Court of the Lions

The Alhambra tour guide looked earnest enough in providing valuable insight into the history of the palace. Give a person a microphone and a transmitter and their word suddenly becomes legit. The tour guide could’ve said we were entering the ice cream production area of the Alhambra, and we would have been gullible enough to believe her. In fact we had just entered the court of the lions... a very feminine part of the palace with 124 columns by the border with ornate stucco panels. She began continuing her daily spiel she gives all the tourists... “The court of the lions was home to the royal harem to the right and the wives to the left. But its eunuch guards didn’t guard it carefully enough. In the hall of abencerrages, the sultan boabdil invited 39 members of abencerrage clan for dinner and had them slaughtered after he discovered one of his favorite concubines Zoradya was having an affair with a person in the clan. The struggle for zoradya led to the downfall of Granada to the Christians in 1492. The lion fountain was originally made for a jewish palace but later assigned by the Muslims to guard the harem. The 12 lions support the fountain and symbolize the 12 zodiac signs. And the 4 water channels that cross the courtyard represent the 4 rivers of paradise... “ I began daydreaming this to be my favorite part of the palace, and all the Arabic inscriptions on the wall probably read “allahu akbar” or god is great. I imagined the sultan looking into the royal baths and choosing his companion for the night.

Reading history books on the court of lions I’m finding the myths, while entertaining, may not be true after all. The court of the lions was a madrasa and would have lodged scholars of the Koran. Madrasas were used to train administrators and give advanced teachings of Arabic. The court of lions highly resembles the Moroccan madrasa at Sale in its small size, highly ornate ground floor, bare upper story, and inclusion of a central fountain built in the middle of a marble courtyard. The court of lions was positioned where one would expect a madrasa to be... between the comares palace and the garden cemetery. The madrasa would’ve contained a library. In 1499 all the Arabic manuscripts were burned per cardinal cisneros’ orders. The hall of abencerrages would have been the prayer room. All the inscriptions there are Koranic, non secular. The room for the harem was probably where the muqqudam (headmaster) lived. So instead of daydreaming of belly dancing singing girls on oriental rugs, I found myself thinking of old bearded scholars distributing religious texts and loaves of unleavened bread to young male students training seriously on scholarship and prayer to be bureaucrats for the sultan.

If Charles V hadn’t demolished the original facade of the court which included inscriptions it its original use, the court of lions’ intended use would not be disputed today. All that is left today is the building architecture and this poem at the base of the court of lions fountain by Ibn Zamrak (1333-1393 secretary of the royal chancellery and prime minister considered to be the most brilliant of the poets of the Alhambra).

“May The One who granted the imam Mohammed with the beautiful ideas to decorate his mansions be blessed. For, are there not in this garden wonders that God has made incomparable in their beauty, and a sculpture of pearls with a transparently light, the borders of which are trimmed with seed pearl? Melted silver flows through the pearls, to which it resembles in its pure dawn beauty. Apparently, water and marble seem to be one, without letting us know which of them is flowing. Don't you see how the water spills on the basin, but its spouts hide it immediately? It is a lover whose eyelids are brimming over with tears, tears that it hides from fear of a betrayer. Isn't it, in fact, like a white cloud that pours its water channels on the lions and seems the hand of the caliph, who, in the morning, grants the war lions with his favours? Those who gaze at the lions in a threatening attitude, (knows that) only respect (to the Emir) holds his anger. Oh descendant of the Ansares, and not through an indirect line, heritage of nobility, who despises the fatuous: May the peace of God be with you and may your life be long and unscathed multiplying your feasts and tormenting your enemies!”