D-1021: Samarra. Plan, Mutawakkiliyye mosque

Object Details

Local Numbers: D-1021 FSA A.06 05.1021
General: - Title is provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Thomas Leisten's publication, Excavation of Samarra, vol 1.
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note: Drawings related primarly to the first campaign of excavation at Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq), carried out by Ernst Herzfeld on behalf of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin in 1911.

Place: Asia; Iraq; Mesopotamia; Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq); Iraq -- Salah ad-Din -- Samarra -- Abu Dulaf Mosque

Topic: Abbasids; Architectural drawing; Architecture; Art of the Islamic World; Excavations (Archaeology); Religious buildings

See more items in: Ernst Herzfeld Papers; Ernst Herzfeld Papers / Series 5: Drawings and Maps

Archival Repository: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection Citation: Ernst Herzfeld Papers. FSA.A.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946.

Arrangement: Drawings are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes or in flat file folders by size, and stored in the map case drawers.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Bibliography: Leisten, Thomas, 2003: "Excavation of Samarra, v. I. Architecture : final report of the first campaign 1910-1912. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, 2003. p.58-68."

Scope and Contents: Original caption on verso reads, "Samarra. Dj. Mutawakkiliyye."; Additional information reads, "Herzfeld spent not more than two days during the second campaign in the mosque of al-Mutawakkiliyya (June 19-20, 1913), partially excavating the miḥrāb, and 'scraping' - as he admits himself - at the court facade of the transept and in the qibla aisle of the ḥaram, and finally at the plinth of the minaret. While Herzfeld sketched the overall plan of the Great Mosque complex at Mutawakkiliyya in 1913, the final product is based partially on measurements taken by his surveyor, Commander von Ludloff." [Leisten, Thomas, 2003: "Excavation of Samarra, v. I. Architecture : Final report of the first campaign 1910-1912. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, 2003. p.58."]; Excavation of Samarra (Iraq): Congregational Mosque of Madinat al-Mutawakkiliyya (Abu Dulaf Mosque): Plan of the Mosque and Ziyada [drawing]