The Amiriya Palace Mosque In Rada - At the Edge Of Design

The main road from Sana`a to the south divides at Dhamar. One branch continues south to Taiz and Aden, the other runs south-east towards to Rada and AlBayda. One can see from distance, the impressive fortified town of Rada. Rada became the capital of the Tahirid Kingdom (1454-1517), of Sultan Abdul Wahab ibn Tahir, which took Aden and Zabid from the once influential and powerful ruling Rasulids who were based in Taiz.

Rada is famous for its mud-brick citadel and the flair of the design of its mosque, palace, the Amiriya, and has an atmosphere of its own. The town of Rada sitting on a broad plain beneath a range of mountains that stretch row upon row into the distance. The plain is divided into rectangular wheat fields that seem to grow right into the town. The rugged brown grey Rada mountains – were suddenly transformed into vibrant green pastures. Around these steep and tangled valleys the north – east monsoon winds, are driven upwards by the terrain, rising and cooling, the moisture they have picked up on their sea crossing condenses and falls as rain in quantities sufficient to support extensive agriculture of that area.

The Amiriya Mosque was built in 1512 in a unique style with no minarets. It stands on a raised platform, revealing a striking qiblah and arcaded loggias. The ablution hall has ancient Himyarite columns. The lofty hills of Rada create a dramatic silhouette, out of which the mosque palace was to be born. Sultan AbdulWahab of the Tahirid Dynasty was not only a great administrator but a lover of art also. He was influenced by art and beauty which could make him feel imaginative or creative. It expressed the depth of his spirit. His brain thirsting for knowledge, his heart for love and his senses, all his sense alert of gratified. The Tahirid Sultans also improved the road network of the country and encouraged new methods in irrigation and agriculture.

The Amiriya Islamic School, was a remarkable scientific and religious educational center in its day. Students form across the Arab and Islamic regions came to the school in search of knowledge. Intricate geometric patterns, and established architectural conventions - including that of a dome set on a wedge-shaped drum. Probably employing Hindu artisans, the sultan AbdulWahab built several mosques, palaces, tombs, and although a massive screen of five lofty arches gives the front of the prayer hall an Islamic flavor, the carved calligraphic inscriptions betray the hands of Hindu craftsmen in their naturalistic, curving lines.

The interaction between India and Islam under the Moghuls would produce the most creative encounter between the two cultures. By blending elements from Persia and India, the Moghuls in India would create one of the most sophisticated civilizations and fashioned a new, distinctive Indo-Islamic architectural style. While the one was spare, airy, elegant, born of a desert culture, the other was mysterious, fecund, as luxuriant as India's "vast and trackless forests". Unlike Amiriya, Islamic in its purity of line and proportion and the use of space.

Al-Amiriya Madrasa (School) was commissioned by Sultan Amir bin AbdulWahab of the Banu Taher Dynesty, who ruled the southern part of Yemen from the period of 1489 to 1517. The building takes its name from Sultan al-Zafir Amir (d.1517), one of the last Tahirid rullers. The Tahirids were Sheikhs from the city of Jubban in Rada`a and ran the port of Aden for the Rasulid Sultans, making their fortunes from the profits of the Indian Ocean trade. They were also active patrons of architecture, commissioning and repairing many mosques and schools. Rada`a was Sultan Amir`s favorite town and he honored it by building the major monument of his rule, which bears.

Work began in the month of Rabee`a, the first in the Hejri year of 910, approximately August or September 1504. The date of its completion is unknown. Al-Amiriya is three stories high, its ground floor built from limestone and the two upper floors made of baked brick. The building has the form of a monumental rectangle 40 m long and 23 m wide. On the ground floor, built of blocks are large vaulted halls and a hammam with small individual spaces. The first floor has two large halls, a prayer room with six domes, and apartments on both sides of the corridor which surrounds a central area for ablutions. The top floor has two other apartments, used by sultan Amir when he visited Radà. He ordered lamps lighted in all the windows so that he and his daughter could ride the surrounding hills in the evening. Sweet pleasure of surveying an unknown surrounding accompanied by the thousand sights. Take a good look around you, and you will see only water and greenery, beds in flowers, cyprus trees, sturdy camels, a wooden pavilion on a bare hillock.

The palace mosque presented also Sultan`s unique ability to integrate peoples and culture. Could he have forgotten the proverb that the sea knows no neighbors, the prince has no friends? Sultan AbdulWahab stopped in the doorway. He examined the rooms, its bare walls and its three layers of carpet. The huge diwan, the chandeliers. He greeted those present with a hesitant gesture. Hospices, mosques, caravansaries, citadels and seats of government were built everywhere.

During the epoch the Yemeni states spanned on pilgrimage or trade stations on the plateau or on the coastal plains and the ports. The Rasûlids were ultimately overthrown by a local, but still Sunni, family, the Tâhirids, a name that recalls an important family of the early days of the Abbasids. The decline of the Rasulids follows a familiar pattern, restless Zaydis, revolting Mamluks, internal power struggles and plague. The Rasulid end came formally in 1454 when their emir in Aden surrendered to the Tahirids.

