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

by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

The central court is 32·70 metres from north to south and 27 metres from east to west. It is surrounded to east, north, and west by a blind arcade which forms part, on the north side, of the façade of the three-storied block ([Plate 6], Fig. 2). The arcade is 1 metre deep. Engaged half-columns set against rectangular piers carry shallow calottes, the archivolt of which is slightly horse-shoed ([Plate 26], Fig. 1). The intercolumniation varies from 2·35 to 2·55 metres. All the details were of stucco, which has now broken away. The columns, piers, and walls are of stone masonry; the capitals, calottes, and archivolts, together with the wall above them, are of brick. The capitals, which are much damaged, are cubes formed of three courses of bricks; the calottes are of brick laid in horizontal courses and carried over the angles of the niches by horizontal brackets; the horse-shoed archivolts are composed of an inner ring of brick tiles laid horizontally, and an outer ring laid vertically. Of the outer ring only fragments remain. In one case (the calotte immediately to the south of the east door) the tiles are laid in rings, and the curve of the archivolt is not horse-shoed ([Plate 26], Fig. 2). The corresponding calotte on the west side has fallen. In the centre of each calotte, and impinging upon the stonework below, there is an oblong window which lights corridor 28. On the north side of the court only two of the niches and calottes remain intact to the east of the central door, and only one to the west of the central door. In the centre the whole face of the wall has fallen, carrying with it parts of the corridors on the first floor and part of the south wall of the great hall. The small chamber, 27, which was probably covered with a dome, is entirely ruined, together with room 101 above it. It is therefore impossible to determine the exact form of the doorway which led from 27 into the central court, but there is no reason to suppose that it differed materially from the door on the east side of the court. The nature of the horizontal decorations which govern the façade preclude all idea of a large central door. The blind arcade of the first floor is not so high as the arcade below it (Plates 27 and 85). Instead of the half-columns and piers of the ground floor, the archivolts of the first floor spring from a cluster of four small engaged columns which must have been finished in stucco. Nothing remains of the capitals. In the spandrels are placed oblong windows lighting the upper corridors, 100 and 102. On the face of the pointed arches of the arcade it is still possible to trace a scolloped ornament in plaster, like that which exists over the doors of the mosque. Within the large arches there is a system of small blind arched niches flanked by slender engaged colonnettes of which little trace remains. There are five of these niches within each of the large niches, two below and three above, the central niche in the group of three being the largest. There is a slight error here in Dr. Reuther’s reconstruction, an error to which he himself called my attention. He has placed only one small niche in the upper register instead of three. The side niches can be seen in Plate 27. He suggests that in the middle of the façade one or more of these small niches must have contained windows in order to give additional light to room 101, since it was from room 101 that most of the light in the great hall was derived. Beyond the arcading on either side of the façade the wall was finished by a solid pier, the surface of which was broken by three projecting horizontal bars. The cornices are not preserved, but, as I shall show later, they cannot have been very important. The decoration of the façade ends on the level of the second floor and forms a narrow balcony a little over 1 metre wide which runs along the face of the building. The wall of the second floor is recessed a few centimetres to give additional width to this balcony. On to it open the doors of Nos. 123 and 127. These doors are not placed symmetrically with respect to the façade; the west door is nearer the centre than is the east door. The plain wall is carried up to the top of the door arches; above that level there is a band of shallow arched niches which appear to have been divided from one another by engaged columns, probably carrying an architrave, like the niches on the summit of the outer north wall of the palace.

To return to the central court. On the east side there is a doorway in the third intercolumniation from the south end ([Plate 26], Fig. 2). It leads into corridor 28. The arch of this door is set back from the jambs, but the upper part is ruined. The corresponding door on the west side has disappeared, together with most of the south-west end of the wall. On the east side the arcading is not carried into the angle of the court. The southernmost archivolt ends against a quarter-column, beyond which space is provided for the entrance of a stair which leads down to a vaulted chamber below the level of the ground ([Plate 28], Fig. 1). Above this entrance there is a fluted semi-dome finished by a fillet ([Plate 28], Fig. 2). The semi-dome is set horizontally over the angles of the niche in the accustomed manner. The actual entrance to the stair is covered not by an arch but by a masonry lintel (compare the door between 20 and 21).

