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{{for|the academic journal|Muqarnas (journal)}}
{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
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[[File:Alhambra_(51949919755).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Muqarnas dome in the ''Sala de Dos Hermanas'' at the [[Alhambra]] in [[Granada]], Spain (14th century)]]
'''Muqarnas''' ({{lang-ar|مقرنص}}; {{lang-fa|مقرنس}}, or {{lang-fa|آهوپای|translit=ahoopāy|links=no}}), also known in Iberian architecture as '''Mocárabe''' (from {{Lang-ar|مقربص|links=no|translit=muqarbaṣ}}), is a form of three-dimensional decoration in [[Islamic architecture]] in which rows or tiers of niche-like elements are projected over others below.<ref name=":24" /> It is an archetypal form of Islamic architecture, integral to the vernacular of Islamic buildings,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=The Shrines of the 'Alids in Medieval Syria : sunnis, shi'is and the architecture of coexistence |last=Stephennie |first=Mulder |date=2014 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748645794 |oclc=929836186}}</ref><ref name=":16" /> and typically featured in domes and vaults, as well as [[iwan]]s, entrance portals, or other niches.<ref name=":16" /> It is sometimes referred to as "honeycomb vaulting"<ref name="virtual">{{cite web |author=VirtualAni website |title=Armenian architecture glossary |url=http://www.virtualani.org/glossary/index.htm |access-date=2009-07-17}}</ref> or "stalactite vaulting".<ref name=":24" />
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The etymology of the word ''muqarnas'' is somewhat vague.<ref name="archnet.org" /> Its earliest use in Arabic dates to the 12th century.<ref name=":24" /> It is thought to have originated from the Greek word ''korōnis'', meaning "[[cornice]]"<ref name=":24" /> or "ornamental molding".<ref name="archnet.org"/> There is also speculation of the origin to stem from the Arabic word ''qarnasi'' meaning "intricate work".<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Muqarnas|volume=5|pages=21–28|language=en|jstor = 1523107|last1 = Bloom|first1 = Jonathan M.|title=The Introduction of the Muqarnas into Egypt|year=1988|doi=10.2307/1523107}}</ref> [[Sevan Nişanyan|Nişanyan]] claims that it is related to the Aramaic קרנסא, meaning "hammering".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nisanyansozluk.com/?k=mukarnas|title = Mukarnas}}</ref>
The Spanish term {{Lang|es|mocárabe}} is derived from the Arabic term {{Transliteration|ar|muqarbaṣ}}, which was also used to denote ''muqarnas'' in the western regions of the Islamic world.<ref name=":7">{{EI2|volume=7|title=Muḳarbaṣ|last=Fernandez-Puertas|first=Antonio|pages=500-501}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Necipoğlu |first=Gülru |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHXEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA359 |title=The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture |publisher=Getty Publications |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-89236-335-3 |pages=359 (see note 7) |language=en |quote=In the Muslim west, the term ''muqarbas'' was also used to describe muqarnas formations.}}</ref> Its origin may be
==Structure==
[[File:Honeycomb work.jpg|left|thumb|Close-up of muqarnas vaulting in the [[Alhambra]] (14th century) in Granada, Spain, showing horizontal [[Course (architecture)|courses]] of cells projecting over those below]]
Muqarnas consists of a series of niche-like elements or cells which are combined in a geometrical framework with a few axes of symmetry.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":24" /> The individual cells consist of a limited set of simple [[Prism (geometry)|prismatic]] elements which are combined according to precise rules.<ref name="archnet.org" /> Cells are organized in multiple levels overlapping and projecting over those below like [[Corbelling|corbels]], thus creating a three-dimensional composition.<ref name="archnet.org" /><ref name=":24" /> Although following strict rules and using only a limited set of individual forms, the technique allows for the creation of highly complex and diverse compositions.<ref name="archnet.org" /><ref name="jcpg" /> The interplay of light and shadow across individual cells in a vast, geometric arrangement is what gives muqarnas its aesthetic visual effect.<ref name=":24" /> Western writers have often compared the resulting compositions
[[File:One of the iwan ceilings of Fatima Masumeh Shrine in atabki sahn, Qom, Iran.jpg|thumb|Muqarnas vaulting covered with tilework, seen from below, in the iwan entrance of the [[Fatima Masumeh Shrine]] in [[Qom]], Iran]]
