The Paintings of the Pre-Islamic Kaʿba

Author(s): G. R. D. King
Source: Muqarnas, Vol. 21, Essays in Honor of J. M. Rogers (2004), pp. 219-229
Published by: BRILL
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 G. R. D. KING

THE PAINTINGS OF THE PRE-ISLAMIC KAcBA

In ca. 608, the holiest shrine of Mecca, the Ka'ba, ter and an architect commissioned by the Quraysh to
the BaytAllah, was burned down in a fire caused by a rebuild the Ka'ba for them. He is sometimes said to
careless worshipper with an incense burner, and the have been the master of the sunken Byzantine boat
ruling Quraysh were compelled to rebuild it.1 It was whose wood was used to rebuild the Ka'ba, and he
this rebuilt Ka'ba of ca. 608 that was to become the has been described as a Copt or an Ethiopian.6 While
direction of Islamic communal prayer afterthe revela- the designation of him as a Rum-indicates that he was
tion of Sitratal-Baqara2 in ca. 624, and it was the same from somewhere in the Byzantine Empire, he could
Ka'ba that was cleansed of all trace of pagan practice have been a resident of a place outside the Empire,
when the Prophet Muhammad victoriously entered perhaps on the Red Sea coast, that had contacts with
Mecca in 630.3 the Byzantine world.7
This eradication of sculpturesand paintingsinside the K. A. C. Creswell, citing E. Littmann's opinion,
Ka'ba at the time of the conquest affectedall that the identified the etymologyof the name "Baqum" with
Prophet regarded as unacceptable. A statue of Hubal, "Habakkuk" in an Amharic form, and they both took
the principal male deity of Mecca, was taken out of the view that Baqum was probably Ethiopian.8 There is
the Bayt and destroyed, as were the other pagan dei- also an Ethiopian traditionthat an architectfromEthi-
ties in and around the Ka'ba.4 Apart from these stat- opia went to assist in rebuilding the Ka'ba.9 Al-Azraqi
ues, there were also paintings, undefined decorations records the following:
(hilya), money, and a pair of ram's horns inside the
Baqum al-Rumisaid to [theQuraysh]:"Do youwantthe
Ka'ba, the last said to have belonged to the ram sacri- roof [of the Ka'ba] pitched or flat?" "Rather build the
ficed by the Prophet Ibrahim in place of his son, the
house of our Lord (rabb) flat."He [apparentlyal-Azraqi's
Prophet Isma'il.5 Most of these paintings were erased. grandfather,Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Azraqi] said: "So
The ram's horns surviveduntil 683.
theybuilt it flatand theyput in it six columns (dac'im)
With the picturesand statuesof thejahiliyyaremoved, in two rows: in each row were three columns from the
the Ka'ba continued in itsrole as the directionof Islamic northeast (shdmi) corner (shaqq) where is the [Black]
prayerbut now also became a central part of the rituals Stone, to the southwest (yamani) corner, and they made
of the Islamic pilgrimage,the hajj. The Ka'ba remained itsexternalheightfromthe ground to itssummiteighteen
in the form it had acquired under the Quraysh until it cubits(dhird~)high,and previously[the pre-QurayshKa'ba]
was rebuilt by 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr afterthe Umay- had been nine dhird'high. The Quraysh added another
nine dhira' to the upper part,'o and theybuilt it fromthe
yads had bombarded it with catapults, demolishing
its walls and setting it on fire as they besieged Ibn al- top to the bottom with courses (madamdk) of stone and
courses of wood, and fifteencourses were of wood and
Zubayr in the Holy City in 64 (683). This latter date
marks the final destruction of any paintings that sur- sixteencourses were of stone,and theyfixeditswater-spout
vived the coming of Islam in 630. If 630 is the termi- (mizab) thatpours forth[water] in stone, and theyplaced
wooden steps inside it at the shdmicorner to ascend by
nus ante quemfor the Ka'ba paintings, the fact that the
them to its rear (zahraht), and theydecorated its ceiling
Quraysh work entailed a total reconstruction of the and its internal wall surfaces and its columns, and they
building also makes it clear that none of the paintings put on its columns pictures of the Prophets (al-anbiyai'),
could predate ca. 608.
pictures of trees,and pictures of the angels (al-mald'ika),
Al-Azraqirecords in some detail the eventssurround- and there was a picture of the Prophet Ibrahim Khalil
ing the rebuilding of the Ka'ba by the Quraysh. Baqum al-Rahman with divining arrows, and a picture of 'Isa
al-Rumi, a foreigner present at Mecca, was a carpen- b. Maryam and his mother [i.e., Jesus and Mary], and a

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220 G. R. D. KING

pictureof theangels (al-mala'ika),upon thembe peace, [b.Musaal-Shami]

