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

by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

At the north end of the passage 108 there is a door sunk below the level of the floor and covered by an arch oversailing the jambs ([Plate 21], Fig. 2). It communicates with the ramp which comes up from the great hall. East of this door there are the remains of an engaged column, and it is obvious that the passage must have been flanked here by an open arcade ([Plate 3], Fig. 1). Steps in the doorway at its southern end lead up to room 106, which is on the same level as 102. South of court A lie three rooms, 109, 110, and 111. They are not as deep as the rooms below them on the ground floor (4·40 metres as against 5 metres) since space has to be provided for a narrow ledge above court A. On to this ledge the north doors of the three rooms open. On the north side of court A the ramp, after passing the doorway of 108, is continued upwards (its windows can be seen in the wall of the court ([Plate 22], Fig. 1)). A wide doorway opens on to a stair, which will be described later, coming up from the palace yard. The ramp is then carried on along the east side of court A, and finally opens on to the roof of 111 and of the narrow passage to the east side of it. The last portion of the ramp is ruined, but traces of the vault which supported its floor can be seen in the east wall of court A, together with the spring of the vault with which it was roofed. Between the ramp and the vault of 25 there appears to have been a vaulted passage, very low at its northern end, and lighted by a rectangular window which overlooks the palace yard. It opened at the southern end, through a narrow vaulted way, on to the roof of No. 47.

The outer stair from the yard is a later addition ([Plate 40], Fig. 1). The round tower at the northern end of the wall has been cut away to receive it, and it was supported further by four rectangular piers, two on either side of the tower, which were built up against the wall. These piers were not bonded into the wall, and the northernmost has entirely fallen away, but it can still be traced on the face of the masonry. The communication with the first floor was effected, as has been mentioned, by means of a door at the north-east angle of the ramp.

Room 106 occupies the vaulted space at the west end of 47 and has a door to the south opening on to the roof of 45. To the west a door leads into corridor 102, which lies above the eastern wing of corridor 28 ([Plate 22], Fig. 2). It has a door to the south opening on to the roof, and is lighted by narrow windows in the south wall. West of 102 was the small room, 101, now ruined, and beyond it rooms 100 and 99 above the west wing of corridor 28. The height of these rooms on the first floor is only 3·55 metres to the top of the vault. No. 100 communicates by a door and steps with the stair leading up from the south-west corner of the great hall, and so with the first floor chambers of the west wing. These can be approached also from the west door of room 89, which opens into the passage room No. 92. In the south wall of 92 there is first a door and steps which lead down to No. 96, secondly a door giving access to the roof of the east riwâq of the mosque, and further west a narrow window which overlooks the ṣaḥn. There are two similar windows in the south wall of 91 and a door on to the roof of the west riwâq of the mosque. (The windows and the door of the west riwâq can be seen in Plate 23, Fig. 1.) At the western end of 91 a window opens on to the palace yard. Rooms 96, 97, and 98 lie above 8, 9, and 10. They are lighted by narrow windows in the west wall, which can be seen in Plate 19, Fig. 1. They communicate with each other by doors covered by ovoid arches set back from the jambs and breaking into the curve of the vault, and each has access through an arched opening in the east wall to a small room ·85 metre wide, lying at a higher level. The northernmost of these three small rooms lies under the stair leading from No. 89 to the second floor, and its vault slopes down at the northern end in order to leave space for the stair. No. 98 opens by a door on to the staircase from the great hall. At the west end of the staircase there is a door leading out on to the roof of the ḥaram, and above it is placed a window. Both door and window can be seen in Plate 19, Fig. 1. Opposite to this door and window there is a large opening in the west wall of the great hall, doubtless in order to secure a little additional light in that dark edifice.

The stair and the ramp from the great hall were therefore the sole means of approaching the first floor until the outer stair from the yard was added. The second floor could be approached in a circuitous manner by the upper part of the ramp and over the roof of rooms 111, 110, and 109, or more directly by the stair leading out of room 89. But this stair could only be reached either by the ramp and through rooms 105, 107, 93, 90, 88, and 89, or by the stair out of the great hall and through rooms 98, 97, 96, 92, and 89. The second floor could also be reached from the yard, by the stairs in the north-east and north-west angles and thence along the chemin de ronde.

The rooms on the second floor do not correspond regularly with those of the floors below ([Plate 3], Fig. 2). The second floor of the gate-tower is much ruined. It is possible that, as the authors of Ocheïdir suggest, it was originally divided into three chambers lying north and south. Parts of the south wall remain, and there is clear evidence of a door jamb near its eastern end. On the east side the doorways leading into 117 and into the chemin de ronde are standing, together with the south jamb of a doorway which undoubtedly gave access to the roof of the vault between the gate-tower and the first round tower. The door into the corresponding balcony on the west side is gone, the door of the western wing of the chemin de ronde is much ruined, but the door into No. 116 is still perfect. Neither of these walls, to east and to west, shows any trace of a vault; the vault, if vault there were, covering the gate-tower chambers must therefore have sprung much higher than the vaults of the adjoining chambers.[24]

To the west of 116 is a small room, 115, with a door into the chemin de ronde and a door into the open court, 114. A window in the south wall of this court overlooks the ṣaḥn of the mosque ([Plate 23], Fig. 1). Still further west is a vaulted room, 113, presumably with a window looking out into the yard, but the west wall is much ruined. On the opposite side of the gate-tower, No. 117 opens into a small rectangular area, 118, where there is no sign of a roof; to the east of it lies an open space embracing the roofs of Nos. 94 and 95 together with a part of 93. Here, too, there is no trace of a vault in the north wall, nor of any party walls. The series of rooms on either side of the gate-tower, occupying the area over the corridors on the ground floor and of the corresponding rooms on the first floor, are designated by Dr. Reuther casemates because they were connected with the chemin de ronde and probably played some part in the defence of the palace. In all of them the vaults, which oversail the walls in the usual fashion, are slightly flattened at the top.

