Visual Constructs

of Jerusalem
 CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN
LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES

General Editor
Yitzhak Hen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Editorial Board
Angelo di Berardino, Augustinianum, Rome
Nora Berend, University of Cambridge
Leslie Brubaker, University of Birmingham
Christoph Cluse, Universität Trier
Rob Meens, Universiteit Utrecht
James Montgomery, University of Cambridge
Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds
Thomas F.X. Noble, University of Notre Dame
Miri Rubin, Queen Mary, University of London

Volume 18

Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the back of this book.
Visual Constructs
of Jerusalem

Edited by

Bianca Kühnel, Galit Noga-Banai,

and Hanna Vorholt
 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Visual constructs of Jerusalem. -- (Cultural encounters in late antiquity and the Middle Ages ; 18)
1. Jerusalem--Symbolic representation.
2. Visual communication.
3. Communication in architecture.
4. Church architecture--Jerusalem.
5. Church architecture--Europe.
6. Sacred space--Jerusalem.
7. Sacred space--Europe.
8. Christian art and symbolism--Jerusalem.
9. Christian art and symbolism--Europe.
10. Palestine--Maps--Early works to 1800.
I. Series
II. Kuhnel, Bianca editor.
III. Noga-Banai, Galit, 1966- editor.
IV. Vorholt, Hanna editor.
V. Visual Constructs of Jerusalem (Conference) (2010 : Jerusalem), associated with work.

704.9’499569442-dc23
ISBN-13: 9782503551043

This volume has been produced under the auspices of the research project
SPECTRUM Visual Translations of Jerusalem, based at the Hebrew Uni­ver­
sity of Jerusalem. Research leading to these results has received funding
from the Euro­p ean Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh
Frame­work Programme (FP7/2007–2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 249466.

© 2014, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.

D/2014/0095/190
ISBN: 978-2-503-55104-3
e-ISBN: 978-2-503-55121-0

Printed in the EU on acid-free paper

 Contents

List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Colour Plates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii

Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiii

Loca sancta: Formation and Accumulation of Traditions

‘Remembering Sion’: Early Medieval Latin Recollections of the Basilica
on Mount Sion and the Interplay of Relics, Tradition, and Images
Thomas O’Loughlin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Mary in Jerusalem: An Imaginary Map

Ora Limor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Lavit et venit videns: The Healing of the Blind Man at the Pool of Siloam
Barbara Baert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Patronage Contested: Archaeology and the Early Modern Struggle

for Possession at the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
Jordan Pickett. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

From Biblical to Non-Biblical Holy Places:

The Shrine of Subiaco as a Construct of Jerusalem
Alessandro Scafi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Monumental Translations
How Mtskheta Turned into the Georgians’ New Jerusalem
Tamila Mgaloblishvili . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Locative Memory and the Pilgrim’s Experience of Jerusalem

in the Late Middle Ages
Michele Bacci. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

New Research on the Holy Sepulchre at the ‘Jerusalem’ of San Vivaldo, Italy
Riccardo Pacciani. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Pilgrimage Experience: Bridging Size and Medium

Tsafra Siew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

The Baptistery of Pisa and the Rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre:

A Reconsideration
Neta Bodner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
vi contents

Strategies of Translation
From Sanctified Topos to Iconic and Symbolic Model:
Two Early Representations of the Holy Sepulchre in Croatia
Marina Vicelja-Matijašić. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Defending Jerusalem: Visualizations of a Christian Identity

in Medieval Scandinavia
Kristin B. Aavitsland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Jerusalem in Medieval Georgian Art

George Gagoshidze. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

A (Hi)story of Jerusalem: Memories and Images

in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Lily Arad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

The Running Girl in Mea Shearim: Gender, Nostalgia,

and the Uncanny in Leora Laor’s Photography (2002–04)
Milly Heyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Evocations of the Temple

Reconstructing Jerusalem in the Jewish Liturgical Realm:
The Worms Synagogue and its Legacy
Sarit Shalev-Eyni. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Beyond the Veil: Roman Constructs of the

New Temple in the Twelfth Century
Eivor Andersen Oftestad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Heavenly Jerusalem in Baroque Architectural Theory

