: GR 70-1965

Introduction

The history of the Nasrid dynasty, which ruled

the kingdom of Granada from the 13th to the 15th

century, has generally been interpreted, recons-

tructed and analysed from a predominantly male

perspective in all its various manifestations. This

approach established a biased view of the dynas-

ty’s political trajectory that has endured for cen-

turies and decades, overlooking the contribution

made by women of this lineage. For a long time,

no important questions were asked about the roles

that women actually played in the public sphere

and how they influenced the development of the

Nasrid dynasty, despite their great importance.

Their footprints have been limited to an occasio-

nal series of references scattered across sources

and studies that have, in addition, been left out of

the official historical discourse and the process of

interpreting the facts

In spite of this, women’s involvement in the di-

fferent facets of Nasrid history (politics, diploma-

cy, economics, etc.) can today no longer be denied

when viewed from various scientific perspectives,

forcing a re-examination of the dynasty from a gen-

1. Among the works that have highlighted the contribution of wo-

men to Nasrid history and have contributed to its visibility, the

following particularly stand out (in chronological order): SECO

DE LUCENA, L.. La sultana madre de Boabdil, Al-Andalus, 12/2

(1947), pp. 359-390; ALBARRACÍN NAVARRO, J.Un documento

granadino sobre los bienes de la mujer de Boabdil en Mondújar

in Manuel González Jiménez (ed.). Actas del I Congreso de Historia

de Andalucía. Andalucía Medieval. Fuentes y Metodología. Cordoba:

Monte de Piedad, 1978, pp. 339-348; DE SANTIAGO SIMÓN, E.

Algo más sobre la sultana madre de Boabdil in Ángel Sáenz-Ba-

dillos Pérez (ed.). Homage to Prof. Dario Cabanelas Rodriguez,

O.F.M., on the occasion of his LXX anniversary Granada: University,

1987, I, pp. 491-496; RUBIERA MATA, M.ª J. La princesa Fāṭima

bint al-Aḥmar, la "María de Molina" de la dinastía nazarí. Medie-

valismo, 6 (1996), pp. 183-189; CHAROUITI HASNAOUI, M. La

intervención de la mujer en la vida política granadina durante la

primera mitad del siglo XV, in Francisco Toro Ceballos and José

Rodríguez Molina (coords.). Estudios de Frontera. Alcalá la Real y

el Arcipestre de Hita. Jaén: Diputación Provincial, 1996, pp. 323-

334; SALICRÚ I LLUCH, R. El Sultanat de Granada i la Corona

d’Aragó, 1410-1458. Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Mont-

serrat, 1998; BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Revelando nuevos vínculos

familiares de la dinastía nazarí en el siglo XIII: Amat al-῾Azīz y

los Banū Ḥudayr de Crevillente, MEAH, 60 (2011), pp. 57-78; BO-

LOIX- GALLARDO, B. Las Sultanas de la Alhambra. Las grandes

desconocidas del reino nazarí de Granada (siglos XIII-XV). Granada,

Comares - Patronato de la Ahambra y el Generalife, 2013; BO-

LOIX- GALLARDO, B. Mujer y poder en el reino nazarí de Grana-

da: la sultana Fāṭima bint al-Aḥmar, la perla central del collar de

la dinastía, Anuario de Estudios Medievales, 46/1 (2016), pp. 269-

300; SALICRÚ I LLUCH, R. Sultanas emergentes: visualizaciones

de la mujer musulmana en las fuentes cristianas, en José Rodrí-

guez Molina (ed.). VIII Estudios de Frontera. Mujeres y fronteras.

Jaén, Diputación Provincial, 2011, pp. 477-483, among others.

IL. 1. Pepe Marín. North portico of the Court of the Myrtles reflected in the pool. (2016) APAG.

der perspective that is indispensable for a better un-

derstanding of its internal dynamics. Following

the methodological recommendations of Ame-

rican historian Joan Scott

, this approach is not

only decisive in reconstructing a new history of

women, but also a new history –in this case, that

of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada– since, para-

phrasing her ideas, «the inclusion of women in

history necessarily implies the redefinition and

expansion of traditional notions of historical me-

aning, so that it encompasses personal and sub-

jective experience as well as public and political

activities» and gender, as a topic for analysis, is a

decisive part of this.

Reconstructions of the history of the Alhambra,

and analysis of the palace from different points

of view (architectural, aesthetic, etc.), has gene-

rally suffered from this male perspective, with

the exception of the well-known work of some

women researchers who have opened up lines

of research that are as necessary as they are in-

teresting

. Taking into account the importance

of considering the feminine component in any

general study of the palace, this work analyses

the presence of Nasrid women in the Alhambra

based on four key areas: political, architectonic,

pictorial and symbolic. This study aims to con-

tribute, as far as possible, to an appreciation of

the Alhambra as an enclave in which very diverse

feminine worlds developed, identifying how fe-

mininity is an essential feature in the historical,

aesthetic and spatial configuration of the Nasrid

palace, and it urges any study of the Alhambra to

constantly apply a gender perspective (Il. 1).

Women and power in the history of the

alhambra

Politics, in its various manifestations, was a field

in which women of the Nasrid dynasty actively and

significantly participated. Due to the idiosyncrasy of

Islamic civilization in medieval times, this involve-

ment was officially prohibited by the male domain,

as acknowledged by and recommended in several

Andalusian and Eastern political treaties, the finest

example being the treatise written by vizier and se-

cretary of the Alhambra Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Jaṭīb (d.

776/1374) entitled Al-Maqāma fī l-siyāsa (The ses-

sion on politics). In this short work, which he dedi-

cated to Nasrid emir Muḥammad V, (755-760/1354-

1359; 763-793/1362-1391) he offers practical advice

on how to govern and defines a sultan’s group of

women (al-ḥuram) as follows [as for the wives]:

«they are the soil in which the children are

planted, the myrtles of the spirit and the re-

pose of the heart –tired by thoughts– as well

as the soul –cut open by self-esteem, to the

point of intrigue and censure–. (…)Seek out,

then, among them the one who surpasses

the others in the goodness of her character,

the one who shows herself to be proud re-

gardless of her size, as long as [that] does not

harm you in the spirit, so that she may be the

[mother] of your children (...)»