The south side of the court is also arcaded, but not in the same fashion. The arcades are much shallower (·40 metre deep) and they are differently grouped. In the centre of the south wall there was a wide archway (4·20 metres wide) leading into room 29. This arch rose above the level of the arcade on either side of it and the chambers behind it were higher than the adjoining chambers ([Plate 29], Fig. 1). On either side of the entrance there is an unusually large engaged column; beyond these columns there is a flat pier and an engaged quarter-column, followed by a niche ·80 metre wide covered by a shallow calotte ([Plate 29], Fig. 2). Three more recesses, measuring in width 1·95 metres, 2·10 metres, and 2·50 metres, and separated from each other by engaged columns of about ·70 metre diameter, occupy the remainder of the façade. In no case is the capital preserved, but it is noticeable that all the columns swell outwards towards the top. The archivolts are ovoid, not horse-shoed. The first niche on either side of the small niches contains a door leading on the west side into No. 31 and on the east side into No. 42. The third big niche on the east side contains another and a smaller door which gives access to a stair leading to the roof ([Plate 28], Fig. 1). The doors of Nos. 31 and 42 offer good examples of arch construction ([Plate 29], Fig. 3). The arch is set back from the jambs and formed of an inner ring of concrete and an outer ring of stone voussoirs laid horizontally. The calottes covering the niches are of brick, but unlike the calottes on the other three sides of the court, the bricks are set horizontally and vertically and used in half and quarter lengths so as to form intricate designs which Dr. Reuther compares very aptly to the Hazârbâf motives so common in oriental woodwork ([Plate 29], Fig. 2).

South of the central court lies a group of rooms of a ceremonial character. In the centre of this group is the lîwân No. 29, 6 x 10·70 metres. It was covered by a barrel vault of brick, which has now fallen in. The vault oversailed the wall and its point of springing is 4·30 metres above the level of the ground, instead of the 3·40 metres above ground-level at which the vaults spring in the adjoining chambers to east and west. It is therefore clear that the vault of 29 must considerably have overtopped the other vaults, and as I shall show later, it is usual to find the ceremonial lîwân higher and more important than the remaining chambers of the group. I have followed Dr. Reuther in giving it a rectangular frame upon the façade of the court (section e-f, Plate 5, Fig. 1). Two large doors, 1·50 metres wide and 3·64 high to the top of the arch, open on either side of the lîwân, on the east into rooms 41 and 42, and on the west into rooms 31 and 32, which lie at right angles to the lîwân. At the south end a similar door leads into No. 30, a chamber 6 metres square, which has been covered by a barrel vault of brick running north and south, and doubtless the same height as the vault of the lîwân. Doors of the same character, with ovoid arches set back from the jambs, are placed in the middle of the east, south, and west walls of No. 30. The fact that the high vaults of Nos. 29 and 30 were not sufficiently buttressed by the lower vaults on either side accounts for their fall.

Rooms 31 and 32 are distinguished by a plaster decoration more elaborate than any which is to be found elsewhere in the palace, with the sole exception of the mosque. The vault of No. 31 resembles the vault of the ḥaram, and like the ḥaram vault it must have been built over a centering. It is divided into two compartments by three transverse arches, one spanning the centre of the chamber, the other two placed respectively against the east and west walls ([Plate 30], Fig. 1). These transverse arches, which are ·95 metre wide, spring from a double outset at a height of 2·80 metres from the ground. The vault between the arches springs at a point ·25 metre higher. It is composed, like the ḥaram vault, of narrow oversailing ridges worked in stucco. Along the top of the vault are placed between each pair of transverse arches four square stucco motives, some of which remain intact. They differ slightly from each other, but all are variants of the same theme ([Plate 30], Fig. 2). The first from the east end consists of four squares within one another, like a Chinese box, each sunk behind the other. In the centre there is a circular rosette, doubly recessed. In the second a single recessed square contains a saucer-shaped motive, the surface of the saucer being covered with rings of small plaster excrescences. In the third the usual recessed square is filled with a triply sunk diamond, with a recessed rosette in the centre. In the fourth the recessed square frame is filled with a recessed diamond, within the diamond is a recessed square, within the square a second recessed diamond, in the centre of which is a rosette. In the western compartment two of the motives consist of squares sunk within one another, a third of a doubly sunk square containing a triply sunk rosette, while the fourth is obliterated. Finally high up in the east and west walls under the vault is placed a small niche whereof the arch springs from engaged colonnettes.