Sulayman saidto ['Ata'b.AbiRabah]:
all of them.And whenit was the dayof the conquestof "The pictures of the representations (tainmathld
suwar) of
Mecca, the Prophet(peace be upon him) entered,and devils('afarit,
sc.idols)thatwerein theHouse[i.e.,the
he sent offal-Fadlb. al-'Abbasb. 'Abd al-Muttalib(his Ka'ba],whoobliterated them?"He said:"I do notknow,
cousin) to come withwaterfrom[thewellof] Zamzam. other than that theywere obliterated,withthe exception
Then he calledfora cloth,and he ordered[them]to rub ofthosetwopictures ['Isab. Maryam andMarvam].
I saw
offthese pictures,and theywere obliterated."' them[i.e.,therest]andtheir obliteration." said:
IbnJurayj
"Then'Ata'returnedto thesketchofthesixcolumnsthat
The manner of construction with alternating courses he haddrawn inplan.Thenhe said:'Therepresentation
of wood and stone has long since been discussed by of'Isa andhismother,uponthembe peace,wasin the
K. A. C. Creswell, and while the origin of the building middleof therowthatwasinfront
ofthedoorthatwecame
technique remains open to discussion, the character whenweentered[theKa'ba]."'Mygrandfather
through
of the construction does not (see Appendix below). [Ahmadb. Muhammad said:"Da'udb. 'Abd
al-Azraqi]
Al-Azraqi makes it clear that a system of alternating al-Rahman
toldmethat'Amrb. Dinarsaid:'A [picture]
courses was used, sixteen of stone and fifteenof wood. of 'Isa b. Marvamand his motherwas setin the interior
The method of building involved locking the rounded of theKa'ba beforethe destruction
of the idols.'
ends of the wooden tie beams into each other at the
Furtheron, al-Azraqisayson theauthority ofhisgrand-
corners, the rounded tie beam ends being termed
fatherthatDa'ud b. CAbdal-Rahmanhad it fromIbn
monkey-heads" in Ethiopia.12 Inside the Ka'ba were
two rows of columns ranked in groups of three-six in JurayjfromSulaymanb. Musa fromJabirb. 'Abd Allah,
thattheProphetsuppressedthe pictures,i.e., thosein
all-serving to support the flatroof.As to the wood, no the Ka'ba, and thathe ordered'Umar b. al-Khattabat
mention is made of its type,but given that it was from
the timeof the conquest of Mecca to enter the Bayt
a boat, it was possibly teak, the normal wood used for
Allah(the Ka'ba) to obliteratethe pictures.15There is
traditionalboats around the coasts of Arabia. Teak was
also an accountthatsaysthe Prophetrefusedto enter
used subsequently at Mecca and Medina in the early
theKa'ba untiltheevidenceofpre-Islamic worshiphad
Islamic period when the roofingof the Haram Mosque
been removed.This could be takento contradictthe
and the Mosque of the Prophet was renewed by the
storyofhisprotecting thepictureof'Isa b. Maryamand
third Caliph, cUthman b. cMAffan.
hismother.However,itmaybe thathe refusedto enter
The walls and columns would have to have been
theKa'ba untiltheremovalof theportableidolsinside
coated with plaster, since they carried paintings that
it: the paintings,lbeing muralsratherthan portable
hardly could have been applied directlyto the stone
and wood. We still encounter the use of thick plaster
works,could not be removedin the same way,as they
wereon the columnsand walls.The episode involving
on the coral buildings of old Jidda and elsewhere on
Fadl b. al-'AbbascollectingwaterfromZamzamforuse
the Red Sea coast, and in some cases on the stone-
built architecture of the highlands of Saudi Arabia by the Prophet'sCompanionsto wipe offthe pictures
and Yemen.13 impliesthis.It wasaroundthecolumnwiththepicture
of 'Isa b. Marvamand hismotherthattheProphetput
While the painted decoration of the Ka'ba covered
his arms to protectit while lettinghis Companions
much or all of the interior of the building, the exte-
erase everything else.17 This accountsuggeststhatthe
rior was without paintings, adorned instead with the
Prophet indeed entered theKa'ba despitethepresence
kiswa, a cloth cover. Its origins are said to be Yemeni,
of the pictures.
the firstkiswa brought to Mecca by the Yemeni Tubba'
Asad Abu Karib Himyari some time before the advent
THE PAINTING MATERIALSAT THE KAcBA
of Islam.
As we have seen, al-Azraqi states that on the day of
Al-Bukhariuses thephrase"so theytookout [thetwo]
the Islamic conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ordered
picturesof..." whichimpliesthat
(fa-akhrajisi7tratay),
that the pictures in the Ka'ba should be destroyed,but
the paintingswere portable,but al-Azraqi'sMeccan
several sources also cited by al-Azraqi record that the
sources consistentlyindicate that the KaIba paintings
painting showing cIsa b. Maryam and his mother was were on the columns or the walls of the building, and
spared on the Prophet's instructions:14 that theywere erased by rubbing them off,as we have
seen, rather than carrying them out for breaking or

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 THE PAINTINGS OF THE PRE-ISLAMIC KA'BA 221
burning. It is possible that al-Bukhari conflates the shown with 'Isa in her lap, suggesting that he was a
removal of sculptures from the Ka'ba with the destruc- child. The term "in her lap"(fi hijriha) is veryspecific
tion of the paintings. and stronglyimplies that she was seated. This iconog-
As explained above, the likelihood is that the inte- raphy of the seated Virgin withJesus in her lap, which
rior walls of the Ka'ba were coated with plaster and was to become universal in Christian art in later times,
that this plaster would have carried the paintings. The was alreadywidespread in Christianlands by the seventh
Prophet is said to have ordered that the paintings in century,although the depredations of Byzantineicono-
the Ka'ba should be wiped out with a cloth soaked in clasm and the repainting of older pictures have greatly
water drawn fromthe well of Zamzam.18 That waterwas reduced the number of extant images. At Saqqara in
sufficientto wipe offthe pictures stronglysuggeststhat Egypt, a painting of the Virgin holding the Child
the medium of the paintings was water-based. appears in an apse,22 while there is a fourth-century
The practice of painting interiorsof houses stillper- seated Virgin from Madinat al-Fayyumin Egyptnow in
sists in the southern Hijaz highlands and in the cush- Berlin, in the Staatliche Museen.23 A Virgin and Child
ash, or huts, that were still found all along the Red appears on a fragmentarypapyrus leaf from the Alex-
Sea coast of Arabia in the 1970s. The informationthat andrian Chronicle in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow,
we have about the painting of the interior of the pre- dated to ca. the fifthor sixth century.24A sixth-century
Islamic Ka'ba suggests that this decorative traditionin ampulla from Palestine, now at Monza in the Treasury
the southwestof Arabia is one of great antiquity.19How- of the Collegiale, also shows the Virginand Child in the
ever, the paintings done today use industrial oil-based same posture,25as does a Syro-Palestinianivorypanel
paint on plaster and are far more impermeable than now in the British Museum, also dated to the sixth
were those in the seventh-centuryKa'ba. century,which depicts the Adoration of the Magi with
the seated Virgin and Child.26 In the wider Christian
THE TREES world, the same iconography occurs in a mosaic of the
Virgin and Child in the chapel of San Zeno in Santa
Nothing is said by al-Azraqi of the trees that decorated Prassede in Rome, of 817-24 (fig. 1). It is to thisfamily
the interior of the Ka'ba, other than that theyexisted. of images that the adorned Maryam with 'Isa in her
Pictures of trees al-shajara) formed part of the lap in the Ka'ba seems to have belonged.
mosaic decoration(.sira
on the walls of the cathedral of al- From a much earlier date there is a south Arabian
Qalis in Sanaa.20 Subsequently, theywere to appear as a prototype of the seated Maryam hinted at in a votive
principal subject in the Umayyad mosaics in the Dome alabaster panel (fig. 2), dated to the firstcenturyAD
of the Rock, the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina, and and now in the British Museum, of the lady Ghalilat
the Great Mosque of Damascus. The accounts recorded with a musnad inscription stating: "Image of Ghalilat,
by al-Azraqi implythat the tree pictureswere wiped out daughter of Mafaddat, and may Attardestroyhim who
along with the other pictures that he deemed unsuit- breaks it."27Ghalilat is playing an instrumentlike an
able for the Islamicized Ka'Cba. oud, but her posture and the way she holds the instru-
ment stronglysuggest the later Christian motif of the
CISA B. MARYAM AND HIS MOTHER seated Virgin with the Child in her lap. The Ghalilat
panel may indicate Yemeni awareness of an Egyptian
Of the picture of cIsa b. Maryam and his mother, al- traditionof portrayingIsis as the mother of Osiris,itself
Azraqi gives the following informationon the author- an antecedent of the Virgin and Child image.
ityof his grandfather,whose own source was Da'ud b. An interesting additional point of information is
'Abd al-Rahman, who said that Ibn Jurayjhad said that derived from al-Azraqi. As we have seen, the pictures
Sulayman b. Musa al-Shami asked 'Ata' b. Abi Rabah in the Ka'ba also included prophets (al-anbiyd') and
the following: angels (al-mala'ika), the latter mentioned twice by al-
I have heard thattherewas set up in al-Bayt(the Ka'ba) Azraqi. It is possible that the prophet paintings were
a picture(timthal)of Maryamand 'Isa. ['Ata'] said: 'Yes, reallyeither of the apostles of CIsa/Jesusor of other fig-
ures associated withhim and withMaryam.An earlysev-
there was set in it a picture of Maryam adorned (muzaw-
waqan); in her lap, her son 'Isa sat adorned."''2 enth-centuryicon of the Virgin and Child at St. Cathe-
rine's on Mt. Sinai shows Maryseated withJesus on her
This text indicates quite explicitly that Maryam was lap and angels and saints surrounding her,28and an

