Painted Ceilings of Oman

Not so long ago, people in Oman went to bed and woke up in rooms where the ceilings were painted and decorated in the most aesthetic manner.

The painted ceilings of Oman were an original form of design that added both grace and glamour to the living rooms of a family dwelling.

The master of the house decided what would go on the ceiling and retained the best artist in the locality to undertake the project. Today these types of decorated ceilings have all but disappeared and have been replaced by gypsum creations or plaster of Paris decorative motifs.

Some of the finest painted ceilings of Oman were to be found in and around Ibra. Most of the mansions in this area have now succumbed to the elements and one can only admire pictures of what they once looked like. To get an idea of what a decorated ceiling looks like one can travel to the Nakhal Fort.

One of the upper rooms in this fort has a simple decorated ceiling that provides an example of what the master craftsmen did in the olden days. To this sample one then has to add the detailed description on the subject provided by P and G Bonnenfant and S Al-Harthi in the Journal of Oman Studies. Here’s what they tell us:

“As in all the desert countries of Arabia, the ceilings (damam) of rooms or the roofs of buildings in Oman are made with a horizontal framework of palm-tree trunks used as crossbeams. These are found not only in homes but in the bays of mosques and in the sablas as well. The trunks support palm branches which are aligned at right angles to them and support palm leaves, palm flock, and about 40 cm of earth.

This thickness provides insulation and a final coat of plaster insures waterproofing. At Mudayrib and the surrounding villages, the trunks supporting the roofs of numerous rooms are painted entirely in a rather dark, reddish brown colour similar to burnt sienna and called maghar. It is made from a rock extracted from a small hill called Qurun al Ahamar (Horns of the Red One) south of the Mudayrib oasis.

After the rock has been crushed and mixed with cold water, the mixture is shaken vigorously to make it homogeneous. This takes about ten minutes, after which the dye is spread with palm flock, a cloth or more recently a brush.”

Once this initial reddish coat was applied, decorative motifs in white were often added to it especially in the more important rooms such as the meeting rooms or sablas. This kind of decorative painting is called naqsha or zahwa and the paint used is called nura. To make the nura, pebbles from the wadi were heated to high temperatures in clay-covered moulds and then ground to a fine powder.

The authors inform that geometric motifs were put to maximum use and several types of designs were improvised. Flowers were painted either singly or in the style of a ceiling rose or in more or less large bouquets. The animal kingdom was represented by the horse and by birds.

Geometric designs included crosses of various kinds, closed or open triangles, diamond shapes and designs in which squares and triangles were combined in various ways. The authors who undertook the study of the ceiling in the late seventies also mention that designs on recent ceilings included even an occasional automobile!

The decoration of beams usually went from one wall of the room to the other, thus making each beam an artistic entity in itself.

But in certain rooms where the trunks of the palm-trees were very close together, the entire ceiling was treated as a surface to be decorated.

One artist of the time, Sultan bin Hamud bin Hamid bin Abdullah (whose whereabouts are not known) specialised in transposing on to ceilings the designs of carpets which inspired him.

In many designs the beam was treated as a whole,

but an unpainted strip was left in the middle of the room. The study team concluded that this unpainted strip was akin to space which separates the two parts of an Arabic verse — the sadr from the ajz. As Bonnenfant writes: “And when the sun floods the room it gently lights the joyous evocations of life above:

flowers and birds, horses and cars, piety and hospitality. At siesta time the mind peacefully follows the rhythms of the décor: each beam is a verse and the ceiling becomes a poem.” The designs on the ceiling were complemented with verses that were taken either from the Quran or composed by the owner of the home. An example of a verse from the Quran reads:

“Let he who enters here remember Muhammad, may peace be upon him. An intelligent man will judge himself and let his actions be guided by the life which comes after death.” Some inscriptions just mentioned the name of the owner of the home and the year in which the work on the house was completed:

“This noble residence was completed on …May its master enjoy peace and happiness as long as the doves may coo. May he always know honour and glory untainted by humiliation; and may his lot in life be good to the Day of Judgment!” Fragments of poetry were among the most preferred of all decorations: The verses selected by the owners reflected an amazingly refined degree of grace and culture.

Our house greets all those who visit it.
He who knocks at our door is our equal
And may do here all that he pleases —
Except that which the Creator has forbidden.

If you visit us you will find
That we are your guests
And that you are the master of the house.

For what do you want the riches of this world
If not for the happiness of those who love you
And the harm of those who mistreat you.

You must make your complaints to a man with a good heart
For he will console you, comfort you, and suffer with you.

There is no glory without danger,
And no fame in caution.

The beauty of this house shines forth,
A radiant light for all to see
Happiness is written on its doors.

Enter in peace. So may it be.
If the Quran is recited in a home,
Goodness abides there, and fine qualities abound.

If the commands of Allah have already been decided,
How can we flee from them or avoid them?

Once in while, the artisan went to town praising the owner of the house in the hope of getting an additional reward. But when taken together, the recorded verses reflect the values most sacred to the people of the place: faith in God, submission to His will, the importance of hospitality, the role of courage and valour, the absence of fear and above all a disposition that feels both the joys and sorrows of others. Paolo M Costa writing about Bayt Na’man the seventeenth century mansion near Barka in the Journal of Oman Studies Volume 8 says:

“A painted timber ceiling is preserved in the room at the third floor of the SE tower. Most of the decoration, geometrical and plant motifs painted white on a dark reddish-brown background is till visible, particularly on the three main cross beams. It is the simple but pleasant ceiling decoration, with a kind of naïve quality, which is common throughout Oman and in various parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The quality of this ceiling belonging to a room which was probably used by the castle guard, can give an idea of the kind of painted and most probably carved decoration of the ceilings of the first floor rooms.”