Victor Plahte Tschudi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

King Solomon’s Temple and Throne as Models in Islamic Visual Culture

Rachel Milstein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Relics, Reliquaries, and Ritual

Holy Places and Their Relics
Bruno Reudenbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

The True Cross of Jerusalem in the Latin West:

Mediterranean Connections and Institutional Agency
Nikolas Jaspert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

‘Living Stones’ of Jerusalem: The Triumphal

Arch Mosaic of Santa Prassede in Rome
Erik Thunø. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Strategies of Constructing Jerusalem in Medieval Serbia

Jelena Erdeljan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

The Holy Fire and Visual Constructs of Jerusalem, East and West
Alexei Lidov. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
contents vii

Maps of Jerusalem
From Eusebius to the Crusader Maps: The Origin of the Holy Land Maps
Milka Levy-Rubin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Heavenly and Earthly Jerusalem:

The View From Twelfth-Century Flanders
Jay Rubenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Quaresmius’s Novae Ierosolymae et Locorum Circumiacentium

Accurata Imago (1639): An Image of the Holy City and its Message
Rehav Rubin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

An American Missionary’s Maps of Jerusalem: Past, Present, and Future

Evelyn Edson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Maps of the Holy Land

Experiencing the Holy Land and Crusade in Matthew Paris’s
Maps of Palestine
Laura J. Whatley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

‘As If You Were There’: The Cultural Impact

of Two Pilgrims’ Maps of the Holy Land
Pnina Arad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Mapping the History of Salvation for the ‘Mind’s Eyes’: Context and Function
of the Map of the Holy Land in the Rudimentum Novitiorum of 1475
Andrea Worm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Ottheinrich and Sandtner: Sixteenth-Century Pilgrimage Maps

and an Imaginary Model of Jerusalem
Haim Goren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Mappae Mundi
The City of the Great King: Jerusalem in Hugh of Saint Victor’s Mystic Ark
Conrad Rudolph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

The Jerusalem Effect: Rethinking the Centre in Medieval World Maps

Marcia Kupfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Manuscripts and Panel Painting

Ducitur et reducitur: Passion Devotion and Mental Motion
in an Illuminated Meditationes Vitae Christi Manuscript
(Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 410)
Renana Bartal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Virtual Pilgrimage through the Jerusalem Cityscape

Kathryn M. Rudy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
viii contents

Pilgrimage Literature and Travelogues

Representations and Descriptions of Jerusalem in the
Printed Travelogues of the Early Modern Period
Milan Pelc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

The Jerusalem of the Mind’s Eye: Imagined Pilgrimage

in the Late Fifteenth Century
Kathryne Beebe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Memory and Representations of Jerusalem in

Medieval and Early Modern Pilgrimage Reports
Maria E. Dorninger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Richard Pococke, or the Invention of Jerusalem for Tourists

Olga Medvedkova. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Byzantine Approaches
Visualizing the Tomb of Christ: Images, Settings, and Ways of Seeing
Robert Ousterhout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

‘Remembering Zion’ and Simulacra: Jerusalem in the Byzantine Psalter

Mati Meyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Souvenirs of the Holy Land: The Production of Proskynetaria in Jerusalem

Mat Immerzeel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Proskynetaria as Devotional Objects and Preservers of Ethnic Identity

Márta Nagy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
 King Solomon’s Temple and Throne
as Models in Islamic Visual Culture
Rachel Milstein
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

