Worship places - churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, shrines and many others - are a key feature in most religions, a part of cultural heritage with a high symbolic and emotional value attached to them. Unfortunately, as a consequence of armed conflict or actions by radical nationalists, worship places are often targeted to inflict damage and eradicate identity. For this reason, national and international laws exist to award special protection to such places. This collection of essays explores the relevance the protection of religious sites has in implementing the freedom of religion or belief and in fostering peaceful relations among different religions.

Places of Worship in the Middle Ages describes Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and its impact on the people of medieval Europe. Shows how the people built these buildings of worship and the ceremonies they had there.

This book examines non-Muslim religious sites, structures and spaces in the Islamic world. It reveals a vibrant portrait of life in the religious sites by illustrating how architecture responds to contextual issues and traditions. Sacred Precincts explores urban context; issues of identity; design; construction; transformation and the history of sacred sites and architecture in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from the advent of Islam to the 20th century. It includes case studies on churches and synagogues in Iran, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco and Malta, and on sacred sites in Nigeria, Mali, and the Gambia. With contributions by Clara Alvarez, Angela Andersen, Karen Britt, Karla Britton, Jorge Manuel Simão Alves Correia, Elvan Cobb, Daniel Coslett, Mohammad Gharipour, Mattia Guidetti, Suna Güven, Esther Kühn, Amy Landau, Ayla Lepine, Theo Maarten van Lint, David Mallia, Erin Maglaque, Susan Miller, A.A. Muhammad-Oumar, Meltem Özkan Altınöz, Jennifer Pruitt, Rafael Sedighpour, Ann Shafer, Jorge Manuel Simão Alves Correia, Ebru Özeke Tökmeci, Steven Thomson, Heghnar Watenpaugh, Alyson Wharton and Ethel S. Wolper.

Includes sites from Africa, Middle East, Europe, The Americas, Oceania, and Asia.

Contributors examine intertwined religious traditions along the shores of the Near East from North Africa to the Balkans.

Going beyond the more usual focus on Jerusalem as a sacred place, this book presents legal perspectives on the most important sacred places of the Mediterranean. The first part of the book discusses the notion of sacred places in anthropological, sociological and legal studies and provides an overview of existing legal approaches to the protection of sacred places in order to develop and define a new legal framework. The second part introduces the meaning of sacred places in Jewish, Christian and Islamic thought and focuses on the significance and role that sacred places have in the three major monotheistic religions and how best to preserve their religious nature whilst designing a new international statute. The final part of the book is a detailed analysis of the legal status of key sacred places and holy cities in the Mediterranean area and identifies a set of legal principles to support a general framework within which specific legal measures can be implemented. The book concludes with a useful appendix for the protection of sacred places in the Mediterranean region. Including contributions from leading law and religion scholars, this interesting book will be valuable to those in the fields of international law, as well as religion and heritage studies.

The defining events of early Christianity are memorialized in churches and monasteries throughout the Holy Land, many of which date back to ancient times. This beautiful book is a wonderful written and visual guide to those religious monuments and the artistic treasures that lie within their walls. The author, David Rapp, is an art historian and critic, who opens a window into the fascinating geographical-theological sphere where Christianity was conceived and born. Each chapter features spectacular pictures by Hanan Isachar, an acclaimed photographer. Christianity’s roots extend deep into the earth of the Holy Land. This book is dedicated to those who wish to learn more about that heritage and the religious sites that stand as testimonies to it.