Monuments and Cities of the Islamic World: An Introduction

HAA 12M Subject & Catalog Number

Description

The course offers an introduction to twelve iconic monuments and sites of the Islamic world from the formative era of Islam up to the modern period. It covers various types of building—mosques, palaces, shrines, multifunctional complexes—and city types as well as the factors that shaped them, whether artistic, patronal, socio-political, religio-cultural, or economic.

Each case study is divided into two lectures. The first lecture presents the monument or site by “walking” through it. The second lecture is devoted to particular themes elicited from the case study, developed in light of comparative monuments and sites and/or written sources, and to problems of patronage, production, audience, and meaning as they pertain to Islamic architectural history in broad terms.

The lecture course has no pre-requisites. Students unfamiliar with the general contours of Islamic history, however, are encouraged to read the book edited by Francis Robinson, The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) that provides strong overviews of key historical events, people, institutions, and environments.