Al-Andalus · a Light

One sentence is carved thousands of times across the Alhambra

The Alhambra was built on a ridge above Granada by the Nasrid sultans, mostly between 1238 and 1391. Its walls are not carved stone but moulded plaster, cut and painted while damp, which is why so much detail was possible and why so much of it has had to be repaired. Running through that decoration, in cursive and in angular script, in courtyards and over doorways, is the Nasrid motto: there is no victor but Allah. Scholars who have counted the inscriptions put its repetitions in the thousands. It was the family slogan of a dynasty that survived by paying tribute to Castile, and they wrote it on every wall of the palace they lost in 1492.

Granada · Nasrid work, 1238 to 1391