Qusayr 'Amra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria
From the stony desolation of Jordan's desert, it is but a step through a doorway into the bath house of the Qusayr 'Amra hunting lodge.\ Inside, multicolored frescoes depict scenes from courtly life and the hunt, along with musicians, dancing girls, and naked bathing women. The traveler is transported to the luxurious and erotic world of a mid-eighth-century Muslim Arab prince. For scholars, though, Qusayr 'Amra, probably painted in the 730s or 740s, has proved a mirage, its concreteness...
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"Three features make this book remarkable. First, its scholarship is impeccable, unusually broad, and complete. Second, its author has a clear story to tell. Third, it illuminates the world of Late Antiquity, which is only now beginning to be understood."—Oleg Grabar, author of The Shape of the Holy
1Musil's fairy-tale castle18 June 18981Shaykh Musa / Alois Musil51900 to 19099Publication and its problems12After musil252Luxuries of the bath31The buildings31A hunting lodge in the desert46Nudity57Entertainers and decorative women64Singers and poets793The hunt85The ode and its parts85The art of the hunt89Hunting with nets102Women at the hunt1064"O God, bless the Amir"115Portrait of a prince ...115... In the image of Adam1275The princely patron142The patron's identity142The building a mirror of the man?1636Maintaining the dynasty175A family portrait175The succession to al-Walid II183Grace (?) and victory1917The six kings197A royal delegation197Khusraw, Caesar, the Negus, Roderic ...207From the Dukkan to Damascus2148A captive Sasanian princess227Portrait of a bathing beauty227Beauty contests and displays235Shah-i Afrid2409Qusayr 'Amra contextualized248From inner coherences to contexts248Patrons, artisans, and artists251Mythological themes?257Arabic and Greek265Qusur27210Umayyad self-representation291Constructing a cultural persona291Barbarians in the bath311Philosophers in the bath?316