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222 G. R. D. KING

st
.. .. . ...
..t

.. ....
. . ..:

...
,.~~~~~
:
..- . , ?.
...
Vk..

....
~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
;
-,-.7.... ...:. W.
1 0?

ATi

OW
NO

Fig. 2. Ghalilat,daughterof Mafaddat,firstcentury.British

1.
Fig. Virginand Child. 817-24.
Mosaic, Santa Rome.
Prassede, Museum.(Photo:G. King)
(Photo:G. King)

apse painting at Bawit in Egypt shows the Virgin and If so, this would locate the execution of this particu-
Child enthroned with apostles; it dates to the seventh lar Kacba painting between ca. 608 and 622. Alterna-
century,although it may have been repainted in later tively,he may have seen such a painting in the north
times.29Further south, in Nubian Christian churches during his youth when he visited Bostra, or, less likely,
from an early date, pictures (mainly found in apses) in 630, when he visited Tabuk, apparently a former
showJesusaccompanied byother figures.Thus in eighth- Byzantine garrison,where he also received a Christian
to-tenth-century apse paintings at Nobatia and Dongola leader from Ayla.30
are found representations of Christ, sometimes with He certainly knew people who had seen Christian
Mary and alwaysattended by his disciples. These paint- paintings. Some of his wives and Companions became
ings may give us some guidance as to the nature of the familiarwith Christian art during their sojourn as the
lost paintings of sixth-centuryAksum, one of the clos- firstMuslim muhajiru-nin Habasha (Ethiopia), having
est Christiancenters to Mecca and a plausible source of departed from Mecca in 615. When the Prophet was
the iconography-and perhaps the style-of the paint- on his deathbed, his wife Umm Habiba described to
ing of 'Isa b. Maryam and Maryam in the Kacba. him the paintings that she had seen in the Church of
Was the Prophet able to identifythe picture because St. Mary Zion at Aksum.31
he was familiarwithit before he leftfor Medina in 622? An interestingstatement from that rarity,a female

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 THE PAINTINGS OF THE PRE-ISLAMIC KAcBA 223
authorityfor a pre-Islamic episode, Asma' bint Shiqr, is and Ismacil are said to have been represented holding
preservedby al-Azraqi;it suggeststhatthe 'Isa b. Maryam arrows.
and Maryam painting in the Quraysh Kacba was readily The Qur'an specificallyrejects arrow divining,and,
recognizable as such to early-seventh-century Christians given the rejection of idolatry that characterizes Ibra-
as well as to the Prophet Muhammad. It appears that him's faith as portrayed by the Qur'an, it was entirely
the following episode took place in the context of the inappropriate in the Prophet Muhammad's view that
pre-Islamic hajj, presumably after ca. 608 and before either Ibrahim or his son should have been associated
630. Al-Azraqi reports, according to Ibn Shihab: in a paintingwiththisforbiddenpractice. The rejection
of arrow divination in Sfiratal-Mi'ida is specific:
Asma'bintShiqrsaid:"AwomanfromGhassanmade the
pilgrimageduringthe [pagan] pilgrimageof the Arabs O yewho believe!
(hijjatafthajj al-'arab),and whenshe saw the pictureof Intoxicants
and gambling,
Maryamin the Ka'ba she said: 'By myfatherand my (Dedicationof) stones,
mother,youbelongto theArabs.'32 And (divinationby) arrows[al-azldm]
Are an abomination-
This appears to be independent confirmation of the Of Satan'shandiwork:
identityof the figuresin the picture that the Prophet Eschewsuch (abomination),
spared. Whether the figure of Maryam looked Arab, That ye mayprosper.35
stimulatingthe Ghassan woman's response, or whether
the woman was surprised that the Arabs of the Hijaz The same sura also listsdiviningwithmany other prac-
had a respected picture of Mary/Maryamin Mecca's tices that are forbidden:36
holiest shrine is unclear. The Ghassanid woman cer- (Forbidden)also is the division
tainlymightbe expected to recognize a painting of the (Of meat) byraffling37
Virgin, given the depth of Christian influence among Witharrows[tastaqsimut bi 'l-azlam]:
thatis impiety."
the Ghassan Arabs, whose churches and shrines were
scattered across Syria.33 According to al-Azraqi:38
On another level, one cannot but wonder what a ...Shihab(said) thatthe Prophet(peace be upon him)
woman of the Ghassan was doing visitinga pagan shrine enteredtheKa'ba thedayof theconquest,and in itwas
in the Hijaz so late as ca. 608 to 630, when the Ghassan a pictureof theangels(mala'ika)and others,and he saw
had long been officiallyChristian.Yet she was not alone a pictureof Ibrahimand he said: "MayAllah killthose
representing himas a venerableold man castingarrows
among the Ghassan in respectingpagan faith.The trea- in divination(shaykhan bi 'l-azldm)."
Then he saw
yastaqsim
suryat the pagan goddess Manat's shrine of al-Mushal- thepictureof Maryam, so he put his handson it and he
lal at Qudayd in the Hijaz owned two swords that the said: "Erasewhatis in it [theKa'ba] in thewayofpictures
Ghassanid prince al-Harith b. Abi Shamir al-Ghassani
exceptthe pictureof Maryam."39
had dedicated to the idol. Al-Harithled an expedition
to Khaybar in 567, and he apparentlywas veryinvolved Al-Bukhari (d. 256/870) records the episode as fol-
in Hijaz matters.34Despite being a Christian,he had no lows:
compunction about presenting giftsto Manat: presum- It was relatedthatIbn 'Abbas said: "Whenthe Prophet
ably old pagan habits died hard, although al-Harith's came to Mecca he refusedto go intothe Ka'ba as idols
action may have had a diplomatic element to it. The werestillinsideit.He orderedthemremoved
(al-dlihatu)
Ghassan retained a trading presence at Mecca under and so theywereremoved.The people tookout thepic-
the Quraysh, and they may have felt it worthwhileto turesofIbrahimand Isma'ilholdingarrows(fa-amara bi-ha
pay their respects to the Meccan shrine. fa-ukhrijat,
fa-akhrajft Ibrahim
sutratay ftaydi-hima
wa-Ismtil
al-azldm)and theMessengerofGod said: 'MayGod oblit-
THE PROPHETS IBRAHIM AND ISMACIL eratethesepeople. ByGod! Theyknewwellthatneither
Ibrahimnor Ismaileverdivinedwitharrows.'Then he
enteredthe Ka'ba and said 'God is Great'at itscorners,
Al-Azraqi says that among the paintings in the Kacba but he did notprayin it."40
was another that showed the Prophets Ibrahim and
Ismacil. Ibrahim was shown as an old man (shaykhan). AI-Azraqireportsthe Prophet as sayingsomething simi-
In other versions preserved by al-Azraqi, both Ibrahim lar and declaring in anger, "Allah will kill them [who