A
lready towards the end of the first century Mount, al-Haram al-Sharif, and with its presumed build-
of Islam (c. 700 CE), the Temple Mount in er, the prophet and king Solomon.
Jerusalem was identified by the Muslims as the Medieval and early modern Islamic texts describe
Qur’anic site al-Masjid al-Aqsa. It was also considered Jerusalem as a beautiful town, with a sophisticated sys-
the starting point of Muhammad’s ascension to heaven, tem of cisterns and many holy sites worth visiting, but
the Mi‘raj.1 Coins from that early period inform us that in the history of Islamic architecture neither the city nor
the first official name of Muslim Jerusalem was Iliya, fol- the Haram have served as a model for spiritual constructs
lowing its Roman name, Aelia Capitolina. But scarcely in their own right. On the other hand, King Solomon,
a century and a half later, this name was superseded by in tandem with his throne, is repeatedly connected with
the title al-Quds, which in Islamic texts has always been important sites all over the Muslim world. The reason
syn­ony­mous with Bayt al-Maqdis, following Bet ha- for King Solomon’s central place in Muslim civilization
Miqdash, the Hebrew Temple. Hence the sanctity of is, on the one hand, the theocratic nature of the Muslim
Jeru­salem is based on its identification with the Temple state, and, on the other hand, the multifaceted image of
the prophet-king himself, which could respond to the
needs of various social strata, rulers as well as subjects.
1 There are several traditions concerning the Ascension of the
In addition to, or perhaps on account of, his great
Prophet, as there is only a brief and mysterious allusion to it in Sura
17 (where, by the way, the term mi‘raj does not occur); the story wisdom and piety, which gave him the rank of a prophet,
comes from the supplementary writings about the life of the Prophet. King Solomon’s place in Muslim history is based on his
The nature of the experience and the identity of the different stages three unique achievements: he built the Temple over
of the Night Journey have been disputed. Some earlier traditions did the navel of the world; he maintained peace and justice
not even include Jerusalem in the journey, claiming that the Prophet
in the greatest kingdom of world history; and he con-
reached heaven directly from Mecca. On the nature of the various
traditions and the dispute among early Muslim scholars as well as trolled the demons, harnessing them to his service and
the modern researchers, see Heribert Busse, ‘Jerusalem in the Story preventing them from doing evil. These three feats rep-
of Muhammad’s Night Journey and Ascension’, Jerusalem Studies resent the three aspects of human life—the spiritual, the
in Arabic and Islam, 14 (1991), 1–40; Amikam Elad, Medieval social, and the material. It is perhaps not surprising that
Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pigrimage the third aspect of King Solomon’s fame has been most
(Leiden: Brill, 1995), especially pp. 1–22, 28–29, 48–50; Heribert
Busse, ‘The Destruction of the Temple and its Reconstruction in the popular among Muslims. His image as a magician was
Light of Muslim Exegesis of Sura 17. 2–8’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic often illustrated in manuscripts of Mirabilia or Wonders
and Islam, 20 (1996), 1–17; Jacob Lassner, ‘Muslims on the Sanctity of Creation, such as the one reproduced here from six-
of Jerusalem: Preliminary Thoughts on the Search for a Conceptual teenth-century Egypt (Fig. 19.1).2 Following an estab-
Framework’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 31 (2006),
164–95; Amikam Elad, ‘Abd al-Malik and the Dome of the Rock:
A Further Examination of the Muslim Sources’, Jersusalem Studies 2 Istanbul, Topkapı Museum Library, MS R. 1638, Kitab Qanun
in Arabic and Islam, 35 (2008), 166–226; Uri Rubin, ‘Muhammad’s al-Dunya wa-‘Aja’ibiha by Ibn Zunbul, Cairo, 1563, fols 122b–123a. For
Night Journey (Isra) to al-Masjid al-Aqsa: Aspects of the Earliest a description of this manuscript, see Rachel Milstein and Bilha Moor,
Origins of the Islamic Sanctity of Jerusalem’, Al-Qantara, 29.1 ‘Wonders of a Changing World: Late Illustrated ‘Aja’ib Manuscripts
(2008), 147–64. (part 1)’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 32 (2006), 1–67.
Visual Constructs of Jerusalem, ed. by Bianca Kühnel, Galit Noga-Banai, and Hanna Vorholt, CELAMA 18 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014) pp. 187–194
BREPOLS PUBLISHERS 10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.103076
188 Rachel Milstein

Figure 19.1.
Kitab Qanun al-Dunya wa-
‘aja’ibiha by Ibn Zunbul,
Istanbul, Topkapı Museum
Library, MS R. 1638,
fols 122b–123a, King
Solomon, the Queen of
Sheba, and their court, Cairo,
1563 (photo: author).