After the early centuries of Islamic rule, Sunnism in Yemen took the form of the Shafi school, being introduced to the country early in the 10th century CE. The Shafi school was vigorous from the 11th century onwards, particularly in the southern half of the country and later in the Tihama. The Tahirids, who were originally tribesmen from the area of Jubban and AlMigranah, south of Rada, of the Shafi school of Sunnism. Based in al Migranah and Jubban in the southern highlands, they gained control over most of Yemen, including Sana`a and several nearby fortresses. They continued similar policies as Rasulids. They were interested in consolidating their positions in the Tihama and the south than in confronting the Zayids in the north. Their capital was seasonally in Rada and Zabid. They would also become associated with the development of agriculture and of major constructions, art and science in towns of Rada and Jubban.

The Tâhirids now witness the epic arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean (1498). Alfonso d'Albuquerque sieged Aden in 1513. This alarmed the Mamluks who realized that their trade monopoly from the Mediterranean to India had been bypassed. They began moving against Yemen. Legend, politics and economics were intimately inter wined. The arrival of Portuguese in the Indian Ocean served as pretext Mamluks to invade from the North though the Hijaz and create an operational base in Yemen. It is generally agreed that the refusal of the last Tahirid ruler to supply the Mamluk fleet which arrived at the island of Kamaran in 1515 precipitated his downfall. Supplied instead by the Zaydis in the North, the Mamluks defeated the Tahirids in Zabid with a combined force that included Ottoman soldiers with muskets and cannons. It was the first time that firearms were used in Yemen. The Mamluks followed the Tahirid sultan through Taiz and Al Migranah:

" Rumours of rains, a chain of voice, imaginings of sand. They all declared themselves ready to die, but they did not die. Not that they weakened or betrayed their cause. Exactly the opposite – they tried to organize the city`s defenses and volunteers. However, it was to no avail. Unseen things, like a song from different shore, pool of wonder. The troops advancing in the direction of Al Migranah. The night before the feast, this night when every wish is granted, was the night of agony, tears, and prayers spend by thousands of families in the precarious shelter of mosques".

The chronicles of the time make no mistake. Amir b. Abdul al-Wahhab, its fourth sultan, was being challenged not by Imam Sharaf al-Din, who for a decade sought to secure leadership of the Zaydis within parts of the northern highlands, the only region beyond Tahirid control, but by a new, foreign political element in the Tihama. This was the mixed force of Egyptians and Ottomans. Within less than a year, this well armed, soldiery had penetrated the interior of Yemen where, at first encouraged by Imam Sharaf al-Din, they displaced the Tahirids from the Tihamah and southern highlands before proceeding northwards. Taking each in their sweep and eventually conquering Sanaa where the Tahirid Sultan was captured and killed. The Zaydis, however, once the Tahirids were defeated, turned against the Mamluks who now threatened in closer ground.

Seasonal monsoon winds in the Ocean fostered commerce in both luxury and essential goods with India and Africa. Stevedores at the port of Aden, 120 miles south of Rada, unloaded spices, Chinese porcelain, gold, precious stones, and textiles. They loaded incense, rice, and dates from Yemeni plantations. The trade fed a renaissance in southern Yemen that culminated with Sultan Amir, a member of the local Tahirid dynasty, also governor of Aden. He would soon rule over a kingdom that stretched from the coasts of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to the vast sand deserts of central Arabia. A melting pot of three seas and continents, Aden was one of the most celebrated cities of Arabia, and owned its riches and importance to being the general entrepot of the great carrying trade which existed between India, Persia, Arabia and Africa. Aden was among the favored ports of call for seamen and caravaneers, at the cross - roads of deserts, lands and oceans. A meeting place and an essential and privileged port of call.

The first European to give a first hand description on Aden at the beginning of the 16th century, was the Italian Ludovico di Varthema. He writes: "Aden is such mighty and powerful that I have hardly seen another city of its might during my life. All big ships anchor at the port coming from India Ethiopia or Persia. The sounds, the smells, the heat and the humidity. A volcano, splendid shores and deep waters, a startling climate, a city with districts, a curious blend of civilizations and beliefs, and a people with gentle nature".

Unlike the Red Sea, whose reef-filled waters and complex wind regime required skilled pilotage, the Arabian Gulf was relatively easy to navigate. While the shores of the Red Sea were sparsely inhabited and almost waterless, the head waters and eastern shore of the Gulf were home to ancient civilization. About the same times writes Ibn Batutta about Aden, as the largest and richest of all the emporia on the Indian Ocean. It is a big city, he says, but no crops, trees of water are found there, during the rainy season water is collected in reservoirs. It is the port for the merchants of India.