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224 G. R. D. KING

portrayed Ibrahim and Ismacil thus], for they never THE SOURCES OF THE KA'BA PAINTINGS
cast arrows (lam yastaqsama bi 'l-azlm) ."41
It has been suggested by T. Fahd that in pre-Islamic While we have lost the Kacba paintings themselves,we
Mecca Ibrahim was subsumed in some wayinto Hubal.42 know enough of the cIsa b. Maryam and Maryam pic-
Since arrow divination constituted a central aspect of ture to attempt,in a verygeneral sense, to put it in con-
Hubal's cult, and Hubal's statue stood inside the Ka'ba, text of contemporarypaintings of the Virgin and Child
it seems plausible that one of the arrow-bearingfigures in the Christianworld. For the pictures of Ibrahim and
inside the KaCbawas in factHubal ratherthan Ibrahim. Ismacil the case is far harder.
If the figure of the venerable old man with arrowswas We know that Ibrahim (or Hubal) was portrayedas
indeed Hubal, then the second figureno longer needs an old man and that he had arrowsfor divination. Pic-
to be identified as Ismacil, but it is unclear whom it turesof old or bearded men abound in Byzantine-related
would have represented. art, but pictures of arrow diviners do not. The figures
This point about the identityof the figures in the of St. John the Baptist in the Baptisteryof the Ortho-
paintings and the Prophet's understanding of them is dox (440-520) and the Arian Baptistery(ca. 520), both
importantand may contributeto a more complex inter- in Ravenna, the sixth-centuryfigures of Abraham in
pretation of the question of the dating of the paint- San Vitale at Ravenna and of the prophets in the apse
ing cycle. Why should the Prophet have taken the fig- of St. Catherine's at Sinai, and the conventional rep-
ure with arrows in the Ka'ba to be Ibrahim if it was resentations of apostles and church elders that appear
really Hubal, Mecca's greatest male deity and one we ubiquitously in Byzantine-relatedart all could be called
know to have been associated with arrow divination? shaykhan.Shaykhanfigures also appear in an entirely
As a Meccan, the Prophet might be expected to have differentcontext in the Umayyad secular paintings at
been aware of the identityof the painting of Mecca's Qusayr 'Amra; theyapparentlystem froman older Syr-
principal pagan god in the Ka'ba, and he would have ian tradition of which we are ignorant. But while all
been familiarwith the deities with which the Quraysh such figuresin Byzantine and Umayyad art are venera-
had filled the Haram of Mecca in the period when he ble and old and could be described as being shaykhan,
was powerless to oppose them, before he departed on there is absolutely nothing to link any of them to the
his hijra in 622. Although he was the Prophet of the Ibrahim/Hubal painting, not least because none are
Muslim community,as a theologically knowledgeable associated with arrows and divination, the only visual
Meccan he presumably had detailed experience of the attributewe know of these particular Kac'ba represen-
beliefs of the pagan Quraysh, even if he resoundingly tations.
rejected theirwhole belief system.The accounts of his We know too little of any of the pictures in the
suppression of the shrinesof paganism throughoutwest- Ka'ba-whether of cIsa b. Maryam and Maryam, of
ern Arabia in his Medinan years show his knowledge Ibrahim and Ismacil, or of the trees-to make any
of the Hijaz jahiliyyashrines and their cults, and if he estimate of their specific style.Thus, discussion of the
knew of more distantshrinesand theirpractices,he cer- likelyinspiration or source of the Ka'ba paintings can
tainlymust have known a great deal more about those only be a matterof recitingthe possible contemporary
of Mecca, where he had lived for so long parallels, with no firm conclusion as to the origin of
One could argue that the painting said to be of Ibra- the artist (or artists) who painted them. Furthermore,
him was executed after the Prophet had left Mecca in the Ka'ba paintings coincide with a period for which
622. If this were the case, then he would have seen it there is a paucity of extant paintings fromArabia and
for the firsttime in 630 and interpreted a picture that the Near East as a whole.
actually represented Hubal witharrowsas representing WithinArabia,our knowledgeof the Christianmosaics
Ibrahim. We are unlikelyever to ascertain the answer to and paintings of Najran and Sanaa in Yemen is entirely
any of this,and we will alwaysbe trapped in the realm dependent on literarysources, although the paintings
of speculation. But if the figure of the old man with excavated at Qaryat al-Faw and Shabwa give us some
arrowswas indeed painted between 622 and 630, then idea of motifscirculatingin southernArabia in the early
this would constitute evidence that the KaIba paint- firstmillennium AD. Of Christian painting in eastern
ings gradually accumulated afterthe KaIba was rebuilt, Arabia and the Gulf we know nothing.
rather than being the product of a single campaign of The Sasanian world presents a total loss of painting,
decoration in ca. 608, as al-Azraqi implies. Nestorian or otherwise,while in the ByzantineEmpire,

