Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir: A Study in Early Mohammadan Architecture

by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

From the corridor a door opens into each of the five courts, B and C on the east side, forming the eastern wing of the palace, H and G on the west side, forming the western wing, and E to the south. The courts have no direct communication with each other. The chambers on the north and south sides of these courts are all arranged in lîwân groups, but there are differences in detail between courts B and H on the one hand, and courts C and G on the other, while the position and size of court E has led to further modifications. Court B ([Plate 33], Figs. 1 and 2) measures 15·20 metres from north to south, and 17·60 metres from east to west, but on the west side ·40 metre is occupied by a shallow blind arcade, and on the east side 3 metres was taken up by an arcaded passage which is now ruined. The blind arcade is composed of five arches carried by engaged piers which have an average width of ·70 metre. The arches are round and spring directly from the piers without the interposition of impost or capital. In the central of the five intercolumniations is placed the door from the corridor. To the north and to the south of the court lies a lîwân group of three vaulted chambers. The lîwân opens on to the court through an archway 2·60 metres wide flanked by engaged columns and piers ([Plate 34], Fig. 1). The side chambers communicate by means of arched doorways with small antechambers, which in turn open into the court through arched doorways 2·05 metres wide, flanked by engaged columns ([Plate 34], Fig. 2. The mass of brickwork which partly blocks the doorway is a later addition). The antechambers are roofed with barrel vaults running east and west, which are separated from the outer end of the lîwân vault by transverse arches; thus the vault of the lîwân is enabled to run through to the wall of the court ([Plate 35], Fig. 1). Structurally, the antechambers are therefore distinct from the outer end of the lîwân; practically the antechambers and the outer end of the lîwân form a kind of narthex, the outer end of the lîwân being part of the narthex and not an integral part of the reception-room. This fact is accentuated by the position of the side doors in the lîwân. The sitting space along the walls ends with these doors, and for practical purposes the lîwân is no longer than the side chambers. The capitals of the engaged columns are rectangular impost blocks of stone masonry. Between the parallel barrel vaults there is the usual system of tubes ([Fig. 4]). The tubes running north and south are carried over the transverse arches of the antechambers, and their openings appear on the façade of the lîwân groups. Where the façade has fallen, as, for example, on the south side of court B, the construction can be clearly traced, and it is also possible to observe that tubes ran from east to west between the wall of the façade and the barrel vaults of the antechambers, as well as on the inner side of the same barrel vaults. Perhaps these tubes were connected with a tube running north and south parallel with the vault of the corridor. The vaults are ovoid and are constructed of a single course of stones laid vertically supporting a mass of stone and concrete. In all the interior doors the arches are set back from the jambs ([Plate 36], Fig. 1) and constructed in the manner described on p. 15. Upon the plaster of the west wall of No. 44, south of the door leading into No. 45, there is a graffito inscription in Arabic (see below, [p. 161]).[27]

Fig. 4. South side of court B. (From Ocheïdir, by kind permission of Dr. Reuther.)

East of the lîwân group on the north side of court B there is a stair, and still further east a narrow passage within the outer wall. A small door in the north-east corner of the side chamber, 46, gives access to an unlighted blind passage under the stair. The stair runs up to a landing-place which is connected by a low doorway with a small chamber situated above the eastern passage. Another door leads into a gangway hollowed out of the thickness of the outer wall, and from this gangway a door leads into a tiny circular room in the outer towers. I did not determine whether the gangway in the wall runs on interruptedly from court to court. On the whole, as Dr. Reuther has observed, this would seem to be improbable since the strict isolation of the courts is in all other respects preserved. Almost exactly above the entrance to the stair (an awkward piece of construction) sprang the first arch of the arcade which flanked the court from north to south. In every court this arcade has fallen, but on the south side of court H a portion of the first arch remains, together with the vault behind it ([Plate 35], Fig. 2). I cleared away the ruins at the south end of this arcade and found the remains of the first column at a distance of 2·40 metres from the south wall. The arcade must therefore have been composed of four columns carrying five arches, corresponding with the blind arcade on the opposite wall. The massive stone vaulting of Ukhaiḍir was not suited to free standing arcades, and, as has been noticed in the mosque, when the wooden cross-beams perished, their collapse was inevitable.

