Living in Paradise

Living in Paradise : October 18, 2011
Yesterday we passed one of the milestone experiences that we wanted to have when we planned this sabbatical: a day at the Alhambra in Granada, the last surviving and most complete architectural monument to the Muslim polity in Spain. It is a site much written about, and our reflections about the design, the tile and plaster work, and the gardens would only add more superlative adjectives on to the existing pile that North American tourists have created, from Washington Irving in 1829, to the present day.

After leaving the Nasrid Palaces and strolling back through the gardens on another 72 degree blue sky day, I said to Kathleen: "Isn't this your childhood imagination of what heaven is supposed to be? Perfect temperature, sunshine and shade, beautiful gardens with walking paths, people chatting quietly as they stroll or sit on benches, beautiful architecture with mountain views? I half expect to see angels playing harps around the the corner."

My reaction to the Alhambra is no surprise, because this was exactly the intent in the greatest Islamic (and Christian) architecture: to create an image of paradise on earth. Rebecca Parker and Rita Nakashima Brock have gone into the theology of this effort in great depth, of course, in Reclaiming Paradise. You experience it in Al-Andalus all the time, in the courtyards with central fountains and beautifully landscaped four-quadrant gardens, in the intricately constructed geometric design blending into Arabic text reminding us there is no God but God, and even in the Christian monuments that are often placed adjacent to or inside the Muslim monuments.

The Alhambra has such a monument, the palace of Charles V, built after the Muslims had been driven out, right next to the Nazrid Palaces. It's Renaissance architecture is totally inconsistent with the rest of the Alhambra, and yet, with it's circle-within-a-square design and beautiful proportions, it's another representation of paradise in it's own way. A troubling reminder of how unlike-heaven the political struggles for supremacy in Granada were is the Christian church at the Alhambra, built on the site of the Nazrid's mosque, which was torn down. We remembered in sad contrast the two images of heaven in Cordoba, the beautiful columns and spacious design of the Great Mosque, large enough to contain within it a magnificent Christian cathedral.

On the way out of the Alhambra, we were browsing in the bookstore and came across these lines from the poet Ibn Jafayya:

"0 people of Al-Andalusia, blessed of God,
With your water, shade, rivers, and trees -
There is no Garden of Paradise
except in your homes.
If I had to choose, I prefer this one.
think not that tomorrow you shall enter the eternal fire.
No one enters hell after living in paradise!