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 THE PAINTINGS OF THE PRE-ISLAMIC KA BA 225
thecarnageoficonoclasmhas deprivedus of iconsand to Syria-and theirtradingconnectionswithEthiopia
mostotherworkdatingto before726, and we have to sincethetimeofCAbdal-Muttalib, theProphet'sgrand-
look to Italyforthesurvival ofmuralsofanysortin this father, all providedanynumberofopportunities forthe
period.In Syriaand Palestine,betweentheDura Euro- Meccans to have encounteredpaintingsincludingthe
pos paintingsof the thirdcenturyand the Umayyad Virginand Child image.Evidenceofvisitsto Palestine
paintingsand wallmosaicsof the eighth,thereare no is providedbythe deathat Gaza of Hashimb. CAbdal-
greatmuralsextant,whilelaterrepaintinghas contrib- Manafin the pre-Islamicperiod,whilethe Prophetas
utedto thelossofmanyearlyChristian muralsin Egypt, a child is said to have visitedBostrain southernSyria,
Nubia, and Ethiopia.43 St. Catherine'sat Mt. Sinai is and 'Amrb. al-'AsvisitedEgyptbeforeIslam. In these
unique in terms of the preservation qualityof its circumstances,
and manypossibilitiesofferthemselvesfor
mosaicsand icons fromthisperiod. theMeccansto haveseen picturesthatcould haveinflu-
The rangeof motifscirculatingin the Near East in enced theirchoice of paintingsin the Ka'ba.
theearlyseventhcenturyis emphasizedbythediversity The factthatthearchitectof theKa'ba, Baqum, has
ofsubjectmatterpreservedat thedeeplyeclecticQusayr been associatedwithEthiopiaor Egyptfavorsthepossi-
'Amra (after712). But the verywealthof motifsalso ble impactof the paintingtraditionof eitherplace on
servesto remindus of the extentof our ignoranceof the Meccan paintings.While the accountsof Baqum's
late antique secularpaintingin Syria.For all we know skillsonlyreferto him as an architectand carpenter
the arrow-divining old man representedin the Ka'ba and neversuggestthathe wasa painter,hisinvolvement
could have been a common motifin the region,but providesthecircumstances thatwouldhavefavoredthe
withsuch loss of immediately pre-Islamicpainting in influence ofpainting from hisownplace oforigin.The
the Near East we have no means of ever demonstrat- case forthiswouldbe weaker,however,ifat leastsome
ing the point. of the Ka'ba paintingsaccumulatedover time,rather
A source of the iconographyused in the Ka'ba that than being produced immediatelyafterthe comple-
cannotbe excludedis theilluminatedcodex,forthere tion of the building.
is shadowyevidencethatbookscirculatedin some con- While Ethiopia and Egyptare candidates for the
textsin ArabiabeforeIslam.Mosttellingin thisrespect source of the Ka'ba paintings,a barelyunderstood
are referencesto books thatappear as imageryin pre- channel of influencethatcould have affectedMecca
Islamicpoetry.For thesepoems to havesignificance to is theinternalArabiantraditionofpainting.EarlyMus-
an Arabianaudience,thataudiencemusthavebeen able limsencounteredpaintingsin thechurchesof Najran,
to conjure up somethingmeaningfulwhen the term a pointmade clear bya reportfromal-Hasanb. Salih
"book"was used bya poet. The Qur'an also reflectsa preservedby al-Baladhuri,who recordsthe Prophet's
knowledgeof books, in the sense of textswrittenon treatywiththe Christiansof Najran,in whichsecurity
sheets(suhfJ), in theearlysurasrevealedto theProphet waspromisedfortheirimages(amthila):"The statethey
whenhe was stillat Mecca.44Fromthis,one mayinfer previously held shall not be changed,nor shall anyof
thatthosehearingtheseMeccan surashad some idea theirreligiousservicesor imagesbe changed.""' How-
of whatsuhtfwere.The questionof wheresuch puta- ever,one cannotassesswhattheQurayshknewofNajran
tivebooks at Mecca mayhave originatedleavesus with and itsChristianpicturesbeforeIslam,althoughsince
the same range of possibilitiesas do our attemptsto it was a major caravantownof SouthwestArabia they
seek antecedentsforthe Ka'ba paintingsin muralsor would possiblyhave visitedit. They certainlyknewof
mosaicsbeyondMecca: giventhe commercialcontacts the greatchurchof al-Qalisat Sanaa, whichwas deco-
of theQuraysh,itis Palestine,Syria,Egypt, Yemen,and ratedwithmosaics.
Ethiopiathatsuggestthemselvesonce again. We knownothingof what,ifanything, the Meccans
Whateverartwas circulatingin Mecca and western knew of the veryfewexamples of southernArabian
Arabia,itmustalso be consideredthatthetradingcon- paintingthathave survivedor the traditionsto which
nectionof the Qurayshtook themregularlyto lands theybelonged.All of thesethathave been published,
where paintings, mosaics, and illuminated books were as far as I am aware, are from excavations at Shabwa
common, and that any of these places could have pro- in Hadramut and from Qaryat al-Faw on the western
vided the inspiration and perhaps the models for the edge of the EmptyQuarter in Saudi Arabia. The Shabwa
Qurayshpaintingsin the KaJba. The winterand summer painting,which was in the National Museum at Aden,46
caravans of the Quraysh-the one to Yemen, the other is dated to the third centuryand is from the royal pal-