«Forbid them to wink [among themselves],

to be jealous of each other, and rivalry and

preferences of some over others. Put peace

between them in personal affairs, playing

deaf to their demands and showing deferen-

ce to their apprehensions».

«Reduce your encounters with them, which

should be your permanent concern and the

moustached [guardian] of your harem, being

intimate with them [only] when weariness

and tedium reign; and abstain [from it] if you

have much work, anger, sleep or apathy due

to the day’s fatigue (...)».

2. SCOTT, Joan W. “El género: una categoría útil para el análisis

histórico”, in Marta Lamas (ed.), El género: la construcción cul-

tural de la diferencia sexual. Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de

México, 2013 (4th reprint), p. 267.

4. In this context, the well-known works by Elena Díez Jorge on

architecture and women are particularly noteworthy. Due to their

extremely large number, only the following shall be mentioned

due to space limitations: Mujeres y arquitectura: mudéjares y cris-

tianas de la construcción. Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2011

(English version: Women and Architecture: Christian and Mude-

jar Women in Building. Granada: University of Granada, 2011);

“Women and the Architecture of al-Andalus (711–1492): A His-

toriographical Analysis” in Therese Martin (ed.), Reassessing the

Roles of Women as “Makers” of Medieval Art and Architecture. Lei-

den-Boston: Brill, 2012, I, pp. 479-521.

«Do not disown any woman on the advice

of others or due to intrigue, nor should you

entrust her with small or big matters»

Despite official recommendations to keep women

out of politics and to prevent women’s presence

from encroaching at a government level, the rea-

lity proved very different from the theory as shown

by several cases in which different sultanas clear-

ly crossed the threshold of their private habitat to

enter the public sphere. The political instability of

the Nasrid dynasty, which was comprised of twen-

ty-three sultans of whom at least thirteen died in

organized crimes, and the context of war that cons-

tantly enveloped the kingdom, meant that the wo-

men of the family were frequently left on the front

line

. One of the most decisive reasons for these fe-

male interventions was undoubtedly to ensure the

succession to power of a woman’s own first-born

child or other candidates from among her own offs-

pring. To this effect, it is important to bear in mind

the great importance that motherhood had in terms

of the legal, and therefore also social, footing esta-

blished among the different categories of women

members of a royal harem. To define the term, a

harem (al-ḥarīm o al-ḥuram) was the set of private

females belonging to a sovereign who were, as a re-

sult, forbidden (ḥarām) to other men

Harems were principally complex feminine micro-

cosms because they were made up, as in the case of

the Nasrid dynasty, of two types of women: firstly,

those born into the ruling family itself who were

considered ‘legitimate wives’(zawŷ, plural azwāŷ)

of the sultans. These women were generally pater-

nal cousins (bint ʽamm) –though sometimes mater-

nal cousins (bint al-jāl)– of the reigning sovereign,

since marital union between cousins was frequent-

ly practised at all levels of society in the kingdom of

Granada. It was preferred in Arabic–Islamic cultu-

re for reasons that were mainly economic because

endogamy allowed a family’s heritage to be kept

intact within the family. As a result of their high

social status, these women were considered noble

or ḥurras (‘free’) by birth. The second group in the

Nasrid harem were slaves (ŷawārī, mamlūkāt) who

were intended for procreation; they were genera-

lly Christian women (rūmiyyas) from the north of

the peninsula who were brought to Granada either

through the slave trade or as captives following mi-

litary expeditions. By bearing the sovereign a child,

concubines (ummahāt al-awlād, literally ‘the mo-

thers of the children’)

achieved the social status of

free women or ḥurras, because motherhood confe-

rred the right to freedom, and this in turn implied

nobility

Examining the entire Nasrid family tree, it is pos-

sible to count twenty-three named legitimate wives

and nine Christian concubines documented in Ara-

bic sources, which relate quite explicitly the strate-

gies that some of these women employed to secure

a position for their own children in the government

after the death or dethronement of the reigning

emir. This can be illustrated in detail by describing

the case of Fāṭima bint al-Aḥmar (d. 749/1349),

a woman who epitomised this situation; she was

born in the 13th century but prolonged her political

career well into the 14th century.

Chroniclers always describe Fāṭima in the biogra-

phical shadow of her son but they define her as a

«very noble lady related to the kings [on all four si-

des]», as recounted by Ibn al-Jaṭīb (d. 776/1374)

5. IBN AL-JAṬĪB. Al-Maqāma fī l-siyāsa, texto conservado en Al-

Iḥāṭa fī ajbār Garnāṭa. Ed. Muḥammad ῾Abd Allāh ῾Inān. El Cai-

ro: al-Širka al-Duwaliyya li-l-Ṭibā῾a, 20014, IV, pp. 625-626 and

inAL-MAQQARĪ. Nafḥ al-ṭīb min guṣn al-Andalus al-ratīb wa-ḏikr

wazīri-hā Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Jaṭīb. Ed. Iḥsān ῾Abbās. Beirut: Dār

Ṣādir, 1968, VI, pp.439-440, apud BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Las

Sultanas de la Alhambra, pp. 166-167.

6. On this subject, see VIDAL CASTRO, F. El asesinato político

en al-Andalus: la muerte violenta del emir en la dinastía nazarí

(s. century) in Maribel Fierro (ed.). De muerte violenta. Política,

religión y violencia en al-Andalus (Estudios Onomástico Biográficos

de al-Andalus, 14). Madrid: CSIC, 2004, pp. 349-397 and by the

same author, La Alhambra, como espacio de violencia política en

la dinastía nazarí, en José Antonio González Alcantud (coord.).

La Alhambra: lugar de la memoria y el diálogo. Granada: Comares,

2008,pp. 201-220.