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Further north, in [[al-Andalus]] (present-day Spain), the oldest surviving muqarnas fragments were found in a palace built by [[Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ibn Mardanīsh|Muhammad Ibn Mardanish]] (r. 1147–1172), excavated under the present-day Monastery of Santa Clara in [[Murcia]]. The fragments are painted with images of musicians and other figures.<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|pages=98–100}} It's possible that an even older instance of muqarnas existed in a palace inside the [[Alcazaba of Almería]], dating to the reign of the ''[[Taifa]]'' ruler al-Mu'tasim (r. 1051–1091). The evidence for its existence comes from a written account by [[Al-Udri|al-Udhri]], though the wording may be open to multiple interpretations.<ref name=":3" />
Muqarnas in the Maghreb and al-Andalus evolved a different style and execution from that of muqarnas in the regions to the east.<ref name=":7" /><ref name="jcpg" /> In this western region, the technique was also traditionally denoted by the term {{Transliteration|ar|muqarbaṣ}} in Arabic and it can also be denoted by the present Spanish term {{Lang|es|mocárabe}}.<ref name=":7" /><ref name="archnet.org" /><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vílchez |first=José Miguel Puerta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYYMZV9fZd8C |title=Reading the Alhambra: A Visual Guide to the Alhambra Through Its Inscriptions |publisher=Edilux |year=2011 |isbn=978-84-95856-30-2 |pages=349 |language=en |translator-last=Trout |translator-first=Jon |quote=Muqarna: [...] in al-Andalus they are known as ''muqarbas'' (in Spanish mocárabes), but in the Islamic east, from whence they originate, they are called ''muqarnas''.}}</ref> This style of muqarnas reached a new level of standardization and always employed the same repertoire of eight possible shapes, regardless of the complexity of the overall composition.<ref name="jcpg">{{Cite journal |last1=Gonzalo |first1=José Carlos Palacios |last2=Alkadi |first2=Rana Munir |date=April 2018 |title=Muqarnas Domes and Cornices in the Maghreb and Andalusia |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00004-017-0367-3 |journal=Nexus Network Journal |language=en |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=95–123 |doi=10.1007/s00004-017-0367-3 |issn=1590-5896}}</ref> Whereas muqarnas in other regions is typically organized in horizontal layers projecting over each other, those in the west are organized in vertical layers. Wood and stucco were also the preferred mediums of muqarnas construction.<ref name="jcpg" />▼
[[File:Doorway - Patio de los Leones - Alhambra.JPG|thumb|Archway with muqarnas in the [[Court of the Lions|Palace of the Lions]] (14th century, [[Emirate of Granada|Nasrid period]]) at the Alhambra in Granada]]
▲Muqarnas in the Maghreb and al-Andalus evolved a different style and execution from that of muqarnas in the regions to the east.<ref name=":7" /><ref name="jcpg" /> In this western region, the technique was also traditionally denoted by the term {{Transliteration|ar|muqarbaṣ}} in Arabic and it can also be denoted by the present Spanish term {{Lang|es|mocárabe}}.<ref name=":7" /><ref name="archnet.org" /><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vílchez |first=José Miguel Puerta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYYMZV9fZd8C |title=Reading the Alhambra: A Visual Guide to the Alhambra Through Its Inscriptions |publisher=Edilux |year=2011 |isbn=978-84-95856-30-2 |pages=349 |language=en |translator-last=Trout |translator-first=Jon |quote=Muqarna: [...] in al-Andalus they are known as ''muqarbas'' (in Spanish mocárabes), but in the Islamic east, from whence they originate, they are called ''muqarnas''.}}</ref> This style of muqarnas reached a new level of standardization and always employed the same repertoire of eight possible shapes, regardless of the complexity of the overall composition.<ref name="jcpg">{{Cite journal |last1=Gonzalo |first1=José Carlos Palacios |last2=Alkadi |first2=Rana Munir |date=April 2018 |title=Muqarnas Domes and Cornices in the Maghreb and Andalusia |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00004-017-0367-3 |journal=Nexus Network Journal |language=en |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=95–123 |doi=10.1007/s00004-017-0367-3 |issn=1590-5896}}</ref> Whereas muqarnas in other regions is typically organized in horizontal layers projecting over each other, those in the west are organized in vertical layers. Wood and stucco were also the preferred mediums of muqarnas construction.<ref name="jcpg" />
