Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space
Includes bibliographical references.
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Religious Studies
2015
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613262896431104 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Badenhorst, Ursula |
| author2 | Chidester, David |
| author_browse | Badenhorst, Ursula Chidester, David |
| author_facet | Chidester, David Badenhorst, Ursula |
| author_sort | Badenhorst, Ursula |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13083 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:21.255Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of Religious Studies |
| publisherStr | Department of Religious Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13083 The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space Badenhorst, Ursula Chidester, David Shaikh, Sa'diyya Religious Studies Includes bibliographical references. The aim of this thesis is to propose a multi-layered and interdisciplinary understanding of space by focussing on the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra. By presenting a theoretical conversation on the Sufi notion of the barzakh (an intermediary and relational space) between the premodern Muslim mystic Ibn al-Arabi and contemporary western theorists concerned with space, movement and aesthetics, such as Louis Marin, Henri Lefebvre, Tim Ingold and Martin Seel, this thesis offers an original contribution to the spatial analysis of religion as embodied in the architecture, gardens, and imagination of the Alhambra. Emphasising the barzakh’s role in the interplay between presence and meaning this thesis also draws attention to the dialogue between self as spectator and the garden as spectacle. Through this dialogue, Ibn al-Arabi‘s concept of the barzakh , which he developed in terms of ontology, epistemology and hermeneutics, is investigated and analysed in order to identify a theory of knowledge that relies on the synthesis between experience and imagination. The union of meaning and presence afforded by the intermediary quality of the barzakh is further demonstrated in the physical, imaginative and virtual worlds of the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra. Viewing the Alhambra palaces and gardens in terms of Ibn al-Arabi‘s barzakh, they produce their own language, a showing ‖ of their outer and inner movements, which prompts and provokes the spectator to participate in a poetical and creative encounter. Seen as a barzakh, these gardens put space into movement. 2015-06-18T13:06:53Z 2015-06-18T13:06:53Z 2014 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13083 eng application/pdf Department of Religious Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Religious Studies Badenhorst, Ursula The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space |
| title_full | The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space |
| title_fullStr | The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space |
| title_full_unstemmed | The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space |
| title_short | The language of gardens: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s barzakh, the courtyard gardens of the Alhambra, and the production of sacred space |
| title_sort | language of gardens ibn al arabi s barzakh the courtyard gardens of the alhambra and the production of sacred space |
| topic | Religious Studies |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13083 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT badenhorstursula thelanguageofgardensibnalarabisbarzakhthecourtyardgardensofthealhambraandtheproductionofsacredspace AT badenhorstursula languageofgardensibnalarabisbarzakhthecourtyardgardensofthealhambraandtheproductionofsacredspace |