Reflections on a Bridge and Its Waters: Fleeting Access at Jazirat b. ʿUmar / Cizre / ʿAin Diwar = Reflections on a Bridge and Its Waters: Fleeting Access at Jazirat b. ʿUmar / Cizre / ʿAin Diwar

Abstract

AbstractWhether for medieval or modern audiences, the Zangid bridge at Jazirat b. ʿUmar / Cizre / ʿAin Diwar has been integrally linked to its waters. Historically, reflections of its dome-like arch, astrological reliefs, and Kufic calligraphy shimmered on them in shifting combinations. The bridge and its waters thereby together expressed the widespread poetic trope of the earth as the mirror of the heavens, the causal link medieval audiences believed existed between terrestrial and celestial realms, and the highly elusive nature of earthly access to heavenly influences. In the modern world, the same waters define the troubled state border between Syria and Turkey. As a result, scholarly access to the bridge has also been highly elusive, making it particularly vulnerable to theft, and endangering our access to the past. The bridge ultimately exemplifies both the sophistication of medieval relationships between art and nature, and the inescapable ways the present impedes historical inquiry.