The last two valuable ceramic fragments arrived specially protected at the Higher School of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Assets in Madrid on November 4, 2020. The experts had to restore them and adhere them to the other 21 that they had recomposed years before.
In this way, the so-called ataifor from Guadalajara came back to life, a "unique" dish, they say, whose first pieces had been miraculously found in 2012 in a vacant lot at number 5 Calle de Cervantes in Guadalajara, and which can now be admired in the provincial museum of the city.
But the source kept several secrets.
This reconstructed pottery allows us to see the image of a man under a canopy and mounted on a camel, surrounded by a multitude of attributes of sovereignty and political and religious power;
But who was that rider?
A recent study included in the publication
El ataifor de Guadalajara.
The Andalusian caliph and the propaganda of his legitimacy
(Ediciones La Ergástula), by Miguel Ángel Cuadrado, Consuelo Vara and José Martínez Peñarroya, gives an answer: without a doubt it was a caliph of al-Andalus who had ordered to be reflected in this ceramic piece 36 centimeters in diameter, a whole political and religious history, the transformation of the emirate of Córdoba (local political power) into a caliphate (union of the political and religious government of the Muslim empire, from East to West).
Specialists, however, doubt whether the plate represents Abderramán III, the first Andalusian Umayyad caliph, or his son al-Hakam II.
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In 2010, on a 280-square-meter unbuilt plot in the center of Guadalajara, archaeologists found a treasure made up of the remains of a 17th-century building, with a colonnaded patio and cellar.
As they were excavating, fragments of containers from the 17th century and also from medieval chronology appeared.
Thus, about four meters below street level, and inside a silo, ceramic pieces were found (pots, pitchers, stoves, pots, jars, jars...) and numerous ataifores, among which the one from the quoted man on a mount.
Although the most extreme interpretation of the Koran does not allow the representations of people and animals, during the Umayyad government of al-Andalus this rule was not respected, "there was a proper representation, and directed from power, of human figures within the Andalusian sphere" , encompassed in what is called the Medina Azahara style.
In fact, several drawings from this period are known, among which the Bottle of the Musicians, that of El Fontanar, the Falconer of Elvira, the Drinker of Benetússer or the figures of Palmela and Córdoba stand out.
All with human faces.
All these characters share common characteristics.
In addition to being made in green and black on white, they are in profile, with short, thick hair and a large almond-shaped eye under marked eyebrows.
However, in the case of the Guadalajara ataifor, the character is represented carrying a green bird in his right hand and a vessel in his left.
The figure of him, flanked by two containers, is seated on a camel under whose legs a plant can be seen.
The work is the work, states the publication, "of an experienced cartoonist."
The character covers his body with a green tunic with wide sleeves trimmed in white and his waist is girdled by a sash.
The canopy, recalls the report, can only represent the power of the sovereign, since in public it was always shown under an architectural space, usually a semicircular arch, so when going outside it was under a canopy.
Museum room where the Guadalajara ataifor is exhibited with explanatory panels.Museo de Guadalajara
The character's hairstyle includes a lock of hair that falls across her forehead and a long ponytail or braid that runs down her back.
Tradition indicated that a prophecy announced that a "
quraysi
[of the tribe that controlled Mecca] with two braids will conquer al-Andalus", in reference to the emir Abderramán I, first of the Umayyads, "so that the representations with long hair braided became a symbol of this dynasty, and ultimately a visual reference to dynastic right and legitimacy”.
The vessel that the man holds with his left hand represents the "lord of life", the sovereign who holds the vital liquid in his hands and who is an unequivocal sign of power over those below, "as well as the power to empty life a body, in the same way that a container is emptied”.
In Muslim texts they refer to this type of cup as one of Immortality, of the Worlds or of Salvation.
The same happens with the jewel in the shape of a crescent, pendant, which hangs from the harness of the mount, a symbol of leadership over the armies and, at the same time, a powerful protective talisman.
His presence at the plate is an attribute of power and an element of coercion.
In the Islamic tradition, birds are associated with the soul, since the spirits of the martyrs ascend to heaven inside green birds, such as the ataifor;
the believers in white birds and the infidels in black.
The Tree of Life, the plant that appears under the legs of the mount, is an evocative sign of paradise, "so this element clearly shows the destination to which the caliph leads the believers."
“All this responds to the global approach of the regime established by Abderramán III.
The political-religious claims [reflected in the ataifor] are addressed to the other two caliphates [in Asia] and are at the base of the representation.
They are elements that justify the very existence of the Andalusian caliphate.
The ataifor of Guadalajara is a vehicle for transmitting the legitimacy of the new regime and exalting its owner”, the caliph of al-Andalus.
Geochemical and macroscopic studies have confirmed that the plate was made in the Valencia area and, possibly, belonged to someone with a high position in the caliphal administration who moved to the Castilian-Manchegan city.
He lost it or abandoned it at some point after the fall of the caliphate (a civil war at the beginning of the 11th century disintegrated it into taifas) and now its history can only be admired and heard behind a display case in the Guadalajara Museum.
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