Aden was the gateway to Egypt, North Africa and the Mediterranean. The Rasulids of Yemen, the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria and the Delhi sultans all ruled vast dominions with few troops. Control of their hinterlands, the spaces between major cities, was almost impossible. These military dynasties, whose efficacy lay in their "otherness", the Rasulids of Yemen were Turks, linguistically and culturally alien to the people they ruled. Not so the Tahirids, who were a local – Yemeni - dynasty and controlled a large portion of hinterland as well.

A local manufacturing industry based on imported raw materials shows how regular shipping must have been, and how India was not just in high value, low-bulk items like spices. Textiles were always the bread and butter of the Indian Ocean trade, their production involving many ancillary techniques and employing thousands. The lands of Asia were always a matter of hope. As they sailed down the west coast of India, Ibn Battuta counted 12 semi autonomous states, each of which owed its existence to the Indian Ocean trade, and how vulnerable they were. The commerce was largely in the hand of Muslim merchants. The richest towns of all were along the Malabar coast, the main source of the pepper that commanded such high prices in the markets of China, Alexandria and Venice but also of the teak used for building ships. The romance of the spice trade often obscures the fact that the bulk of Indian Ocean shipping was devoted to cargoes like rice, hardwoods, tin, iron ore, horses, weapons, textiles, and other essential commodities.

From the Arabian tradition of seafaring came the lateen sail, which had long allowed Arab dhows and other ships to sail closer to the wind than their Mediterranean counterparts. A solar calendar was as necessary for navigation as it was for agriculture. The Islamic lunar calendar could not be used because there was no correlation between the months and the season. The Persian calendar was used as a navigational calendar, and was used by Indian ocean sailor from the Arabic speaking world. It would include the dates of departure and arrival of ships form India, Hormus, Al-Shihr, Mogadisu and Egypt.

Vasco de Gama`s epochal voyage around the Cape of Good hope in 1498 has often been presented as the irruption of a dynamic technologically advanced western power into an essentially static and backward Asia. Yet the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds in the late 15th century were both responding to common historical forces. When Vasco de Gama set out from Lisbon in 1498, the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria dominated the Middle East. They controlled the key Mediterranean port of Alexandria, Beirut and Tripoli as well as all of the Red Sea and the overland routes of Makkah. The spices of India and the East Indies reached Venice through Mamluk territory, and taxes on the trade provided a significant part of Mamluk revenues. For more than 200 years the Venetians and the Mamluks maintained diplomatic and commercial relations, and their prosperity was interdependent. The Portuguese intrusion into the Indian Ocean was a direct blow to the commercial interests of Venice, and the Venetians did everything they could to encourage the Mamluks to repel the Portuguese. Yet the Mamluk regime was on its last legs. A new power had risen in the Middle East: the Ottoman Turks.

The Portuguese, however, never fully succeeded in monopolizing the commerce of the Indian Ocean. Alfonso de Albuquerque understood that Portugal could not compete on equal terms with the established Indian Ocean trader. They only way to tip the scale was to use force, and he led the Portuguese conquests of Goa, Malacca and Hormus, as well as persistent but unsuccessful attacks on Aden. He knew that the Mamluks were preparing a second fleet at Suez, and he wanted to strike before Aden received reinforcements. Aden was well fortified, with high walls and determined defenders who were perfectly aware that not only their livelihoods were at stake, but the security of the Holy Cities and the pilgrimage routes as well. The Portuguese were forced to withdraw, and their failure meant that Portuguese control of the Indian Ocean trade was only partial. Although they sent annual fleets to blockade the Bal AlMandab, they could not prevent Gujerati ships carrying Sumatran pepper from Acheh from breaking through to Jiddah. By 1545, pepper was one again beginning to arrive in Alexandria.

The Amiriya palace mosque was abandoned, left to collapse into the sand. But let us not speak about people, but what is left of their civilization? What kingdom, science, law and truth existed here? Of the dazzling sights of the past. When my memory clouds over and I feel my reason waver, I get up and turn on all the lights. And this scene from our last trip, we had gone up the mountain, to a deserted corner of Al Miqranah and what a beautiful moment has been granted to us.

The restoration of Amiriya begun in early 1983 using local craftsmen and traditional method, had been done by a team of Yemeni and Italian experts, led by Dr. Selma Al-Radhi. The team of restorers and the craftsmen used restoration techniques similar to the techniques used for the original building of Al-Amiriya. The restoration work took over 22 years to complete. Restored to its splendor, the Amiriya mosque is regarded as one of the finest examples of early medieval architecture in Yemen.

FURTHER READING

Jose Marie Bel Aden, The mythical port of Yemen,
The Amiriya in Rada: The History and Restoration of a Sixteenth Century Madrasa in the Yemen by Selma Al-Radhi.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. A detailed history and study of important Yemeni monument and an account of the commendable effort to restore it.

Inside the Restoration of the Amirya Madrassa
In Discover, Vol 27 No 04, April 2006

The Era of Imam Sharaf al-Din Yahya and his son al-Mutahar (10th/16th Century) Richard Blackburn, University of Toronto, in Yemen Update 41 (2000) 4-8, 74