7. See BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. “Los harenes del mundo islámi-

co medieval y su pervivencia romántica en el norte de África” in

Catálogo de la Exposición Odaliscas. De Ingres a Picasso. Granada:

Board of Trustees of the Alhambra and the Generalife (in pro-

duction)

8. BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Las Sultanas de la Alhambra, pp. 170-202.

9. On these themes, see ibid. pp. 187-193.

10. I

ḥāṭa, I, p. 378; trad. BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Las Sultanas de

la Alhambra, p. 66.

because she was the daughter of emir Muḥammad

II, sister of Muḥammad III and half-sister of sul-

tan Naṣr

. The tragic circumstances surrounding

her life made her an active participant in the dy-

nastic affairs of the Nasrid court. Firstly, her father,

Muḥammad II, died in 1302, then her brother

Muḥammad III, to whom she must have felt great

loyalty because they shared both the same father

and mother (Nuzha), was deposed by sultan Naṣr

(their half-brother with a father in common) in 708

(1309); sultan Naṣr also died two years later. Arabic

sources reveal that Fāṭima was never in agreement

with this shift in politics, which would explain why

she began to plan –from Malaga, the city where she

lived with her husband, Abū Sa‘īd Faraŷ, ruler of

this military stronghold– the coup d’état that would

elevate her own son, Ismāʽīl I, to power at the Al-

hambra.

These developments in Nasrid history are worth

analysing in detail due to the consequences and

great significance that they entailed: Fāṭima was,

like her male brothers Muḥammad III and Naṣr,

the daughter of emir Muḥammad II but, unlike

them, her status as a woman meant that she could

not officially pass on the right to reign, despite the

fact that she was also a direct descendent of the le-

gitimate ruling line that began in the 13th century

with Muḥammad I, the founder of the dynasty. In

spite of this, following the death of Muḥammad III

the succession to this dynastic branch found itself

at a dead end because the sultan had produced no

heirs and it was predicted that Naṣr would not have

any. For this reason, Fāṭima emerged as the conti-

nuer of the lineage, instigating her son Ismā‛īl I to

take power until he overthrew Naṣr in 713 (1314).

This meant that her first-born son played a leading

role in an unusual event in the Nasrid dynasty, and

in an Islamic dynasty in general: he rose to power

through his mother’s side rather than his father’s.

This fact was analysed by M

Jesús Rubiera

, who

reached the conclusion that

«the social solidarity of the Granada linea-

ges was not based on the unilateral –agna-

tic– structure of the Arab-Bedouin model

but rather a bilateral structure, meaning

that cognatic bonds –the feminine line– had

as much importance as agnatic bonds –the

masculine line– (...). However, for a cognatic

bond to be important, it was necessary for

women to transmit the honour and nobility

of their lineage to their descendants so that

they could identify with it».

In fact, the rise to power of Ismā‛īl I, who was old

enough to do so at 30 years of age, cannot be un-

derstood without this female key, which explains

how he received political legitimacy from his mo-

ther who, unlike his father, was a direct descendant

of emirs. Although medieval Arabic historiography

distinguished this new dynastic branch under the

title of «the dynasty of Ismā‛īl» (al-dawla al-Is-

mā

‛īliyya), in reality it should have been called «the

dynasty of Fāṭima» (al-dawla al-Fāṭimiyya) or it

should not have been given any particular name be-

cause sultan Ismā‛īl directly continued a line that

was already established in power, though he did so

through his mother

Fāṭima’s political interventions would endure

throughout the course of Nasrid history as much as

those of her own descendants. Once established in

the Alhambra as Ismā‛īl I’s mother, she would live

through his murder in 725 (1325), following which

her participation in the sphere of power at the Al-

hambra would only intensify further. In the first

place, she held shared political guardianship over

her grandson Muḥammad IV (725-733/1325-1333),

who was appointed emir at the age of 10. The way

she protected her grandson’s reign is best exempli-

fied by her decision to eliminate vizier Abū ‛Abd

Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Maḥrūq al-Ašʽarī from the

political scene; he had tried to establish «a perso-

11. On the life and political actions of sultana Fāṭima, Mujer y po-

der en el reino nazarí de Granada: Fāṭima bint al-Aḥmar, la perla

central del collar de la dinastía (siglo XIV), Anuario de Estudios

Medievales, 46/1, 2016, pp. 269-300.

12. El vínculo cognático en al-Andalus, Actas del I Congreso de

Historia de Andalucía. Andalucía Medieval, Córdoba, diciembre de

1976, Cordoba: Monte de Piedad-Caja de Ahorros, 1978, I, pp.

121 and 123.

13. He was born in the year 677 (1279).

14. BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Mujer y poder, pp. 278-281.

Female residential spaces in the alhambra. a

palace for women too

The official residence of the Nasrid princesses was,

by definition, the Alhambra enclosure, the seat of

Nasrid power and the dynasty’s dwelling place.

However, not all the women of this lineage saw or

experienced the same Alhambra. It must not be

forgotten that the complex was slowly built from

the 13th-15th century, meaning that generation after

generation of Nasrid sultanas bore witness to the

gradual evolution of its construction. This means

that the family’s first women, who lived in the 13th

century under the first emir, Muḥammad I (629-

671/1232-1273), inhabited its heart and the plainest

and most primitive Alhambra, i.e. the military area

of the Alcazaba

Following the rise to power of his son and suc-

cessor, Muḥammad II (671-701/1273-1301), the

horizons of the Alhambra began to expand as the

kingdom entered the 14th century. Muḥammad II

is in fact credited with having begun to build Dār

al-Mamlaka al-Sa

‛īda (‘the House of the Happy

Kingdom’), referring to the Generalife; an enhan-

cement in terms of space that the women of his

time –his legitimate wife Nuzha, his concubine

Šams al-Ḏuḥà, his sister, the famous Fāṭima bint

nal dictatorship taking advantage of the under-age

status of Muḥammad IV»

. The chronicles recount

how one day Ibn Maḥrūq, who used to regularly

visit the house of the sultan’s grandmother (dār

al-ŷadda/dār al-ḥūrra al-kabīra ŷaddat al-sulṭān

)

to consult her on important government matters,

was assaulted there by two slaves who murdered

him in front of Fāṭima, who must have been over

60 lunar years old, on the night of the 2nd of the

month of muḥarram in the year 729 (6 November

1328)

.Despite this, the sultana could do little to

prevent the death of her grandson, the emir, who

was killed in an ambush in 733 (1333).