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226 G. R. D. KING

ace. It showsthelarge-eyed faceofa figurewitha quite of income.The pious expenditureof the Qurayshon
well-defined robe thathas echoes of classicism,or at the Ka'ba and its deitiesis reflectedin the gold that
least of the late antique. The farmore varied group was used to repairthe lost hand of the Hubal statue,
excavatedat Qaryatal-Fawis dated to beforethe early in thedonationof thekiswa,and, indeed,in thewhole
fourthcentury;47 it is now in the archaeologymuseum projectof rebuildingthe shrinein ca. 608.
in KingSaud University in Riyadh.Since thefirstpubli- We cannotassesshowtypicalthepainteddecoration
cationof theQaryatal-FawpaintingsbyA. R. al-Ansary, of the Ka'ba may have been, as we have no detailed
yetmore have been foundat the same site. knowledgeofthedecorationoftheotherpaganshrines
Betweenthem,Shabwaand Qaryatal-Fawprovidethe of early-seventh-century Arabia,such as the apparently
onlyextantevidenceforthe existenceof a pre-Islamic major haramof al-Lat,Manat, and Hubal at al-Ta'if,
Arabianpaintingtradition and,whileincompletely pub- or that of Dhu'l-Khalasaat Tabala, or the rest.Fur-
lished, furnish a unique body of information about the thermore,whilethe relativewealthof some shrinesis
natureof paintingin Arabiain the centuriesthatpre- impliedin accountsof theirdestructionon the orders
cede the executionof the muralsin the KaCba. of the Prophet,it is difficultto assesswhatconstituted
The wall paintingsat Qaryatal-Fawvarystylistically,greatwealthin pre-IslamicwesternArabia.
indicatingdifferent handsand probablydifferent peri- Certainly,the natureof theworkof the Qurayshon
ods. The finestof thepublishedpaintingsfromQaryat the Ka'ba does not suggestgreatexpenditurein abso-
al-Fawis fragmentary, and it showsthe face of a man lute terms,and indeed,forall theirtrade,theQuraysh
accompaniedby two small figures to eitherside,perhaps seem to have had limitedresourcesforthe embellish-
further backspatially butmorelikelyoflesserstatus.48 A mentoftheshrinein theircustody.One is leftwiththe
clusterof grapesand a vine branchformspartof the impressionthattherebuiltKa'ba of ca. 608 wasa mod-
background.The paintingis insufficient in extentto est affair,builtwiththe bestof the means availableto
allow estimationof the subject,but the name "Zky"is the Quraysh.The limitof these means is reflectedin
inscribedin musnad(epigraphicSouthArabian)to the theuse ofrecycledwood fromthefortuitously wrecked
right of the smaller figure. The face of the youthful Byzantine boat that foundered on the Red Sea shoreat
Zky has a strongly reddish tone, curly hair,large and Shu'ayba. The use of the cheap medium of paint for
an
emphaticeyes, emphaticstraight nose, and fulllips the decoration of the interiorof the Ka'ba suggestsa
framedby a finelydefinedmoustache.A shortbeard similarly economicapproach,and even theirprincipal
runsaround his chin. deity,Hubal, was representedbya damaged sculpture
Unfortunately, we know too littleto assume that in need of repair.It is notuntiltheIslamicperiod that
paintingcirculating at Qaryat al-Faw and Shabwa was sumptuousgiftsaccrued to the Ka'ba, fromthe riches
matchedat Mecca or elsewherein westernArabia.Fur- won byIslamwiththefath.
thermore, theterminus antequemforShabwaand Qaryat On theotherhand, theQurayshseem to have done
al-Faw(respectively thethirdcenturyand no laterthan theirbest to build the Ka'ba in as solid a manneras
the earlyfourthcentury)leaves a considerabletime theycould, usinga foreignRutmi specialist,Baqum. In
gap beforethe riseof Mecca as a relatively prosperous Aksum,the systemof alternating coursesof stoneand
town,apparentlysome timein the sixthcentury.This wooden tie beams seems to have been used especially
puts us at presenton veryinsecureground in trying forthearistocratic and ecclesiasticalarchitecture of the
to demonstrateany connectionof Qaryatal-Fawand sixthcentury, and the buildingof the Ka'ba in such a
Shabwawiththe lostKa'ba paintings.49 mannermayof itselfhave made a statementabout the
Bayt'shighstatus.But nevertheless, thewood was recy-
THE KAcBAAND THE ARABIANCONTEXT cled, ratherthanspeciallyimported.The use of paint-
ing in Arabian buildingsof high statushas parallels
If the Kacba reallywas a pan-Arabshrineunder the in the muralsof the royalpalaces at Shabwa and the
Qurayshin thewaytheIslamictradition insists,itshould Umayyadpaintingsat Qusayr'Amra,Khirbatal-Mafjar,
at least have compared in wealthwithother neighboring and Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi.
pagan shrines.We have seen thatit had itsown treasury The resources were simplynot present at Mecca in
(ml), and that those seeking divination with Hubal's ca. 608 to produce anything of the scale of Abraha's
arrows in the Ka'ba paid a donation of 100 dirhams to great cathedral at San'a, al-Qalis, which in the early
the sahibof the arrowsof Hubal: it thus had some level sixth centuryhad set a standard of lavish shrine embel-

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 THE PAINTINGS OF THE PRE-ISLAMIC KAcBA 227
lishment that outmatched all other holy places of its APPENDIX
time in Arabia. The decoration and paintings of the
new Ka'ba seem to have been the result of the desire The technique of building the Ka'ba in alternatingstone
of the Quraysh to ensure that the Ka'ba was possessed and wood courses is stillpreserved skeuomorphicallyat
of as great a degree of sumptuousness as they could Aksum on two sixth-century steles (nos. 1 and 3) in the
provide, but lacking access to the mosaics that Abraha Central Stelae Park, and on the Aksum stele (no. 2) in
had been able to extract from the Byzantine emperor Rome (fig. 3). It seems also to have been the method
for al-Qalis, the Quraysh did what the less well-funded of building at other early Ethiopian sites,50including
did in many other parts of the late antique world and the Palace of Dungur, known as Sheba's Palace (sixth
resorted to the cheap and rapid medium of paint to century),Enda Semon (ca. fourthcentury),Enda Mikiel
decorate the walls of the Ka'ba. Ibn al-Zubayr,isolated (ca. fourthcentury),and Taaka Maryam (possibly sixth
in the Hijaz while his Umayyadenemies held everything century).51 A hypotheticalreconstructionof the Cathe-
to the north, was still aware of the luxury of al-Qalis dral at Aksum has been made in an attempt to show
some seventyyears later, when he scraped the mosa- how it would have appeared before its destruction by
ics offthe walls of the Sanaa cathedral to reuse in the Ahmad Gran b. Ibrahim, a Somali from Harar who
Haram mosque at Mecca afterthe Umayyad bombard- conquered much of Ethiopia for Islam in the sixteenth
ment and destruction of the Ka'ba in 683. But thiswas century.This reconstruction suggests again a building
the firsttime that Mecca aspired to the luxuryof mosa-
ics: in ca. 608 they had been beyond the capacities of
the Quraysh,however much theymay have resented the
pretensions of the ornate al-Qalis as theirgreat compet-
itor in the Yemen. Restricted to Mecca, Ibn al-Zubayr
was only able to recycle the al-Qalis mosaics: Mecca's
resources were still deeply limited, with access to the
broader Islamic world cut offby the Umayyads.
The painting traditionat Mecca dies withthe advent
of Islam. Oleg Grabar has argued that murals at Mecca
may have been associated with a wealthy social elite,
and for this reason paintings may not have found favor
with the lower economic group that formed part of the
Muslim muha-jirinwho accompanied the Prophet from
Mecca to Medina. That Islam disapproved of sumptu-
ary expenditure is made clear by the Qur'an, and the
Prophet himself disliked lavish expenditure on build-
ings. In such circumstances it is not difficultto see that
the earlyyearsof Islam offeredlittleopportunityfor the
continuation or revivalof painting in Mecca. However,
the Quraysh taste for murals was to reemerge on a far
greaterscale under theirUmayyaddescendants in Bilad
al-Sham. Whatever the changes in style that a greater
landscape of reference gave to the Umayyad caliphs in
Syriaand Palestine, it could be argued that theirdesire
for mural paintings had its roots in the works of their
aristocraticQurayshancestors,known to us as littlemore
than shadows through our meager knowledge of the
decorative schema of the Ka'ba of ca. 608.