A door in the south wall of No. 117 leads into an open court, 16·95 metres from east to west by 12·60 metres from north to south. It does not lie in the centre of the three-storied block, but extends considerably to the east of the central axis. The stair from the first floor reaches the second floor at the north-west angle of this court. The door into 119 opens awkwardly over the stair. On the east, south, and west sides of the court stand groups of three chambers, the central chamber opening into the court by a wide archway springing from engaged columns, the side chambers by doors covered by ovoid arches set back from the jambs ([Plate 23], Fig. 2); and here we have an architectural group which dominates all the courts upon the ground floor of the palace that are yet to be described. The central chamber with its wide archway is the lîwân or reception-room,[25] the side chambers are, in one form or another, its invariable or almost invariable complement. I shall henceforward speak of the whole as a lîwân group. As Dr. Reuther has pointed out, the occupants of an oriental room seat themselves upon cushions or dîwâns against the wall, the dîwân, cushion or carpet, which is placed against the back wall, being the place of honour. In order not to break up the company, the side doors of every room are situated as far as possible from the back wall, and it will be noticed that this rule holds good in every living-room of the palace. At Ukhaiḍir (though this is not always the case) in every lîwân group the rooms communicate with each other. It is common in oriental houses to build lîwâns facing different points of the compass so as to secure a comfortable shade at different hours of the day, and warmth or coolness at different seasons of the year. The lîwân group, if such it were, over the gate-tower would have served the purpose of a winter reception-room, for it faced south; the group facing north would be used in summer.

In the lîwân group on the west side of the court the rooms are 5·95 metres long with an average width of 4 metres. The vaults here are all standing, and the rooms are considerably higher than those on the first floor, measuring 5·25 metres to the top of the vault. (It is difficult to get exact measurements for the height of the rooms on the ground floor owing to irregularities in the level of the ground, but I think that a height of 5 metres to the top of the vault is not far wrong.) Between the parallel barrel vaults are masonry tubes, which are visible upon the façade in the form of small openings like windows between the arches of the central and of the side rooms. To the south of No. 121 there is a small open court, 123, which is approached by a narrow passage from the main court. A door from it leads into No. 122, which is completely ruined. On the north side of the court, 123, there was a stair which gave access to the flat roof of Nos. 121, 120, and 119. On the north side of 119 a fragment of wall rises above the level of the roof; it was probably connected with the high vault of the gate-house chambers. In the lîwân group on the south side of the court, the rooms, 124, 125, and 126, are 7 metres long, but their exact width is difficult to determine since the party walls have fallen ([Plate 24], Fig. 1). It must, however, have averaged about 4 metres like the width of the rooms on the west side. On the east side of the court a vaulted passage runs parallel to 137; the door into the court is standing and its arch oversails the jambs, whereas the arches of all the other doors are set back ([Plate 24]). Above the door there is a narrow window. A lîwân group follows to the south of the passage ([Plate 24], Figs. 1 and 2). The rooms are 7·45 metres long; their width varies, as far as I could ascertain in their ruined condition. According to my estimates No. 132 is 2·85 metres wide, No. 131 is 3·95 metres wide, and No. 130 is 4 metres wide. Still further south there is a small open court, No. 127, corresponding to No. 123. A door in the south wall opens on to a narrow parapet or balcony which crowns the façade of the first floor. To the east lies an irregular chamber, 128, which is totally ruined.

The passage, 137, leads into a gallery, No. 134, which was finished on the east side by an open arcade ([Plate 25], Fig. 1). Traces of an engaged column remain at the north end of the arcade, and the vault was constructed with transverse arches in the same manner as the vaults round the ṣaḥn of the mosque. There was, however, no stucco decoration in this upper gallery. At the angles stood quarter-domes over unadorned squinch arches ([Plate 25], Fig. 2). The gallery opens at its south-eastern end on to the roof of No. 109. To the south of the gallery there are two narrow chambers, one with a door into the gallery, the other with a door on to the roof of 109. They are almost completely ruined. Dr. Reuther places in them a stair leading by a double flight on to the roof.

The main part of the palace, one story high, lies to the south of the three-storied block. Except for a group of rooms in the east side of the yard, which is a later addition, it is symmetrically arranged round a central court. It falls into three divisions: two courts, B and C, with their living-rooms on the east side; two exactly similar courts, G and H, on the west side; a central court with a group of chambers to the south of it, and further south a small court, E, with rooms on three sides of it, and a subsidiary court, D, further east. The long vaulted corridor, 28, which runs from east to west between the great hall and the central court, turns at right angles and runs from north to south between the central court with its chambers and the side wings. It is then carried round to the south of the chambers dependent on the central court, and runs from east to west between them and court E with its chambers.