Fāṭima would once again take the reins of power

when her other grandson, Yūsuf I (733-755/1333-

1354) ascended to the throne. He was also declared

to be a minor and insufficiently mature to run the

government by himself because, as Ibn al-Jaṭīb

re-

veals, he was not capable of taking

«anything from his estate, nor did he con-

cern himself with any matter that was of his

court, nor did he make any decision other

than what food was on his table behind the

closed doors of his fortress until he reached

adulthood».

Although the sources are not very explicit in identi-

fying what Fāṭima’s political activity involved at this

time, María Jesús Rubiera has suggested her possi-

ble participation in the plan to build the Alhambra

palaces that the sovereign ordered to be constructed,

including the Comares Palace. However, Fāṭima

died during the reign of Yūsuf I due to her advanced

age; her grandson did not hesitate to honour her as

if she were an emir and her funeral rites befitted her

status and her enormous political legacy. At dawn on

7th of ḏū l-ḥiŷŷa 749 (26th February 1349), sultana

Fāṭima died with over ninety lunar years of age and

was interred in the royal cemetery of the Rauda of

the Alhambra, where neither her brothers (Muḥam-

mad III and Naṣr), nor her grandson Muḥammad

IV –all of whom were sultans– were buried. Her life

would be remembered in a heartfelt and lengthy fu-

neral eulogy composed and recited by Ibn al-Jaṭib in

her honour as «a catalogue of morals and an epitaph

of [illustrious] ancestors» describing her as «the very

best of the kingdom, the central pearl of the necklace

[of the dynasty]»

15. MARTÍNEZ ENAMORADO, V. Granadinos en la Riḥla de Ibn

Baṭṭūṭa: Apuntes biográficos, Al-Andalus-Magreb, 11 (1994), p. 218.

16. On the medieval Arabic sources that describe this event, see

BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Woman and Power, pp. 283-286.

17. Kitāb A

῾māl al-A῾lām fī man būyi῾a qabla al-iḥtilām min mulūk

al-Islām. Ed. E. Levi-Provençal. El Cairo: Maktabat al-Ṯaqāfa al-Dī-

niyya, 2004, p. 305.

18. RUBIERA MATA, MªJ. La princesa Fā

ṭima bint al-Aḥmar, la

“María de Molina” de la dinastía nazarí, Medievalismo, 6, p. 188.

19. BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Las Sultanas de la Alhambra, pp. 66-

67 and 267-271; BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Woman and Power, pp.

288-292.

20. On the adaptation of the Alhambra as the new seat of local

power in Granada, see BOLOIX- GALLARDO, Bárbara. Ibn al-A

ḥ-

mar. Vida y reinado del primer sultán de Granada (1195-1273). Gra-

nada, Universidad de Granada - Patronato de la Alhambra y el

Generalife, 2017, pp. 98-99.

al-Aḥmar and her four daughters– must have wit-

nessed and enjoyed in their daily lives. However,

the Nasrid family tree was quite large and hou-

sing was required for both the members of the

dynasty and also for the extended Nasrid family,

which also included their women. This explains

why construction of the first royal mansions in the

capital, Granada, began in the time of Muḥam-

mad II, such as the house of Ŷannat al-Manŷa-

ra al-Kubrà

or Huerta Grande de la Almanjarra

–today the Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo– (the

remains of a palace belonging to Muḥammad II

have recently been found on this site); the nearby

Casa de los Girones; or the house that in Christian

times would be converted into the first Convent of

San Francisco, in the vicinity of the Alhambra

All of these spaces could have been inhabited by

women during the period.

Under the reigns of Muḥammad III (701-

708/1302-1309) and Naṣr (708-713/1309-1314),

neither of whom had any known wives or des-

cendants, «slender and elegant buildings were

erected on the northern walled enclosure of the

Alhambra, showing from the exterior their natu-

re as royal dwellings»

, and one example of these

architectural constructions was the Partal Palace.

However, it was the arrival of emir Ismā‛īl I (713-

725/1314-1325) that brought about the enlargement

of the Alhambra, and also saw the starting point of

a building process that elevated the palace to its

zenith in the 14th century under the governments

of Yūsuf I (733-755/1333-1354) and Muḥammad V

(755-760/1354-1359; 763-793/1362-1391). This ar-

chitectural growth was a result of the splendour

progressively achieved by the dynasty, which was

also reflected in an increase in the female side of

the Nasrid family tree. This can be seen in the fact

that, from the time of Ismā‛īl I onwards, the sul-

tans of the line began to take more wives and con-

cubines and to produce more sons and daughters;

this is reflected in the texts and can be interpreted

as a clear indication of the economic power obtai-

ned by the dynasty. In fact, the greatest number of

concubines is registered in the Nasrid family tree

in the times of emirs Ismā‛īl I and Yūsuf I (three

and two, respectively, in addition to legitimate

wives), and a greater amount of space must have

been required in the Alhambra to house more

members of the family.

In fact, Ismā‛īl I built his own palace, located to the

west of the Partal Palace and where the Comares

Palace is currently located , and one can imagine

that women in his family environment lived here.

These women must have been numerous because

they would have included the three Christian con-

cubines or rūmiyyas that he took during his life

(‛Alwa –his favourite–, Bihār and Qamar), but also

the offspring he had with each, including two girls

called Fāṭima and Maryam who resulted from his

union with ‛Alwa

.However, the Alhambra also

needed to house the women of the emir’s extended

family, starting with his own mother, sultana Fāṭi-

ma, who moved to the Alhambra from her native

Malaga when Ismā‛īl I ascended to power. Various

anecdotes in Arabic and Christian sources attest to

this, including one source that recounts how, after

being stabbed by his paternal cousin in his private

council in 725 (1325), he was immediately taken to

one of his rooms in the Alhambra Palace where, as

detailed in the Crónica de don Alfonso el Onceno

(Chronicle of Don Alfonso El Onceno) , his mo-

ther Fāṭima was waiting: «Et tornó [el alguacil] del

Rey (...) et tomólo en los brazos, et esforzándose,

levólo a un palacio do estaba su madre del Rey».