No. 31 is connected with No. 32 by a door opposite to the door in the central court. The construction of the roof in No. 32 is different from any other example of roofing in the palace. It is divided into three compartments by four heavy transverse arches which spring at a height of 2·85 metres from the floor, level and are set forward twice from the face of the wall ([Plate 31], Fig. 1). Between the arches small barrel vaults are stretched across the chamber from north to south. In the eastern compartment the north and south head walls are carried up to the height of the vault. Immediately below the spring of the vault there is a sunk band in the head walls decorated with three recessed circles or rosettes. In the central and western compartment the vault terminates against a semi-dome, set over the angles in one case horizontally, in the other (the western compartment) by means of small recessed squinches (compare the west end of the ḥaram). Below the semi-domes there are a couple of narrow fillets, and below the sunk band of the eastern compartment a single wide fillet. Below these, at the same level in all the compartments, the head wall is decorated with pairs of arched niches, the arches being supported by engaged colonnettes. The colonnettes have no bases; a narrow impost serves them as capital. The face of the arches is decorated in two of the compartments by fillets and in the third (the western) by a zigzag motive. Within each niche there is a spear-shaped ornament sunk in the wall. In the spandrel between the arches there lies a recessed rosette. At a height of ·35 metre above the springing point of the transverse arches the head wall is set very slightly forward, in imitation of the outset of an oversailing vault. The arches of the doors rise higher than the level of this outset, which is lifted in a rectangular label over them. The barrel vaults between the transverse arches are variously treated. The eastern vault is divided into sections by three short transverse arches, each of which is decorated by a square sunk motive. The central vault has the same number of short transverse arches, but these are undecorated. The western vault is provided with a transverse arch against the semi-dome at either end, while the remainder of its length is decorated with stucco ridges. A pair of niches, smaller than those upon the side walls, is placed in the east and in the west wall under the transverse arches, but the spear-shaped ornament and the recessed rosette of the side niches is omitted.

Rooms 31 and 32 are 10·05 metres from east to west and 4·90 metres from north to south. Room 41, lying opposite to room 32, has an equal length and the same system of doors, but no decoration. Room 42, which corresponds with room 31, is only 7·25 metres from east to west, since space had to be allowed for the two stairs leading out of the central court, one to the roof and one to the underground chamber. In the south-east corner of No. 42 there is a small door giving access to a narrow passage behind the block of masonry which contains the upper stair. It turns at right angles into a short passage lying above the lower stair. The vaulted underground chamber corresponds in length and width with No. 42 (section e-f, Plate 5, Fig. 1). It is lighted by three small windows which are splayed upwards to the ground-level—one of these can be seen in Fig. 3 of Plate 29. The room was filled with débris, so that I cannot be certain of its height. In the west wall there is an arched niche or ṭâqchah. In the intense heat of southern Mesopotamia it is customary to provide all houses with underground chambers, wherein the inhabitants spend the greater part of their day in summer. They are known as serdâbs. To the authors of Ocheïdir I am indebted for an interesting observation with regard to the vault of No. 41.[26] It was built in sections over a movable centering which has left its mark upon the concrete of which the vault was formed.

