Reframing the Alhambra

The book undertakes an inter-medial approach to the study of the Alhambra, the medieval palatial city built in Granada by the Nasrids, the last Muslim dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula. Its aesthetic principles have been obscured by the lack of relevant texts from the period. The inter-medial approach seeks to overcome that impasse, above all, by bringing new attention to the abundant inscriptions as a much overlooked documentary resource. The poetic epigraphy, in particular, articulates the imaginative processes inherent in the perception and understanding of the architectural spaces. The loss of the furnishings has also posed an obstacle to scholarship, but rather than limit study to today's empty rooms, consideration of extant Nasrid textiles and other luxury objects enables a fuller account of the original integrated aesthetic design. The inter-medial relationships between architecture, inscribed texts and textiles are examined through analysis of little-studied, controversial and enigmatic spaces in the Alhambra, supported by conservation work, contemporary literary theory, and comparative historical contextualization. The book concludes with a study of the one remaining medieval account of a court ceremonial in the Alhambra, which testifies to the inter-medial aesthetic in the context of the politics and ideology of the Nasrid period.