To return to court B. The passage already mentioned, running parallel with the outer wall, leads into an oblong room, 47, 3·55 metres wide, which lies from east to west across the back of the lîwân group and the stair. This room is vaulted at either end but is left open near the centre ([Plate 35], Fig. 3). The same oblong room is found behind the southern lîwân group of court B, and behind each of the lîwân groups in courts C, G, and H. In every case the vault next to the outer wall is pierced by a pair of terra-cotta pipes similar to the pipes described in No. 37. It is probable, as I shall show later (p. 82) that these rooms were intended for kitchens. On the south side of court B there is no stair; above the vault of the passage which leads into the oblong room, 51, there is a blind corridor accessible from No. 50 by a door placed in the east wall, some 2 metres from the ground. This door must have been approached by a wooden ladder or steps, but I climbed up into it over a heap of ruins. On the west side the antechamber of No. 49 is provided with a door into corridor 28. Immediately to the south of this door a wall, broken by a doorway, has been built across the corridor. This wall is a later addition; it is not bonded into the walls of the corridor, and it does not occur in the corresponding west arm.

Court C differs from court B in the absence of antechambers to the lîwân groups ([Plate 33], Figs. 3 and 4). The lîwân opens into the court through a wide pointed arch carried on engaged columns; the side chambers are provided with doorways into the court, covered by ovoid arches set back from the jambs ([Plate 36], Fig. 2), and the façade thus formed corresponds exactly with the façades of the court on the top floor of the three-storied block. Near the south-east corner of court C there is an arched doorway leading into the palace yard ([Plate 37], Fig. 1). In the oblong chamber, 60, behind the southern lîwân group, the south wall is occupied by a blind arcade of four arches borne by piers 1·10 metres wide and 1·05 metres deep. A similar blind arcade occurs in the corresponding chamber of court G, and indeed, except for slight variations in the measurements, the only difference between courts C and G is that in the latter there is no door into the palace yard. In the same way court H re-echoes court B save that in court H there is no doorway between the southern antechamber, 82, and the corridor 28 ([Plate 37], Fig. 3).

The arrangement of the rooms in court E is not symmetrical. On the east side court E is curtailed by the small oblong room, 61, and an open court, D. No. 61 is a continuation of the east arm of the corridor 28. It measures 5·25 metres from north to south and 3·50 metres from east to west. The square for the brick groin with which it is roofed is obtained by laying a transverse arch to north and south. It opens by two arched doors, divided by a pier, into court D, which measures 10 metres from north to south and 9·20 metres from east to west. In the south wall there is an arched doorway into the palace yard. To the east of court E there is space for one chamber only (62) and a winding stair which leads to the roof. On the west side there are two chambers, 67 and 68, communicating with one another and with the court. To the south of 67 there is a narrow passage ([Plate 37], Fig. 2) which leads into an oblong room, 69, similar in all respects to the oblong rooms behind the lîwân groups in courts B, C, G, and H.[28] Between the barrel vaults of 67 and 68 and the south arm of corridor 28 are the usual tubes. The doorways of 67 and 68 are covered with ovoid arches set back from the jambs, but the opening into the narrow southern passage follows the line of the vault and oversails the wall. Above the vault of the passage there is an inaccessible passage or tube which exists for structural reasons only. To the south of court E lies a lîwân with its side chambers, the lîwân, 64, opening into the court by a wide archway, the side chambers by small doors, as in courts C and G. Finally, the space between 65 and 69 is filled up by a fourth room, 66, which communicates with 65 and with the narrow passage. Tubes are laid between all the barrel vaults of these rooms.[29]

The whole building above described is enclosed on three sides by a wall 1·60 metres thick, set with towers 2·40 metres in diameter which project 1·80 metres from the face of the wall ([Plate 38], Fig. 1).[30] Through the upper part of the wall runs the low, vaulted, and unlighted gangway which has already been mentioned ([Plate 39], Fig. 1). It is no more than a tube between the wall and the vaults that adjoin the wall, but it serves to give access to the round chambers hollowed out of the towers. Access to the roof can be obtained at three points, the stair at the south-east angle of the central court, the stair at the south-east angle of court F, and the stair at the south-east angle of court E. Further, the three doors out of the first floor rooms 99, 102, and 106 open on to the roof of the single-storied block. There are traces of a narrow parapet round the edge of the roof, and the different courts seem to have been divided from one another and from the corridor 28 by low walls on the roof ([Plate 38], Fig. 2).

One other building stands within the palace yard, the group of rooms 140-152 to the east of the main palace. It is a later addition, though it resembles the rest of the palace too closely to admit of its having been added after the lapse of any considerable period of time. The north façade is prolonged beyond the chambers at either side, and is joined at the east end to one of the pilasters of the outer wall and at the west end to one of the towers of the inner wall, but it is not bonded in to the pilaster or to the tower. The northern end of the palace yard is thus divided off into a large court, which bears the same relation to the east annex as does the central court to the ceremonial chambers to the south of it. The stair to the first floor of the main palace was placed in this court, and it was approached from the main entrance through corridor 6. At the south-east corner the east annex does not connect with the angle of the east gate staircase, but is divided from it by an interval of ·30 metre.