(«The tornó [minister] of the King (...) took him in

his arms, and struggling, carried him to a palace

where the mother of the King was found.») In turn,

Arabic sources place this sultana in her own house

when they relate how, in the time of her grandson

Muḥammad IV (725-733/1325-1333), courtier Ibn

Maḥrūq used to regularly enter her house (dār

al-ŷadda/dār al-ḥūrra al-kabīra ŷaddat al-sulṭān

)

to take advice on important government matters

21. FERNÁNDEZ PUERTAS, A. El arte in MªJesús Viguera

(coord.). El Reino Nazarí de Granada (1232-1492). Sociedad, Vida

y Cultura. Volumen VIII/4 de la Historia de España de España edi-

ted by Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 2000, pp.

196-220.

22. Ibíd.

23. FERNÁNDEZ PUERTAS, A. Art, p. 224-225.

24.

IBN AL-JAṬĪB. Iḥāṭa, I, p. 538.

25. Ed. Francisco Cerdá y Rico. Madrid: Printed by Don Antonio

de Sancha, 1787, pp. 206-207, chap. 5. BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B.

Mujer y poder, p. 282.

and one day he was unceremoniously assaulted

there by two slaves, as described above

It becomes somewhat easier to locate, even if hypo-

thetically, female spaces in the Alhambra from the

reign of his successor, Yūsuf I (733-755/1333-1354),

onwards. Yūsuf I, being a minor, «lived in the hou-

se of his noble and holy mother, [whose] luxuries

and comfortable life were noticeable in her body»

Although it is not known exactly which building the

home of Yūsuf I’s mother, concubine Bihār, might

have been, the enlargement of the Alhambra mid-

way through the 14th century allows us to situate all

the Nasrid women in the new palaces constructed

by both this sovereign as well as those construc-

ted by his son and successor, Muḥammad V (755-

760/1354-1359; 763-793/1362-1391) (Il. 2).

The Comares Palace was begun by Yūsuf I and this

complex was called

Qaṣr al-sulṭān (‘Sultan's For-

tress’ or ‘Royal Fortress’), as well as Dār al-Mulk

(‘Royal House’), and the duality of its name reflects

its twin function as both a royal dwelling and seat of

power. The women of the Nasrid family must have

enjoyed these new palatial areas and others already

existing in the Alhambra grounds as during this

time the Nasrid family tree grew considerably; Y

ū-

suf I took two Christian concubines –Buṯayna and

Rīm– and a legitimate anonymous wife, producing

six daughters in total:‛Ā’iša, with the former, and

Fāṭima, Mu’mina, Jadīŷa, Šams and Zaynab, with

the latter.

Yūsuf I’s son and successor, Muḥammad V, com-

pleted this palatial complex and built the Palacio de

los Leones (Palace of the Lions) in around 1380, ca-

lled al-Riyāḍ al-Saʽīd (‘the Happy Garden’), which

was partly constructed as a «private chamber of the

monarchs» of Granada, as revealed by the ancient

testimonies of various chroniclers and travellers. It

can be supposed that the women in his household

lived in the upper rooms, including his mother,

26. On the medieval Arabic sources that describe this event, see

BOLOIX-GALLARDO, Bárbara. Mujer y poder, pp. 283-286.

27. IBN AL-JA

ṬĪB. Aʽmāl, pp. 304-305.

IL. 2. Lucía Rivas. El Serrallo from the south portico of the Patio de los Arrayanes. (2020) APAG.

Buṯayna, his sister, –‛Ā’iša–, his wife, and his dau-

ghter, possibly called Umm al-Fatḥ. In fact, during

this period Ibn al-Jaṭīb places Dār al-nisā’ or ‘the

dwelling of women’ on the second floor of the Sala

de los Abencerrajes (Hall of the Abencerrajes), and

this floor would have had a predominantly domes-

tic use

. This would explain why the house known

today by the romantic name of the Patio del Harén

(Harem Courtyard), which has a central courtyard

and two small porticoes, had a hallway that can to-

day be seen to run off the exterior façade. This ar-

chitectural solution meant that this area could be

accessed from the street without having to cross the

interior of the Palacio de los Leones, thereby pre-

venting any interruptions to the privacy of family

life, and the women, who lived there. In turn, the

upper rooms of the neighbouring Sala de las Dos

Hermanas (Hall of the Two Sisters) may also have

been used to house women

(Il. 3).

By the time of Mu

ḥammad V the texts confirm that

every woman belonging to an emir, whether she

was a legitimate wife or a concubine, had her own

room or house (dār) in which she could raise her

own children. This was recommended to the emir

by Ibn Ibn al-Ja

ṭīb

in the political treatise mentio-

ned above:

«Put your bedroom among them so that your

blessings may be expressed and your move-

ments hidden. Separate anyone who gives

birth in a [private] room that acknowledges

her independence and her situation due to

this distinction is appreciated (…)».

This paragraph demonstrates how the residential

areas of the Alhambra were distributed by gender

28. GALLEGO Y BURÍN, A. La Alhambra. Granada: Comares,

1963, pp. 113-114; DÍEZ JORGE, E. Mujeres y arquitectura, pp.

157-158.

29. DÍEZ JORGE, E. Mujeres y arquitectura, p. 158.

30. IBN AL-JA

ṬĪB. Al-Maqāma fī l-siyāsa, en Iḥāṭa, IV, pp. 625-626

and at AL-MAQQARĪ. Nafḥ al-ṭīb, VI, pp. 439-440, apud BO-

LOIX-GALLARDO, Bárbara. Las Sultanas de la Alhambra pp. 166-

167.

IL. 3. Lucía Rivas. The Patio del Harén. Patrontato de la Alhambra y Generalife (2020) APAG.

because it places the emir in a private bedroom

where the woman of his choice would inevitably

go to spend the night. In fact, the Maliki school of

jurisprudence, which was used to govern the king-

dom of Granada, recognized the right of slaves to

share their husband and master with their free

co-wife (al-ḥurra) on an equal number of nights

Maternity was, as the text reveals, essential to achie-

ve independent housing because it placed women

in a special category within the harem, especially

concubines, who could achieve freedom by having

a child and, through this, obtain the status of nobi-

lity (ḥurras), as described earlier.