lished tradition in the Islamic art of the book, the author The traditional Islamic form of King Solomon’s seal is
and painter of this manuscript depicted King Solomon seen on a painted or xylographed paper amulet that was
enthroned in the company of his vizier, Asif bin Barkiya, probably intended to be rolled within a metal case and
on one side of a double-page composition (in this case, carried on the body (Fig. 19.2).3 King Solomon, whose
unusually, on the left side). On the right side of the slanted eyes and oriental features reflect the painting
opening, Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, is accompanied by style during the Turkish Seljuq period in Mesopotamia,
her Amazon-like ladies. Many details in this eccentric is seen seated in a royal lotus posture on his lion throne.
representation are connected with the art of magic, the Two angels, who hold the arch of heaven above his head,
most noteworthy being the animal ears of the king and signify the divine origin of his royal charisma. While
his vizier. The author, scribe, and painter, Ibn Zunbul, placing his left arm on his thigh in an authoritative man-
himself a practitioner of various magical techniques ner, in his right hand the king holds a six-pointed star,
and fortune-telling, esteemed King Solomon first and the graphic expression of his heavenly seal. The wise
foremost as a magician. Therefore, the entry dedicated vizier Asif on his right and the king of the demons on
to Jerusalem in his text, which starts with a discussion his left represent Solomon’s control over both human
of the central Muslim and Christian monuments in the society and the powers of nature. His command over the
town, proceeds to a lengthy description of Solomon’s demons endowed him with healing powers and allowed
magical throne. him to write medical texts.
In the Islamic tradition King Solomon became an The three aspects of King Solomon’s image are
archetype of a strong and just ruler, a leader and a sav- reflected in the numerous natural and man-made sites
that bear his name all over the Muslim world. Examples
iour who created bridges between heaven and earth. As
of natural phenomena include a mountain peak near
a king he maintained order and comfort, as a magician
Srinagar in Kashmir and large water ponds or reser-
he offered healing, and as a builder of the Temple he
voirs in Kyrgyzstan, Iran, and Algeria; mosques, palaces,
established for believers a place of devotion and a gate
to Paradise. In mythological, symbolic, and formal lan-
guages, all these virtues are embodied in descriptions
3 For a discussion of its meaning, see Rachel Milstein, La
of the Temple, the king’s throne, and his royal and Bible dans l’art islamique (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
divine seal. 2005), pp. 102–08 and fig. 25.
King Solomon’s Temple and Throne as Models in Islamic Visual Culture 189

Figure 19.2. Istanbul, Topkapı Museum Library,

MS H. 2152, fol. 97r, King Solomon holding his divine seal Figure 19.3. Kitab al-bulhan (Book of Astrology) by Abu Ma‘ashar al-
(photo: from King Solomon’s Seal, ed. by Rachel Milstein Balkhi, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Or. 133, fol. 35b, the thermal
[ Jerusalem: Tower of David Museum, 1995], p. 34, fig. 14). bath in Tiberias (photo: Bodleian Library).

and mausolea in Turkey, Iran, and India illustrate the order.5 All these lakes and water installations are, then,
products of civilization. Many lakes and water instal- places of healing and health care, as is the lavishly deco-
lations, such as the thermal baths near Tiberias and rated thirteenth-century hospital in Divriği, in eastern
around the Sea of Galilee, are said to have been initi- Anatolia, built near a thermal station.6
ated by the king and carried out by the demons. In a This monument is a complex of three functional
fifteenth-century painting from Iraq or Iran, we see units: a Friday mosque, a hospital, and the tomb cham-
that the demons who were sent by Solomon to heat the ber of the founder. The two hexagrams above the hos-
thermal waters near Tiberias have never heard of his pital gate (Fig. 19.4) probably symbolize the magical
death and therefore continue to work there even to this healing power of King Solomon’s seal and at the same
day (Fig. 19.3).4 It is said that in this thermal bath the time signify the royal might of the patron-queen, who
Queen of Sheba got rid of her body hair, upon the king’s

5 Priscilla P. Soucek, ‘The Temple of Solomon in Islamic

4 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Or. 133, Kitab al-bulhan Legend and Art’, in The Temple of Solomon: Archaeological Fact
(Book of Astrology) by Abu Ma’ashar al-Balkhi, fol. 35b. A study of and Medieval Tradition in Christian, Islamic and Jewish Art, ed. by
this manuscript is Stefano Carboni, Il Kitāb al-Bulhān di Oxford, Joseph Gutmann (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976), pp. 73–122
Quaderni del Dipartimento di Studi Eurasiatici, Università degli (p. 74 and n. 5).
Studi Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, 6 (Turin: Editrice Tirrenia Stampatori, 6 For this monument and its unusual decorations, see Doğan
1988). Kuban, The Miracle of Divriği (Istanbul: Yapı Kredi, 2001).
190 Rachel Milstein

Figure 19.4.
Divriği, Turkey, hospital
gate, thirteenth century
(photo: author).

