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Intellect is happy to announce that the International Journal of Islamic Architecture 8.1 is now available! For more information about the issue, click here >> https://bit.ly/2PxfRE9

Contents

Architect-Designed Houses: From Traditional to Modern, a Changing Paradigm in the Islamic World
Authors: Hasan-Uddin Khan 

Architect-designed houses for the richer segments of society in the Islamic world are often seen as indulgent excursions into personal expression, and hence are also often given short shrift in academic discourse. Although these houses are the result of individual tastes of a certain group of people – the elite – they are also indicators of collective aspirations and can be models for analysing the development of new housing typologies. By digging into the traditional memory of cities and architectural designs of single residences one can learn about the possibility for high-density living and also produce models of housing not only for the wealthy but also for the poor. The design and image of houses are discussed here through a number of built examples. Despite being located in different regions and areas of Muslim habitation, these houses indicate attempts to synthesize ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ and have produced a new typology that could serve as a paradigm for a way forward for the production of new housing.

Reflections on Architectural Education of the Muslim World within a global World
Authors:  Ashraf M. Salama 

This commentary is premised on more than three decades of research into architectural education and design pedagogy. It argues that architectural education in the Muslim world must be able to operate effectively within the global condition. It contends that the body of knowledge on architectural education can be enriched and its scope can be expanded when both historical and contemporary imperatives are clearly contextualized. The text raises important questions for future discussions on this theme. Notwithstanding, the article discusses some of the negative idiosyncrasies that follow models inherited from the past and adopt techniques practiced by their Western counterparts. It proposes a framework for incorporating Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a paradigm for critical consciousness and the way in which key techniques can be utilized. The thrust is that these techniques offer students learning opportunities that invigorate their capabilities to shift from passive listeners to active learners and from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers.

Destruction as Layered Event: Twentieth Century Ruins in the Great Mosque of Gaza
Authors: Eli Osheroff And Dotan Halevy 

The destruction of architectural and archeological sites by ISIS in 2014–2015 exposed conflicting, yet co-constitutive, perceptions of the historical past, its material remains, and the relevance of both for modernity. This claim is valid for ISIS’s destruction campaign, as it took place in sites already celebrated for their former ruination. Destruction emerges out of these sites as historically multi-layered, just like the loci it is inflicted upon. In this paper we thus argue that events of destruction should be similarly excavated to reveal their historical stratigraphy and to illuminate critical aspects not obvious to the first, shocked, glance. We demonstrate this argument through two events of destruction that occurred in the Great Mosque of Gaza in the twentieth century. Firstly, we examine the shelling of the mosque during the First World War to show how debris of war may be transformed into artistic and literary displays. Secondly, we analyze an intellectual debate over a Jewish candelabrum engraving on one of the mosque’s pillars and its later defacement. By so doing, we question the motivations preceding acts of destruction, especially in relation to their portrayal by the destructors themselves, and expose the making of historical relics into evidence of violence.

Medieval Reports of the Preservation and Looting of Pre-Islamic Burials in South Arabia
Authors: Daniel Mahoney 

In the tenth century, the polymath Abu Muhammad al-Hamdani compiled a ten-volume compendium, entitled al-Iklı-l (The Crown), which narrates the history of South Arabia from the pre-Islamic to the early Islamic periods with the aim of extolling the various achievements and virtues of this region. The eighth volume of this compendium contains a collection of reports that describe the uncovering of pre-Islamic burials in the early Islamic period. Although the veracity of some reports may be questioned due to their inclusion of fantastical elements, these accounts portray a vivid imagining of the ancient tombs themselves and the stories of those buried within, as well as show the varied reactions to these sites. In some reports, the interred are revered and the chambers are returned to their former state. But in others, ambivalence is shown toward those buried, even when the inscriptions found at the site communicate that the interred testified to a belief in one god, and the tombs are looted. Overall, these rich reports do not merely depict encounters with pre-Islamic funerary remains, but also serve to connect South Arabia’s past with major narratives and themes of Islamic history.

Claiming the Classical Past: Ottoman Archaeology at Lagina
Authors:  Amanda Herring 

In 1891 and 1892, an Ottoman team led by Osman Hamdi Bey, director of the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, conducted the first archaeological excavations of the site of Lagina in western Anatolia. Lagina was home in the ancient period to the Temple of Hekate. Constructed in the Hellenistic period, the temple was the only monumental sanctuary to the chthonic goddess Hekate in the ancient world. This article examines the excavations at Lagina within their original context in the late Ottoman Empire, considering contemporary politics surrounding archaeology and the collection of antiquities. It argues that the campaigns at Lagina represent a pivotal moment in the history of Ottoman archaeology. While the dig at Lagina was not the first archaeological excavation conducted on behalf of the Ottoman state, it was the first that was part of a larger program that involved long-term scientific excavation, a new model of collaboration with European colleagues, and a plan for the monumental recreation of the Temple of Hekate in Istanbul. Building upon both European archaeological models and precedents established during his work at Nemrud Dağı (Mount Nemrut) and Sidon, Osman Hamdi established a new template for Ottoman archaeology with his work at Lagina.

Translocating Metropolitan Display Strategies in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Frederick Stibbert, Henri Moser, and their Orientalist Style Rooms
Authors: Francine Giese And  Ariane Varela Braga 

In the nineteenth century, the display of Islamic art and furniture was not only integrated into ethnographic collections and international exhibitions, but also formed an essential part of the home of amateurs as well as of the political, social, and cultural elites. Private collections accounted for an important step towards the valorization and reception of Islamic art in the west. This article examines the display strategies of collections located at the crossroads between private and public space by closely examining two style rooms integrated in private museums – the Stibbert collection in Florence, Italy, and the Moser collection in Neuhausen, near Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Both collectors had first-hand experience of the Orient due to their travels, with Stibbert focusing on al-Andalus and Moser on Central Asia, which inspired them to build up extensive art collections. The examples illustrate the importance of transnational relations for the establishment and display of collections that re-contextualized objects by presenting them within seemingly authentic oriental atmospheres specifically created for this purpose.

From Architectural Entities to Social Spaces: Redefining the Notions of Takiyeh and Takiyeh Dowlat
Authors: Ashkan Rezvani-Naraghi 

This article demonstrates how the production of an architectural discourse through the works of nineteenth-century European travellers and orientalists has had a long-term effect on the studies of takiyeh spaces in Iranian cities, where mourning ceremonies were held during the month of Muharram. By analysing takiyehs as fluid social spaces, rather than as fixed architectural sites, this article argues that the co-presence of social relations was the main criterion for the production of takiyehs and the physical and architectural manifestations were the byproducts of the sociality of spaces. Moreover, it shows that the Royal Takiyeh of Tehran, Takiyeh Dowlat, became a flexible sociopolitical concept that had various architectural manifestations in different times. In contrast to the general assumption that a giant circular building in late nineteenth-century Tehran constituted the sole takiyeh dowlat, this article argues that takiyeh dowlat was a well-established sociopolitical practice that can be traced back to the early nineteenth century. Through these investigations, this article suggests that instead of applying foreign architectural discourses to nineteenth-century Iran, social analysis provides an alternative framework for understanding social spaces in nineteenth-century Iranian cities.

Parallel Processes: Spatial Production at Aceh’s Baiturrahman Mosque
Authors: Julie Nichols