Some sovereigns developed the strategy of providing

women with their own residence, probably outside

the Alhambra, if they represented a threat to the new

emir’s succession to power. This was the tactic de-

veloped by Muḥammad V when he succeeded his

father (Yūsuf I). He observed that his father’s con-

cubine –his own stepmother– Rīm (a Christian) had

taken considerable riches from the royal Nasrid tre-

asury that were stored in the room of the deceased

sultan’s room. He forced her and her children to stay

in one of the well-equipped palaces that his father

owned close to the Alhambra royal palace (qaṣar

quṣur abī-hi bi-ŷiwār dāri-hi

), to avoid, albeit unsuc-

cessfully, any suggestions of conspiracy

Sources also record that the lives of Nasrid women

were under constant surveillance to prevent them

from leaving the palace grounds

«Put the custody [of your wives] in the hands

of the old women, whose behaviour is more

in keeping with religion and fidelity, their

self-esteem and honour being greater (...).

And see to it that the servants are aware of

their departure from the palaces, and that

they may escape the lion’s jungle in all its

magnificent appearance, for no good perfu-

me can be instantly appreciated (…)».

In fact, Ibn al-Jaṭīb boasted of being a person so

trusted by Nasrid sultan Yūsuf I (733-755/1333-1354)

that he described how the emir «gave me his ring

and his sword, entrusted me with the treasure of

his court, the Royal Mint, the custody of his wo-

men, the education of his children and his inacces-

sible fortress», referring to the Alhambra

31. BRUNSCHVIG, R.,῾Abd, Encyclopaedia of Islam

, I, p. 27.

32. AL-MAQQAR

Ī. Nafḥ al-ṭīb, V, p. 84; MUJTĀR AL-῾ABBADĪ, Aḥ-

mad. El Reino de Granada en la época de Muḥammad V. Madrid:

Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos, 1973, p. 30.

33. Ibíd.

34. Al-Lam

ḥa, apud ARIÉ, R. El Reino naṣri, p. 200.

35. Las cosas que pasaron, p. 8.

36. DE BAEZA, H. Las cosas que pasaron, pp. 42-43.

37. pp. 45-46.

38. On the female connotations of this house and its history, see

BOLOIX-GALLARDO, B. Daralhorra, ‘la casa de la libre’. Una pro-

piedad femenina de la dinastía nazarí. In Bárbara Boloix-Gallardo

and Cynthia Robinson (ed.), El palacio nazarí de Daralhorra. Gra-

nada, Universidad de Granada - Patronato de la Alhambra y el

Generalife, 2019, pp. 23-37.

The women of the Nasrid family who lived in the

15th century would have continued to enjoy the Al-

hambra they inherited from the previous century

without any major additions. Although rare, there

are some (mainly Christian) testimonies that pla-

ce some women towards the end of Nasrid history

within its palace enclosures. Hernando de Baeza

for example, recounts how ‛Ā’išaafter being rejec-

ted by Muley Hacén, «with her children she had

her house and state and people in the room of the

lions, and the rrey [Muley Hacén] in the Comares

tower with the other rreyna [Soraya]». However, the

same chronicler describes the same ‛Ā’iša together

with her sister of the same name and Umm al-Fatḥ

(Boabdil’s wife) bidding farewell to the emir before

leaving for a battle «at the door of the hall of Coma-

res tower». The Historia de la Casa Real de Grana-

(History of the Royal House of Granada) tells

how these women lowered the emir down from

this tower one night helped by a rope made of their

«headdresses and almaiçares».

The presence of ‛Ā’iša has been recorded in these

descriptions in the texts but she was also described

as being in the Nasrid mansion known as the Daral-

horra Palace which, although located far from the

Alhambra, has retained its name of ‘the house of

the noble [woman]’, in reference to ‛Ā’iša

. Echoes

of this ‛Ā’iša, or of another woman of the same

name from the Nasrid family, have also ended up

IL. 4. Engraving of a woman at the Mirador de Lindaraja. BPAG. A-5-3-07.

as poetic spots in the Alhambra, such as the Mira-

dor de Lindaraja (Lindaraja Viewpoint), a name that

comes from the Arabic expression ʽAyn Dār ‛Ā’iša

(‘the eye’ or ‘the fountain of the House of ‛Ā’iša»).

Pictorial reflections of nasrid women.

A visual testimony

Among the surprising features of the Alhambra

are a series of paintings that bring to life the rich

descriptions that medieval Arabic sources have pas-

sed down about the history of the Nasrid dynasty.

One of these pictorial findings was discovered in

1908 inside a small house attached to the gallery

of the Partal Palace (al-Barṭal), thereafter known as

the Casa de las Pinturas (House of the Paintings).

Although they are badly damaged, these frescoes

dating from the period of Yūsuf I are a metaphori-

cal window that allows the viewer to travel back in

time; they essentially recreate a war scene, in the

form of a parade, in which a triumphant Nasrid and

Marinid army returns from a military raid. Among

this richly masculine composition –seemingly

composed of horsemen, soldiers, the sultan him-

self with his entourage, guards, servants, etc.– of

which there are detailed descriptions and recons-

tructions, the presence of women is significant for

this study. This was rather unusual considering

that, in medieval Islamic societies, members of fe-

male royalty were physically and zealously guarded,

since the honour of the whole family depended on

protecting their honour or ḥurma

Turning first to the east wall of this room, some fi-

gures of women have been made out in different

situations. According to Manuel Gómez Moreno

who made an initial examination of this outstan-

ding mural, the upper row contains:

«a boy leading a camel that bears a woman

dressed in a red striped almalafa that lies

across her shoulders and, after covering her

body, then falls down her back. This woman,

a slave or captive, turns her head towards

the knight behind her, who is followed by a

line of soldiers on horseback that continues

throughout the composition».

It is unsurprising that, if true, this figure corres-

ponds to a woman taken as a loot during a military

expedition carried out in a Christian area, as was

common on both sides of the border. On the left

side of the same wall, where six haimas (tents) are

painted, it is also possible to make out the presence

of a woman who is lying down, fully relaxed, in a fi-

nal tent, «her arms uncovered and her head raised,

looking out»

. The function of this figure in the mi-

ddle of a war scene is difficult to determine, althou-

gh she could have been part of the royal entourage

because the Nasrid emir can supposedly be found

in one of the nearby tents. Finally, in the central part

of the row immediately below, it is possible to find

a camel carrying a palanquin in whose interior we

can cautiously pick out the face of a woman

; she

is almost completely hidden and must undoubtedly

be royalty due to the means of transport in which

she is borne in this military procession.