Figure 19.5.
Great Mosque, Malatya,
Turkey, interior of the
dome, thirteenth century
(photo: Eva Baer).

was either the wife or a sister of the male patron who

built the mosque. In the same period, in the neighbour-
ing town of Malatya, the hexagram was consciously
designed, in blue glazed bricks at the internal apex of the
dome, to symbolize the kingdom of heaven. Every line
in this six-pointed star contains the name Muhammad
(Fig. 19.5). In India, a series of hexagrams constitutes the
sole decoration of the first grand imperial Mughal mau-
soleum, Sultan Humayun’s tomb in Delhi, of about 1565
(Fig. 19.6).
In Islamic literature and historical memory, King
Solomon is also credited as a builder of mosques in vari-
ous lands. In south-west Iran, for example, he is said to
have founded a mosque in the town of Istakhr, in the
region of Fars.7 This region, which served as a politi-
cal and cultural centre of pre-Islamic Iranian dynasties,
is dotted with rock carvings and tomb chambers of
Achaemenid and Sassanian monarchs. After the Muslim
7 This mythological mosque is described in the entry ‘Istakhr’ in
occupation of Iran, local Muslim rulers, especially those
various manuscripts of ‘Aja’ib al-makhlukat wa-ghara’ib al-mawjudat
(The Wonders of Creation) by al-Tusi, for example in Istanbul, Topkapı of Turkish or Mongol origin, carved their names on
Museum Library, MS H. 404, fol. 90b. Illustrated manuscripts of stone tablets in these burial sites, with family trees that
this treatise are the subject of a dissertation by Bilha Moor, ‘Popular go back to King Solomon and to the Achaemenid kings,
Medicine, Divination, and Holy Geography: Sixteenth-Century the builders of Persepolis and Pasargadae.8 In Persian
Illustrations to Tusi’s “Ajā‘ib al-Makhluqat” (unpublished doctoral texts from the Muslim period, the remains of Pasargadae
thesis, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2010). On Sulaymān as
the founder of Istakhr in Iranian tradition, see M. Streck, ‘Iṣṭakhr’,
Encyclopedia of Islam, 2d edn, ed. by P. Bearman and others, 13 vols 8 See an analysis of these sites in Souren Asadullah Melikian-
(Leiden: Brill, 1960–2009), 4 (1978), p. 219; Vasilii V. Barthold, A Chirvani, ‘Le Royaume de Salomon’, in Le Monde iranien et l’Islam,
Historical Geography of Iran, trans. by Svat Soucek (Princeton, NJ: ed. by Jean Aubin (Paris: Société d’histoire de l’Orient, 1971),
Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 149, 154–55. pp. 1–41 (p. 9).
King Solomon’s Temple and Throne as Models in Islamic Visual Culture 191

