THE MIRADOR IN ABBASID AND HISPANO-UMAYYAD GARDEN TYPOLOGY

Abstract

Madinat al-Zahra) , the most outstanding example of Hispano-Umayyad palace architecture, was built on the slope of a mountain west of Cordoba in order to exploit the views this elevated site offered. Along with the ring of suburban palaces surrounding the Umayyad capital of Cordoba, Madinat al-Zahra) has often been compared to Abbasid Samarra, a 35-kilometer stretch of palaces built in the middle of the ninth century along the Tigris River outside of Baghdad. When the Umayyad caliphs in Syria were overthrown by the Abbasids in the middle of the eighth century, the surviving Umayyad claimant to the caliphate fled to al-Andalus and established a kingdom with Cordoba as its capital. In addition to urban building projects such as the monumental mosque, the Umayyad princes built palatial villas, called qusuir (sg. qasr) or munan (sg. munya), in the countryside around the city. One of the last of these, Madinat al-Zahra), was a city in its own right. Madinat al-Zahra) is located seven kilometers west of Cordoba. It was begun in 936 by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir; construction continued throughout his reign and that of his son al-Hakam. At the latter's death in