However, the female presence seems to be most

concentrated on the right-hand side of the west

wall of this room, where a group of women (pos-

sibly from the Nasrid harem) are portrayed inside

the rooms of a house, which could be the Alham-

bra itself or another Nasrid royal mansion, due to

the rich decorations. The female scene is depicted

in three sequences framed by «little arches on co-

lumns with hanging curtains», and six women can

be seen in the central room playing musical instru-

ments –specifically, a lute (al-‛ūd), a tambourine

with zills (al-bandīr/al-ṭār) and others that are diffi-

cult to make out – and clapping their hands

. The-

se women appear to be qiyān or muganiyyāt (sla-

ve singers) and zammārāt or ḍarabāt (instrument

players), women who were versed in «the profane

arts, i.e. poetry, its recital and declamation; music,

39. Pinturas de moros en el Partal (Alhambra), Cuadernos de la

Alhambra, 6 (1970), p. 159.

40. Pinturas de moros, p. 158. See also FERNÁNDEZ PUERTAS,

Antonio. Alhambra. Mu

ḥammad V, Granada, Almed, 2018, p. 141.

41. GÓMEZ MORENO, M., Pinturas de moros en el Partal, pp.

159-160; FERNÁNDEZ PUERTAS, A. Alhambra, p.141.

42. On the musical instruments used in al-Andalus, see FER-

NÁNDEZ MANZANO, Reynaldo Música de al-Andalus, Granada,

Universidad, 2015, pp. 178-194, especially pp. 178 and 191, whe-

re these are specifically described.

singing, playing instruments, dance and games,

grammar, its prosody and calligraphy»

and who

were typically found in the courts of Muslim rulers

in the Middle Ages. In fact, Tunisian chronicler

Ibn Jaldūn (808/1406) recounts that the slaves of

the Nasrid court excelled in the art of dancing with

handkerchiefs and sabers, adorned with costumes

and decorations, and other games, with which they

demonstrated their skills

. In turn, under each of

the two side arches, three other women can be seen

talking in a relaxed manner among themselves

The clothing of this female group is worthy of clo-

ser analysis because it is highly revealing in light of

the scarcity of testimonies in written sources about

the physical appearance of noble women or ḥurras.

They are all veiled, as you would expect from their

high status, and dressed in light colours but in di-

fferent styles: «One wears a small turban consisting

of a gold embroidered almaizar» while «the others

have small veils, fixed to the head by a thick cord»

In terms of their clothing, some wear «wide trou-

sers, gathered at the ankles» and others are dressed

in «marlotas with golden stripes on the edges, nec-

ks and cuffs»; all are wide and in different colours

with red (the emblematic colour of the Nasrid dy-

nasty) and blue appearing to predominate.

This festive scene, undoubtedly motivated by the

triumphal return of the military raid described abo-

ve, takes place separately from another scene that

only features men at the far left end of the same

wall, where two musicians can be seen playing a

kind of darbūqa or kettledrum and a bagpipe

(gayṭa)

, both instruments that, according to Ibn

Jaldūn

, the Galicians of the Christian area of the

peninsula used to play in battles. This custom could

have been brought to al-Andalus across the border

or they could be Christian slaves from that area

imported to the Nasrid court. The way gender was

typically segregated in Islamic civilization is clearly

expressed in the architecture and the distribution of

all the characters in the mural-men on one side and

women on the other (Ils. 5-9).

The Alhambra as a woman. Marriage in poetic

symbolism and metaphor

Since the Middle Ages, Islamic architecture has in-

ternalised its state of being a woman; this concept

was recognised by Ibn al-ʽArabī (d. 638/1240), the

renowned Sufi of Murcia, when he declared that

«any place not feminized is dispensable»

. The

Alhambra, as a palace and a place embellished by

the combination of different motifs that are senso-

rially complementary to each other, was shown to

have the voice of a woman in some of its epigraphic

verses, expressing a supreme feminine aesthetic

developed within a symbolic plane. This ancient

concept, typical of the description of cities, was de-

fined as the marriage of architecture by its foremost

academic, José Miguel Puerta Vílchez, to whom we

owe its discovery and analysis in numerous publi-

cations. This femininity was strengthened to rein-

force the virile, masculine and heroic image of the

sultan who received it; his own work became bound

to him as if she were the most beautiful woman, as

we can see in the examples below. In this respect,

José Miguel Puerta Vílchez distinguished «the two

axes on which the semiology of this courtly archi-

tecture is expressed, namely, one that connotes the

spaces in terms of marriage and femininity, and

43. CORTÉS GARCÍA, M. Estatus de la mujer en la cultura islá-

mica. Las esclavas cantoras (ss. XI-XIX), En Mujer versus Música.

Itinerancias, incertidumbres y lunas, Valencia: Rivera Mota, 2011,

pp. 139 and 149-150, and also the section: Las esclavas canto-

ras en las artes icongráficas; by the same author, see also “La

música, los instrumentos y las danzas andalusíes y moriscas en

las fuentes árabes (ss. IX-XVII), Cuadernos del Cemyr, 25 (2017),

pp. 147-190.

44. CORTÉS GARCÍA, M. Estatus de la mujer, p. 156.

45. GÓMEZ MORENO, M. Pinturas de moros en el Partal, p. 163;

FERNÁNDEZ PUERTAS, A. Alhambra, p. 143.

46. Ibíd., p. 163.

47. For descriptions of these instruments, see FERNÁNDEZ MAN-

ZANO, Reynaldo. Música de al-Andalus, pp. 190 and 192-194.

48. CARBALLEIRA DEBASA, Ana Maria. Galicia y los gallegos en las

fuentes árabes. Madrid: CSIC, 2007, p. 106.

49. IBN ʽARAB

Ī. Risāla [mā] lā yuʽawal ʽalay-hi (Treatise on what is

disposable). In M. Šihāb al-Din al-ʽArabī (ed.). Rasāʼil Ibn ʽArabī,

Beirut, 1997, p. 255, apud PUERTA VÍLCHEZ, J.M. La poética del

agua en el Islam. Pontevedra, Trea, 2011.