concept of kingship or political power. Because Solomon

had been considered the epitome of world kingship, his
seat of power became a synonym for power, justice, wis-
dom, and prophecy. As such, the name Kursi-Sulayman
in Arabic or Takht-e Soleyman in Persian was conferred
upon pre-Islamic and Islamic monuments that reflected
a powerful government.
The Ottomans, who inherited the Byzantine Empire
and established in Constantinople a court rich with for-
mal ceremonies, also made ample use of the Solomonic
myth in their quest for legitimation. Thus a text written
for Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople
and the founder of the Topkapı Saray, tells that King
Solomon himself built a pavilion within a garden in the
very precincts of the new Ottoman palace.11 A text titled
The Book of Solomon, which was composed and copied
for Sultan Beyazid II, is embellished with an image of
the biblical King Solomon on the frontispiece.12 The
prophet and king, according to Muslim belief, is seen
enthroned at the summit of a seven-storey structure,
Figure 19.6. Delhi, India, mausoleum of Humayun, c. 1565
(photo: Shimeon Lev). above hierarchically descending floors crowded with
planets, angels, demons, warriors, kings, and prophets.
are referred to as Takht-e Soleyman (King Solomon’s Water jugs one floor below the king suggest that the
throne), Takht-e madar-e Soleyman (the throne of building is none other than the Jerusalem Temple. This
Solomon’s mother), or even Qabr-e madar-e Soleyman holy monument, according to a legend, only became
(the tomb of Solomon’s mother).9 Small monuments in stable when King Solomon inserted water containers,
the region of Fars were renamed by the Muslim rulers secured with his heavenly seal, into its foundations. An
‘the mosque of Solomon, the son of David’. interpretation of this structure as a combination of the
At the end of the thirteenth century, the Mongol throne, the Temple, and the entire universe is corrobo-
conquerors of Muslim Asia eventually converted to rated by the depiction of the planets, which are said in
Islam and identified themselves as heirs to the local traditional texts to be represented in ancient Asiatic
mythological dynasties. The Ilkhanid ruler Abaka, great- temples.13 This topos is based on Hellenistic cosmog-
grandson of Genghis Khan, built for himself a royal raphy and on the cabbalistic conception of the Jewish
palace with an observatory (c. 1270) in north-western Temple as a visualization and a reconstruction of the cos-
Iran, now Azerbaijan. The earlier fortified citadel at this
site included the remains of a Zoroastrian fire temple
from the Sassanian period that housed one of the three 11 Necipoğlu, Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power, p. 13.
‘Royal Fires’, before which the Sassanian rulers pros- 12 Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, MS Turk. 406, fol. 2b. On
the presumed artistic origins of this painting see Ernst J. Grube, ‘Two
trated themselves in order to ascend the throne. The site Paintings in a Copy of the “Suleyman-name” in the Chester Beatty
was renamed in the Muslim period Takht-e Soleyman, Library’, in Seventh International Congress of Turkish Art (Warsaw:
King Solomon’s throne.10 The word ‘throne’, in this case, Polish Scientific Publishers, 1990), pp. 133–40; Michael J. Rogers,
stands for a palace or, in a more general sense, for the ‘Solomon and the Queen of Sheba’, in Circa 1492: Art in the Age
of Exploration, ed. by Jay. A. Levenson (Washington, DC: National
Gallery of Art; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991),
9 A lengthy reference to this tradition is found in Serpil pp. 201–03; Michael J. Rogers, ‘The Chester Beatty Süleymānnāme
Bagci, ‘A New Theme in the Shirazi Frontispiece Miniatures: the Again’, in Persian Paintings: From the Mongols to the Qajars. Studies
Divān of Solomon’, Muqarnas, 12 (1995), 101–11 (pp. 102–07). in Honour of Basil W. Robinson, ed. by Robert Hillenbrand (London:
10 Gülru Necipoğlu, Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power: The I. B. Tauris, 2000), pp. 187–200.
Topkapı Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (New York: 13 About this belief, see Moshe Idel, ‘On King Solomon as a
Architectural History Foundation; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Magician’, in King Solomon’s Seal, ed. by Rachel Milstein ( Jerusalem:
1991), p. 13. Tower of David Museum, 1995), pp. 15–17 [Hebrew].
192 Rachel Milstein