Fig. 3. StelefromAksum,Rome. (Photo:G. King)

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228 G. R. D. KING

thatincorporatedalternatestone and wood coursing. 6. A. J. Wensinck,J. Jomier,"Ka'ba," Encyclopaedia ofIslam, new

Extant examples of the technique surviveat Debra ed. (hereafterE2).
7. A. F. L. Beeston pointsout thatthe rulerofYemen,Abraha,
Damo (foundedin the sixthcenturywithsubsequent had been a slave of a Byzantinemerchantresidentat Adulis,
rebuilding),and in theskeuomorphic monolithicGior- the port of Aksumin Habasha (Ethiopia): s.v. "Abraha,"E12.
gis Church at Lalibela in
(rebuilt thethirteenth
century, People definedas Byzantinesor Rimi frequentlycould have
but probablyolder). lived as expatriates,especiallyin tradingtownslike Adulis.
K. A. C. Creswell,Earl?yMuslim Architecture
The sametechniqueofalternating and wood 8.
masonry
(Oxford,1969), vol.
1, pt. 1, pp. 1-5.
coursesis also encounteredin westernArabiadownto 9. I am indebted to Dr. Niall Finneran of the Departmentof
the twentieth centuryatJidda,Mecca, and elsewhere. Artand Archaeologyat SOAS, who drewmyattentionto this
in our presentstateofknowledgeto know
It is difficult point and also to recentresearchon Ethiopia citedelsewhere
whetherthe Arabianor the Africancoast of the Red in thispaper.
Sea takesprecedence in the developmentand use of 10. Estimatinga dhirfiat about 50 cm, the buildingin ca. 608 was
thereforeabout 9 m high.
thistechnique,but thereis no doubt thatit is a sys- 11. Makha,vol. 1, p. 165. Other less precisever-
Al-Azraqi,Akhbar
temoccurringon both sides of the Red Sea.52To this sions preservedby al-Azraqirepeat the referenceto the wip-
extent,the Kacba of ca. 608 was a buildingderiving ing or rubbingout of the pictures,withoutreferringto the
in its construction fromthe mutuallyinterpenetrated use of waterfromZamzam.
milieuof the Red Sea coastallands.
12. Somethingverysimilarappears in the coral and wood houses
ofJiddaand otherplaces on the Red Sea coast. See S. Munro-
An AfricanCivilisationofLate Antiquity(Edinburgh,
Kay, Ahsumn:
and African
SchoolofOriental Studies 1991), p. 140.
ofLondon
University 13. G. R. D. King, The ArchitecturalTradition of Saudi Arabia and
ItsNeighbours (London, 1998), pp. 32-51. See also pp. 10-12,
17-32, 51-55, 111-12.
NOTES 14. Al-Azraqi,Akhbar Makka,vol. 1, p. 167.
15. Ibid.
The justificationfor thisdating derivesfromthe traditional 16. G. R. D. King, "The Sculpturesof the Pre-IslamicHaraimat
1.
chronologyconstructedbythe Islamicsources.The earlytra- Makka," in Cairo toKabul: AfghanStudiesPresentedtoRalph Pinder-
ditionistal-Zuhri(d. 124/742) dates the buildingof the Kacba Wilson,ed. W. Ball and L. Harrow (London, 2002), pp. 144-
to fifteenyearsbeforethe hijraof the Prophetto Medina. See 50.
NM. J.Kister,"The Campaign of Huluban: A New Lighton the 17. Al-Azraqi,AkhbarMVakha, vol. 1, p. 165.
Expedition of Abraha," Le Museon 78 (1965): 427, for a trans- 18. Ibid.
lation of al-Zuhri'stext.On the problemsof the chronology 19. King, ArchitecturalTradition,pp. 60-64, 111.
of eventsin westernArabia in the centurybeforethe Prophet 20. R. Serjeant and R. Lewcock, San%'7: An Arabian Islamic City
departedfromMecca, see L. I. Conrad, "Abrahaand Muham- (London, 1983), p. 45; and G. R. D. King, "Some Christian
mad: Some ObservationsApropos of Chronologyand Liter- Wall-Mosaics in Pre-Islamic Arabia," Proceedingsofthe 12th Sem-
ary Topoiin the EarlyArabic HistoricalTradition,"BulletinoJ i arfor Arabian Studies 10 (1980): 37-43, p. 38.
theSchool of Oriental amidAfricanStudies 50, 2 (1987): 225-40. 21. Al-Azraqi,Ahhbdr Makka,vol. 1, p. 167.
2. Qur'an 2:142-44, 149-50. 22. A. Grabar, Martyrium:Recherchessur le culte des reliquesetl art
3. For a discussionof the ritualsat pre-IslamicMecca and the chretien antique,2 vols. (Paris, 1946), vol. 2, pl. vii.2.
Kacba,see U. Rubin, "The Ka'ba: Aspectsof Its RitualFunc- 23. P. du Bourguet,L Artcopte(Paris, 1967), p. 92, fig.25.
tions and Position in Pre-Islamicand Early Islamic Times," 24. A. Grabar, ChristianIconography:A Studyofits Origins (London,
JerusalemStudies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986): 97-131. 1980), pl. 64 and p. 321.
4. Ibn al-Kalbi, The Book ofIdols (Kithb al-asiiaim),trans. into Eng- 25. Ibid., p. 320; idem, Martyrium,vol. 2, p.
liv.1.
lishfromtheArabicbyN. A. Faris(Princeton:University Micro- 26. D. Talbot Rice, Byzantine Art(Harmondsworth:Penguin [Pel-
filmsInternational,1952), p. 23. ican series], 1968), p. 51.
5. Al-Azraqi, AkhbarMakha wa mo jm'a- fith min al-dthdr,ed. R. S. 27. BM WA S.O.C. 125041.
Malhas, 4th printing(Mecca 1983/1403), vol. 1, p. 166. Ser- 28. E. Kitzinger, ByzantineArt in the Making: Mainlines of Develop-
jeant recordsthe use of ibex hornsas trophiesthatare set on mentin MediterraneanArt,3rd-7th Century(London, 1977), fig.
the doors of houses and on the tombsof holymen in south- 210.
ernArabia (R. B. Serjeant,SouthArabianHunt [London, 1976], 29. Grabar, ChristianIconography,p. 134, pl. 324.
pls. 4, 7). The presentwriterhas seen in Yemen the customof 30 At Medina the Prophetalso receivedChristiandelegationsof
placingunusualbones at a tomb.At the shrineof Muhammad monks coming from Najran, and the Christian prince Ukaydir
'Ali Abu Sa'd at Mawzi' on the Yemen Tihama near Mocha, of Dumat al-Jandal also came before him, but these episodes
the saw of a sawfishand other large fishbones were laid on gave no scope for him to have seen more than the crosses that
the tomb of the holyman. Nor did thisseem unique to this these delegates wore. The same is true of the leader of the
particulartomb.It is probablyin the contextof retainingstrik- Ayla delegates who came to him at Tabuk.
ing,respected,or trophyhornsand bones in shrinesthatthe 31. Imam Muslim, Sahitih,trans. A. Zidan and D. Zidan (Cairo,
ram's hornsof the Ka'ba should be seen. n. d.), vol. 1, p. 268. One of the muhajirunto Habasha, 'Ubayd

