Norig Neveu

 

This documentary shows us an important part of Jordan's cultural and architectural heritage, the site of Qusayr 'Amra. Dating back to the Umayyad period, in fact to the first half of the 7^th century, this building was a bath-house for the Umayyad aristocracy. The Umayyad dynasty ruled from 661 to 750. At that time, the caliphs and princes had a conception of power based on mobility, so they only stayed in their capital Damascus for part of the year. Part of this policy was the development of regional administrative centres such as Amman and Aqaba and to establish a significant presence in rural areas. A number of luxury homes were built in the country, known now as Desert Castles. There are eighteen in Jordan, many of which were princely palaces. Their job was as much political, to maintain a close link with local leaders, as economic, to control agricultural production.

 

The Amra Palace in the north-east Mafraq region of Jordan was rediscovered in the nineteenth century by Alois Musil, a Czech traveller who made detailed drawings of it (Musil, 1902). He published them in one of his books and more recent archaeologists have used them as the basis for their work. The architecture has been preserved exceptionally well, the building being particularly famous for its polychrome murals.

 

 There are two parts to this ancient monument. The first is a large reception area. In this part, divided by arches into three aisles, there is the room now known as the throne room because of its mural. It is on the largest wall and shows rulers whose names are given in Greek and Arabic standing round a prince on his throne. This scene is juxtaposed with a picture of woman in bath and above that a hunting scene. The other part of the building, the hamam (what we would now call a Turkish bath), consists of three interconnected rooms: a room for undressing, the tepidarium and then the caldarium. Painted in these rooms are mythological scenes, animals and plants while the dome of the caldarium shows a starry sky (Vibert-Guigue, 2007).

 

Since 1989 the site of Qusayr 'Amra has been the focus of important survey work and restorations, carried out by teams of Franco-Jordanian archaeologists. Its murals are the largest known from the Umayyad period and the diversity of the decorations makes this an important Islamic heritage site, highlighted by Jordan's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The number of visitors here however remains quite low when compared to other historical Jordanian sites (88,246 visitors in 2010 according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities).

 

Aloïs Musil, Ku sejr ʿamra und andere Schlösser östlich von Moab, Vienne, C. Gerold's Sohn, 1902.

Claude Vibert-Guigue, Les peintures de Qusayr 'Amra : un bain omeyyade dans la bâdiya jordanienne, Amman ; Beyrouth ; Damas, Institut français du Proche-Orient, 2007.

Garth Fowden, Qusayr 'Amra: art and Umayyad elite in late antique Syria, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004.

Garth Fowden, Studies on hellenism, christianity and the Umayyads, Athenes, Research centre for Greek and Roman antiquity national hellenic research foundation ; Paris, De Boccard, 2004.