Muqarnas eventually reached its highest level of sophistication in the [[Alhambra]] of [[Granada]], built by the [[Emirate of Granada|Nasrids]]. The most impressive domes are found in the [[Court of the Lions|Palace of the Lions]], built in the 14th century.<ref name=":24" /> The dome over the chamber known today as the ''Sala de Dos Hermanas'' ('Hall of the Two Sisters') is one of the most magnificent muqarnas domes in Islamic art, consisting of at least 5000 cells that unfold from a central summit downward into sixteen miniature domes around the dome's perimeter.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Irwin |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M64VYn8Qq-QC |title=The Alhambra |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780674063600 |location= |pages=55 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":44">{{Cite book |last=López |first=Jesús Bermúdez |title=The Alhambra and the Generalife: Official Guide |publisher=TF Editores |year=2011 |isbn=9788492441129 |location= |pages=145 |language=en |chapter=}}</ref>
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[[File:Palatine chapel (Palermo) - Interior 02.jpg|thumb|upright|Painted muqarnas in the [[Cappella Palatina]] in [[Palermo]] (circa 1140), commissioned by [[Roger II of Sicily]]]]Muqarnas was also used by Christian patrons outside the Muslim world, in regions influenced by Islamic art and culture. It is found in some monuments of [[Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture|Arab-Norman architecture]] in 12th-century Sicily. The most impressive example is in the [[Cappella Palatina]] (c. 1140) in [[Palermo]], which has a central nave covered by the largest rectangular muqarnas vault in the world, made of painted wood.<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|pages=102–104}}
[[Armenian architecture]] in the 13th century also made use of muqarnas, spurred by the influence of contemporary Islamic architecture.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maranci |first=Christina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BlRuDwAAQBAJ&dq=armenian+architecture+muqarnas&pg=PA135 |title=The Art of Armenia: An Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-19-026901-2 |pages=135 |language=en}}</ref> Examples of this can be found in the [[Geghard Monastery]], the [[Gandzasar Monastery]], the church in [[Astvatsankal]] (all in present-day Armenia),<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last1=Ghazarian |first1=Armen |last2=Ousterhout |first2=Robert |date=2001 |title=A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1523305 |journal=Muqarnas |volume=18 |pages=146 |doi=10.2307/1523305 |jstor=1523305 |issn=0732-2992}}</ref> and at the Church of the Apostles and the Church of St Gregory of the Illuminator in [[Ani]] (in present-day eastern Turkey).<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Guidetti |first=Mattia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gi1WDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 |title=Architecture and Landscape in Medieval Anatolia, 1100-1500 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4744-1130-1 |editor-last=Blessing |editor-first=Patricia |pages= |language=en |chapter=The ‘Islamicness’ of Some Decorative Patterns in the Church of Tigran Honents in Ani}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=164, 170–171}} In many of these examples, muqarnas vaults are recurring features in the [[Gavit|''gavit''s]] (narthexes) of the churches, which were the locus of much innovation and experimentation in medieval Armenian architecture.<ref name=":12" /> These borrowings of Islamic architectural motifs may have been due to either Ilkhanid or Seljuk influences in the region, although the wide geographic spread of muqarnas usage in this period makes it difficult to pinpoint any specific influence with certainty.<ref name=":10" />{{Rp|page=163}}
Muqarnas is also featured in the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]]-built [[Hagia Sophia, Trabzon|Church of Hagia Sophia]] in [[Trabzon]] (Trebizond), completed in the 13th century.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Eastmond |first=Antony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swVBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47-IA6 |title=Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond |publisher=Routledge |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-351-95722-9 |pages=77–94 |language=en}}</ref> Antony Eastmond, in analyzing this detail of the church and comparing it with other non-Muslim monuments of the period (including Armenian constructions), suggests that ''muqarnas'' could have been adopted into a wider repertoire of architectural motifs and ideas that was shared across Anatolia and the surrounding region at this time.<ref name=":11" />
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