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 THE PAINTINGS OF THE PRE-ISLAMIC KACBA 229
Allah b. Jahsh,even convertedto Christianity while he was at 44. Qur'an 53:36-37; 87:18-19, referring to thesuhif(sheets,writ-
Aksum. ten texts)of Musa and Ibrahim.
32. A1-Azraqi, Akhbar Makka,vol. 1, p. 169. 45. Al-Baladhuri, trans.P. K. Hittias TheOrigins
al-buldan,
Kitbbfutfdh
33. There appear to have been sufficient Christiansor Christian oftheIslamicState(New Yorkand London, 1916), p. 100.
visitorsat Mecca tojustifya cemetery(J.S. Trimingham,Chris- 46. W. Daum, ed., Yemen:3000 YearsofArtand Civilization in Ara-
tianityamongtheArabsin Pre-Islamic Times[London and New bia Felix (Innsbruckand Frankfurt/Main, 1988) p. 94. I do
York, 1979], p. 260). What impact theirbeliefshad on the not knowtheirsubsequentfate,as theAden Museumwas ran-
pagan Qurayshleadershipand theirart is impossibleto esti- sacked by northernYemeni forcesafterthe civilwar of 1994.
mate. 47. Initiallythe sitewas dated to the second to fifthcenturyAD,
34. Ibn al-Kalbi,BookofIdols,p. 13. but subsequent researchby the Saudi team concluded that
35. Qur'an 5:93. settlementat Qaryatal-Fawdid not extend beyond the early
36. Qur'an 5:4. fourthcentury(communicationfromDr. Asem Bargouthi).
37. "Castinglots witharrows"would be a bettertranslationthan 48. A. R. al-Ansary, Qaryatal-Fau:A Portrait ofPre-Islamic Civilisa-
thatofferedby A. Y. Ali. The Arberrytranslationhas "parti- tionin Saudi Arabia(London: 1982), pp. 27, 136-37.
tion by the diviningarrows." 49. The Arabianpaintingtraditionpersisted,as the excavationsat
38. A1-Azraqi, Akhbdr Makka,vol. 1, pp. 168-69. al-Rabadhato the east of Medina have shown.Paintingswith
39. Ibid., pp. 165-66; 169. fineinscriptionsand "Sasanian"beads were excavatedbythis
40. Al-Bukhari,MukhtasarSahih,English trans.A. Zidan and D. writerin the mid-1980s.They were in a contextthatseemed
Zidan (Cairo, n.d.), p. 406. to be earlyAbbasidor possibly-butless likely-late Umavyad.
41. Al-Azraqi,Akhbizr Makka,vol. 1, p. 166. Othersimplefigurative paintingsaround whatmayhave been
42. T. Fahd, s.v. "Hubal," E12. a shop were of Abbasid date, probablydatingto the ninthto
43. EarlyChristianEthiopian paintingis lost. The pagan queen tenthcentury.They remainunpublished.
Godwitraided Tigre in about 1000, and thisappears to have 50. See D. R. Buxton and D. Matthews,"The Reconstructionof
had a devastatingeffecton the monuments.What was not Vanished AksumiteBuildings,"Rassegnadi StudiEtiopici25
destroyedby her sufferedfromthe sixteenth-century depre- (1974): 53-76; also E. Littmannet al., Deutsche Aksum-Expedi-
dationsof Ahmad Gran b. Ibrahim,who conquered Ethiopia tion(henceforthDAE) (Berlin,1913).
and completed the damage begun six centuriesearlier.Fur- 51. E. Littmann,DAE, vol. 2, pp. 107-21. DAE describes Enda
thermore,such wallpaintingsas did escape seem to havebeen Semon, Enda Mikiel, and Taaka Maryam.The excavations
replaced bylaterworksthatobliteratedthem.Furthernorth, of Dungur are unpublished,whileTaaka Marvamwas largely
Nubia mayprovidesome idea of the lostpaintingsof Ethiopia, destroyedin the 1930s duringthe Italian occupation. See D.
but even therethe earliestextantexamplesin Nobata,at Fares Phillipson,Ancient Ethiopia(London, 1998), p. 31.
and Qasr Brimand at Old Dongola, are dated to ca. eighthto 52. G. R. D. King, "Creswell'sAppreciationof ArabianArchitec-
tenthcenturyand thusare somewhatlaterthan the vanished ture,"in K. A. C. Creswell
and His Legacy,ed. O. Grabar,Muqar-
Ethiopianworksthatcould have influencedthe Ka'ba paint- nas 8 (1992): 94-102.
ings.

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