Rooms 32 and 41 communicated by doors in the south wall with the columned chambers 33 and 40 ([Plate 31], Fig. 2), which are exactly alike in every respect, except that No. 40 is connected by a door with the room to the south, No. 39, whereas there is no south door in No. 32. Both 33 and 40 have doors, covered with ovoid arches set back from the jambs, leading into the corridor 28, and both are divided into three aisles by two arcades of three arches carried on two masonry columns. The aisles run north and south. The innermost aisle in either case forms part of the vaulted corridor, 36, which runs round three sides of No. 30. This aisle is only 2·50 metres wide, as compared with the 2·85 metres of the other two aisles. All the aisles are roofed with barrel vaults. Though the columns are of stone masonry, the capitals, together with the arches and walls they carry, and the segmental vaults, are of brick. The columns are separated from one another from north to south by a distance of 2·50 metres, but the distance between each column and the wall behind it is only ·90 metre; hence the wide central arches rise almost to the spring of the vault, whereas the side arches are from their narrow span necessarily much lower ([Plate 32], Fig. 1). The curve of all the arches is a pointed ovoid, and the narrow arches are considerably stilted. These last are built of concentric rings of small brick tiles, the inner band laid vertically, the outer horizontally. The large arches are composed of two concentric rings of voussoirs, both laid vertically, the inner ring being of large tiles used in their full size, the outer ring of half of the same tiles. The capitals are better preserved than any in the palace, and from one of the capitals of No. 33 in particular, an excellent idea of the form of the impost-capital commonly used at Ukhaiḍir can be obtained. (It is the capital seen in Plate 32, Fig. 1.) The cube of the capital is adapted to the circle of the column by placing an angle of brick under each corner. The capital is composed of a shallow ovolo in moulded plaster surmounted by an abacus which consists of a single course of bricks and carries an impost formed of three courses of brick. Within the arches the impost slightly oversails the abacus.

On the south side of corridor 36 the vault has fallen, together with the columns between the engaged piers which must have supported the arcade ([Plate 31], Fig. 3). The spring of the arches can be seen against the piers. From the fragments that exist, the barrel vaults do not seem to have intersected one another but to have met diagonally at the angles. At the east and west ends of No. 36 a door opens into rooms 39 and 34. No. 34 communicates with a parallel chamber, No. 35, which opens independently upon the narrow open court, F, between 36 and the corridor 28. The eastern side of this court was much ruined. In the south-east corner was a stair which led up to the roof. To the north, and partly under the stair, lies a small room, 38, communicating with another narrow room, 37, which was not entirely vaulted over. That it was intended to contain a fire is clear from the fact that the vault is pierced by two terra-cotta pipes, the one 29 centimetres in diameter, the other 12 centimetres, which must have served as chimneys. Similar pipes occur elsewhere and will be mentioned later.

The long corridor, 28, which lies to east and west of the central court and its group of chambers, turns at right angles and encloses the whole central block. The corridor is covered by a semicircular stone vault, oversailing the walls; at four points, however, it is left unroofed in order to admit light and air. These openings are flanked by transverse arches, springing a few centimetres lower than the spring of the vault. The angles of the corridor are roofed with groined vaults, and groined vaults occur in two places, towards the middle of each of the long sides of the corridor. Moreover, a small extension of the east arm of the corridor, No. 61, is also roofed with a groin. This last is the example given by Dr. Reuther on Plate 13 of Ocheïdir; it is the only groin in the palace which is built of brick. Where the groins do not rest on the head wall, they are laid against transverse arches, springing from a point lower than the springing of the vault. The lower parts of the groin are built of stones laid horizontally and forming a bracket from which spring the intersecting vaults ([Plate 32], Fig. 2). The vaults are also built of thin slabs of stone, cut in the shape of bricks, and laid with a slight inclination backwards against the head wall or the transverse arch. This construction demanded little or no centering. In the north-east angle of the corridor there is a small door in the east wall which gave access to a stair or passage running under the wall. It was so much blocked by ruins that I could not penetrate into it.