L'immaginario dell'Aldilà nel Giudizio finale di Mar Musa al-Habashi (Nebek, Siria)
Author(s)
Date Issued
2019
Type
article
Volume
9, IV serie
Start Page
89
End Page
112
Journal
Abstract
The paintings in the church of the monastery of Mar Musa al-Habashi (Nebek, Syria) – brought to light in restorations conducted between 1987 and 1994 – and the numerous other paintings recently discovered in Syria and Lebanon reveal the vivacity of the artistic production in the Ar ab-Christian communities in the Crusades era. The paintings highlight not only the link with the Byzantine tradition, but also contacts with Latins and interactions with the Islamic envi ronment in which Arab-Christian communities have been immersed for centuries, and with which they share the same language.
Several themes from The Last Judgement in Mar Musa, painted in 1208-1209, are particularly interesting in this regard. In Hell, the unusual punishment by torment of cold is painted in two registers with snowflakes, which is absent in the textual and figurative Byzantine tradition; to this, is added the punishment by torment of snakes which can be only found in two cases in Cappadocia.
Both punishments depict the imagery of the afterlife according to the Islamic tradition described in the narration of the night journey (isra ̄’) and ascension (mi‘ra ̄ j) of the prophet Mu- hammad.
The hypothesis that these iconographic motifs in Mar Musa were included because they are part of the imagery also familiar to Muslims to promote the sharing of the place – i.e., the monastery of Mar Musa – is suggested instead of considering those themes as old and fossilized local themes.
The cultural climate surrounding the re-birth of the Syro-Orthodox church, the ecumenism of patriarch Michael the Syrian, and all the events that took place in neighbouring Saydnaya, in the church of Our Lady, where both Christians and Muslims shared the cult of the icon of the Virgin, support this theory.
Subjects
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