Paradise or Empire?

This essay revolves around a paradox of Umayyad art: the tendency for the same decorative schemes to yield apparently contradictory, yet internally coherent interpretations, mostly to do with paradise or empire. Through a discussion of the Dome of the Rock, the Great Mosque of Damascus, and two key Umayyad Qurʾan manuscripts, it investigates whether this ambiguity should in fact be understood as a consciously crafted polysemy. This reflection is set within a broader cultural context that involves, first of all, the inherent ambiguity of the Qurʾan as a text and related literary values; second, an ideology of the early caliphate in which the sacral and political dimensions of rulership were seen as inextricably linked; and third, a worldview in which physical space, especially sacred space, was perceived as being conjoined with the spiritual realm.