[Andalusi Studies] Arabic epigraphy in the Cloister of San Fernando, Las Huelgas de Burgos

[Cooper, Eleanor]

Dear all,



I am currently a Master’s student under Dr. Tom Nickson at The Courtauld Institute of Art, and am writing my dissertation thesis on the relationship between the mudéjar plasterwork at the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos and the Andalusi textiles found in the royal tombs of the same monastery. The following phrases, found in the plasterwork, have uncertain provenance which, according to Manuel Ocaña Jiménez, do not comply with Christian orthodoxy (please note the transliteration is taken from Pablo Abella Villar’s 2015 PhD thesis and is in Spanish):

  *   هلل الحي - (al- Ḥayy li-lLāh, lo vivo es de Dios)
  *   الله حسبي - (Ḥasbī Allāh, Dios me basta)
  *   كلمة المسیح الله - (al-Masīḥ kalimat Allāh, el Mesías es la palabra de Dios)
  *   الله ناّرب - (Allāh rabbunā, Dios es nuestro Señor)
  *   نورنا یاسع - (Yāsu῾ nῡrunā, Jesús es nuestra luz)
  *   الله روح المسیح - (al-Masīḥ rῡḥ Allāh, el Mesías es el espíritu de Dios)
  *   هلل بركة - (Barakat Allāh, bendición a Dios)
  *   هلل الملك - (al-Mulk li-lLāh, la soberanía es de Dios)
  *   لھدانا والبركة - (al Baraka li-Hudānā, bendición a nuestro Guía)
  *

Miguel Vega Martín, Salvador Peña Martín and Manuel C. Feria García have linked the phrases to similar examples found on Almohad coinage, whereas Pablo Abella Villar theorised that the wording is a result of Mozarabic craftsmanship, owing to the fact that the use of the word یاسع (Yāsu῾) to refer to Jesus Christ pertains to arabic-christian usage.


I was wondering if anyone has come across these phrases in other contexts, Andalusi or otherwise? Is there any precise significance to the wording? If anyone is familiar with these phrases in other contexts, I’d be very interested to learn more.



This is my first post, so I apologise if anything I ask has been mentioned previously. Thank you in advance for any light you may be able to shed on this.



Kind regards,


Ella Cooper

The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 0RN  
www.courtauld.ac.uk 

Now open at The Courtauld Gallery: Reading Drawings
21 January – 4 June 2017

 




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