mic order.14 Establishing and maintaining a microcosmic the kingdom of the world, Sultan Suleyman bin Selim
mirror image of the cosmic order upon the earth was […]’. In the Ottoman capital itself, the great Suleymaniye
the role of kings in the Near East from the most ancient Friday mosque reflects in various ways the myth of the
civilizations to Islam, and this role is materialized in the Solomonic Temple. In analysing the significance of this
construction of the throne. mosque, Gülru Necipoğlu-Kafadar argues that:
Another variation of this concept is depicted in a
The Sulemaniye makes a deliberate reference to the Hagia
miniature painting that in my opinion may have served Sophia through its use of precious materials from distant
as a frontispiece to the Book of Prophets (Enbiyaname), places as well as its use of a dome abutted by two half-
the now-dispersed first volume of Ottoman dynas- domes. While this allusion to Justinian’s building was
tic history and the chronicle of Sultan Suleyman the made in part simply because of its prestige, there may also
Lawgiver. This multi-volume manuscript was copied have been other reasons. Hagia Sophia was built as the
and illustrated by the Ottoman court painters in 1558.15 templum novum Solomonis, imitating Solomon’s legend-
In this painting, the prophet-king Solomon is seated on ary temple through its textual descriptions […]. The refer-
ence to Hagia Sophia might have been meant to imply a
a pulpit under a high dome, somewhat elevated from
connection between Suleyman’s mosque and Solomon’s
the surrounding prophets and scholars, or perhaps court temple.
officials. An inscription on the wall of the monument
within which the group is located reads, ‘He is Solomon She adds that ‘When Evliya Çelebi [a courtier and
of his time; he has the kingdom of Solomon in his days’. author] describes the origins of Istanbul, he identifies its
It is clear, then, that the monarch described as the King founder as King Solomon and its pre-Ottoman rebuild-
Solomon of his time is none other than Sultan Suleyman, ers as Alexander [the Great] and Constantine, who con-
who occasionally identified himself as ‘Suleyman the structed many buildings to strengthen their religion
Second’ and was referred to as ‘Süleymān-i Zamān’, the and nation’.17 With regard to Sultan Suleyman’s mauso-
Solomon of the time.16 leum in the royal graveyard of the Suleymaniye mosque,
A similar metaphorical connection between the Necipoğlu-Kafadar goes on to suggest that:
sultan and the biblical king is found on a small foun-
Suleyman’s mausoleum resembles the Dome of the Rock,
tain behind the arz odası, the private reception hall at the site of Solomon’s Temple, with its double dome inside,
the Topkapı Palace. Calligraphic Persian verses on the supported by a circular colonnade, and its octagonal shell
fountain, probably from the sixteenth century, address outside, surrounded by an octagonal ambulatory. The
the patron as ‘Sultan of the worlds, Solomon of his time, similarity between the two interiors is particularly strik-
who gives the water of life to the members of his court’. ing. The mausoleum ceiling is decorated with palmette
The water of life is a common allusion to Paradise, not motifs and ceramic stars with rock crystals and precious
only as the cosmic model of the perfect kingdom but stones in their centers, a design apparently inspired by
the jewel motifs of the Dome of the Rock. It may well be
also as the ultimate goal of the believer on the Day of that the similarities are meant to be a reference to the leg-
Judgement. To these examples from the royal palace in endary Temple of Solomon; it is known that the sultan
Istanbul we can add a few inscriptions from Jerusalem. intended to renovate the Dome of the Rock.18
One of them, on a fountain for drinking water in the
Haram al-Sharif, reads as follows: ‘This sabil was erected Indeed, Sultan Suleyman’s name is mentioned as the
in the time of the great Sultan, second to Solomon in rebuilder of the Jerusalem Haram in every text from the
sixteenth century onward. A good example is a drawing
of the Temple Mount in a pilgrimage guide from 1563
14 Moshe Idel, ‘Magic Temples and Cities in the Middle Ages
(Fig. 19.7).19 The text beside the illustration reads:
and the Renaissance: A Passage of al-Mas’udi as a possible source
for Yohannan Alemano’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 3
(1981–82), 185–89. 17 Gülru Necipoğlu-Kafadar, ‘The Süleymaniye Complex
15 On this text and illustrations see Esin Atıl, Süleymanname: in Istanbul: An Interpretation’, Muqarnas, 3 (1986), 92–117
The Illustrated History of Süleyman the Magnificent (Washington (pp. 101–04).
DC: National Gallery of Art; New York: H. N. Abrams, 1986). 18 Necipoğlu-Kafadar, ‘The Süleymaniye Complex in Istanbul’,
16 For the religious layer in the dynastic ideology, see Cornell pp. 100–01.
H. Fleischer, ‘The Lawgiver as Messiah: The Making of the Imperial 19 Haifa, National Maritime Museum, Inv. 4576; see Rachel
Image in the Reign of Süleymān’, in Soliman le Magnifique et son Milstein, ‘Kitab Shawq Nameh, an Illustrated Guide to Holy
temps, ed. by Gilles Veinstein (Paris: La documentation française, Arabia’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 25 (2001), 275–345
1992), pp. 159–79. (pp. 317–18 and pl. 24).
King Solomon’s Temple and Throne as Models in Islamic Visual Culture 193