IL. 5. Manuel López Vázquez, Reinterpretation of the paintings of El Partal by the painter for Antonio Fernández Puertas’ book. [undated].

Museum of the Alhambra. Antonio Fernández Puertas. Alhambra. Muhammad V. Granada. Almed Ediciones. 2019.

another that illustrates the heroic image of the sove-

reign», and both are present in the Nasrid palace

Ibn al-Jaṭīb described the Alhambra in terms of a

wedding, detailing how «after having been desert

land and barren ruin, [the Alhambra] is today a

bride (‛arūs) sweetened by the rain courted by the

stars»

. Specifically, throughout the epigraphic

catalogue that runs throughout the interior of

this monument it is possible to find metaphors

dating from the 14th and 15th centuries that show

the Alhambra as a woman who, adorned at the

height of her wedding, awaits the arrival of her

husband, the sultan. These poems contain abun-

dant references to rich clothing and jewellery

that allow us to imagine what the women of the

Nasrid harems must have actually worn during

this type of celebration. This is how Ibn al-Jaṭīb

envisions it in the poem he composed to decorate

the Qubbat al-‛arḍ, the Comares document exhi-

bition room

50. Estéticas de la luz, tiempo y apariencia en la arquitectura áulica

andalusí, pp. 136, 173-174. Although the originality of the topic

covered in this section does not stem from my own research,

I decided to include it because I believe that it completes the

knowledge about the relationship between the Alhambra and

Nasrid women.

51. I

ḥāṭa, II, p. 52.

52. IBN AL-JA

ṬĪB. Dīwān. Ed. Muḥammad Miftāḥ. Casablanca: Dār

al-Ṯaqāfa li-l-Našr wa-l-Tawzī῾

, 1989, I, p. 114-115 (poem no. 18)

apud AL-ZAHRANI, Saleh. Aspectos culturales e ideológicos en el

Dīwān de Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Jaṭīb. Unpublished doctoral thesis

by Dr Celia del Moral Molina. Granada, Universidad de Granada,

2011, pp. 538-539 and by the same author, Supuesta poesía epi-

gráfica de Ibn al-Jaṭīb en la Alhambra, in various authors (ed.).

Saber y poder en al-Andalus: Ibn al-Jaṭīb, Cordoba: El Almendro,

2014, p. 209.

«(…) You can say I am the Ka‛ba for people,

even though I wrap myself up in the dress of

an attractive maiden.

IL. 6 IL. 7

IL. 8

IL. 6. Manuel López Vázquez, Reinterpretation of the paintings of El Partal (friezes with figures) by the painter for Antonio Fernández Puertas’

book. [undated]. Museum of the Alhambra. Antonio Fernández Puertas. Alhambra. Muhammad V. Granada. Almed Ediciones. 2019.

I am the beautiful girl whose beauty makes

the pearls of necks and cleavage expendable.

True beauty is the natural beauty that stands

out without effort or labour (…)»

The niches in the entrance arch to the Salón de

Comares or Salón del Trono (Hall of Comares

or Throne Room) also both have qasidas or odes

composed by Ibn al-Jaṭīb, the polymath from Loja,

in which the Alhambra is described as a crowned

bride

Right block:

«(…) With my jewels and my crown to my

most beautiful advantage, and even the stars

of the Zodiac descend to me (…)»

Left block:

«(…) My craftsman’s fingers embroidered

my fabric after setting the jewels in my

crown. (…)»

«(…) I am similar to a bridal throne, I even

surpass it, and I assure the bride and groom

of their happiness (…)»

53. IBN AL-JAṬĪB. Dīwān, I, p.197 (poem no.127) and p. 198

(poem no. 128); PUERTA VÍLCHEZ, José Miguel. Leer la Alham-

bra, pp. 119 and 120.

54. IBN AL-JA

ṬĪB. Dīwān, I, p. 363 (poem no.270); trad. AL-ZAHRA-

NI, S. Aspectos culturales, p. 539 and Supuesta poesía, pp. 213-214.

IL. 7. Manuel López Vázquez, Reinterpretation of the paintings of El Partal (friezes with figures) by the painter for Antonio Fernández Puertas’

book. [undated]. Museum of the Alhambra. Antonio Fernández Puertas. Alhambra. Muhammad V. Granada. Almed Ediciones. 2019.

IL. 8. Manuel López Vázquez, Reinterpretation of the paintings of El Partal (friezes with figures) by the painter for Antonio Fernández Puertas’

book. [undated]. Museum of the Alhambra. Antonio Fernández Puertas. Alhambra. Muhammad V. Granada. Almed Ediciones. 2019.

The following poem is similar and also sprung

from the quill of Ibn al-Jaṭīb; it was believed to be

engraved in one of the royal residences built by sul-

tan Muḥammad V, who the building addresses in a

woman’s voice

«(…) I was built by the emir of the believers

Muḥammad [V], namesake of the prophet

hāšimí Muḥammad.

I am the necklace that adorns the neck of

the Kingdom. How often the pretty necklace

beautifies the lovely neck!(…)»

The reflective effect of water intensifies the femini-

ne narcissism of the Alhambra within this theme of

wedding metaphors. The pools and the jugs in the

niches at the entrance to some rooms, commonly

found in the Nasrid palace, acted as metaphorical

mirrors at which the bride gazes to contemplate

herself and the reflection of her own architectural

beauty

. This is expressed in a qasida, no longer vi-

sible in the Alhambra, that was composed to adorn

a niche for water in the bedroom of the Comares

Palace

«(…)Oh, my inventor, what perfection!

Among artists, you are the master.

You perfected my crown when you shaped

its decorations, so heads and partings of hair

bowed before it.

You adjusted me until I looked like a mirror,

and the water jug on me, like a bride...»

55. PUERTA VÍLCHEZ, J.M. La Alhambra y el Generalife de Grana-

da, Antigrama, 22 (2007), p. 191.

56. IBN AL-JA

ṬĪB. Dīwān, II, p. 719 (poem no.653); AL-ZAHRANI,

Saleh. Aspectos culturales, p. 542 y Supuesta poesía , p. 204.