Al-Masjid al-Aqsa served as the direction of the prayer

for all the prophets before the Ka’ba, and during a certain
period the Prophet Muhammad instructed [the believ-
ers] to pray in that direction. [King] David ordered to
lay its foundations, and Solomon accomplished its con-
struction. At his order, the demons performed the build-
ing tasks and the result is a marvel. The rock which is
in that place is the Rock of God, and it hangs between
heaven and earth […].
The drawing, however, reveals much more about the
meaning of the site. It shows the Dome of the Rock sur-
rounded by small shrines, which are identified by tiny
inscriptions as ‘the Scale of the Day of Judgement’, the
‘Entrance to Paradise’, and the ‘Entrance to Hell’. In other
words, al-Masjid al-Aqsa, with the Rock of Foundation
as the Navel of the World in its centre, is seen by the
Muslim faithful as the arena of the Last Judgement, the
locus of apocalyptic fears and messianic expectations.
In the light of these ideas and the reconstruction works
done by Sultan Suleyman in Jerusalem, the similar-
ity between his mausoleum and the Dome of the Rock
seems self-explanatory.
In fact, Sultan Suleyman’s tomb is neither the only
nor the earliest mausoleum with a central dome and
an octagonal ground plan, and its conscious allu-
sion to the Dome of the Rock might be controversial.
Straightforward references to Solomon’s kingship, the
Day of Judgement, and eventual Paradise are found
in the burial sites of the Mughal sultans of India. Like
their predecessors in earlier Muslim states and their
rivals in the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal rulers styled
themselves as ‘Solomon of his time’. The most glorious Figure 19.7. Kitab-e Shawqnameh, Haifa, National Maritime Museum,
example of Mughal burial architecture is the Taj Mahal Inv. 4576, fol. 49a, al-Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount) in
Jerusalem, made in Mecca, 1563 (photo: David Silverman).
in Agra, which was built by order of the seventeenth-
century sultan Shah Jahan. Although the historical
context of its construction seems to be the death of the
sultan’s beloved wife, the ground plan of the site and usually refer to eight levels or eight gardens of Paradise,
the content of its many inscriptions suggest a connec- so the octagonal plan of the Dome of the Rock is a per-
tion with the place of the Last Judgement and expecta- fect form for the terrestrial point of departure for both
tions of Paradise. An interpretation of the Taj in these Muhammad’s Ascension in the past and the anticipated
terms is convincingly adduced by Wayne E. Begley.20 To ascension of every true believer in the future, on the Day
his arguments we may add that the ground plan of the of Judgement.
Taj reflects a prototypical Persian scheme for ideal royal Begley’s interpretation of the Taj Mahal as a dynas-
pavilions which, because of their division into eight tic symbol and pilgrimage site was not fully accepted by
units, are called ‘Eight Paradises’.21 Indeed, Islamic texts Ebba Koch, who defends the traditional interpretation
of the Taj as a memorial for the Sultan’s beloved wife.
However, she agrees that ‘The descendants of Timur—at
20 Wayne E. Begley, ‘The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a New
Theory of its Symbolic Meaning’, Art Bulletin, 61 (1979), 7–37. least Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan—saw themselves
21 An example of this ideal architectural plan is the royal as representatives of God on earth who united both spir-
Safavid palace in Isfahan, from 1660, which is duly named Hasht itual and political authority. They also prided themselves
Behest (Eight Paradises). on being second Solomons, the prophet-king of Qur’anic
194 Rachel Milstein

sanction.’ 22 Moreover, she notes that in the ceremo-

nies of his enthronement, Shah Jahan was declared the
Solomon of his time and a Mahdi, and his wife, Mumtaz
Mahal, was entitled ‘The Queen of Sheba of the Age’. 23
In sum, cultural memories of Solomon’s monuments in
Jerusalem were appropriated both by Muslim monarchs,
who claimed to be the Solomons of their times, and by
Islamic societies, who claimed to have Solomonic sites in
their own vicinities.

22 Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal and the Riverfront

Gardens of Agra (London: Thames & Hudson 2006), p. 14.
23 Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal, p. 19.