The Religious Architecture of Islam is a wide-ranging multi-author study of the architectural traditions associated with the religion of Islam across the globe. A total of 59 essays by 48 authors are presented across two volumes, Volume 1: Asia and Australia and Volume 2: Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Essays address major themes across historical and contemporary periods of Islam and provide more focused studies of developments unique to specific regions and historical periods. The essays cover Islamic religious architecture broadly defined, including mosques, madrasas, saints' shrines, and funerary architecture. The Religious Architecture of Islam both provides an introduction to the history of Islamic architecture and reflects the most recent scholarship within the field.

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.

The Dictionary of Islamic Architecture provides the fullest range of artistic, technical, archaeological, cultural and biographical data for the entire geographical and chronological spread of Islamic architecture - from West Africa through the Middle East to Indonesia, and from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries of the Common Era. Over 500 entries are arranged alphabetically and fully cross-referenced and indexed to permit easy access to the text and to link items of related interest. Four main categories of subject matter are explored: * dynastic and regional overviews * individual site descriptions * biographical entries * technical definitions Over 100 relevant plans, sketch maps, photographs and other illustrations complement and illuminate the entries, and the needs of the reader requiring further information are met by individual entry bibliographies.

Europeans are in denial. Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, they are increasingly distancing themselves from their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But while the legacy of Islam and the Middle East is in danger of being airbrushed out of Western history, its traces can still be detected in some of Europe's most recognisable monuments, from Notre-Dame to St Paul's Cathedral. In this comprehensively illustrated book, Diana Darke sets out to redress the balance, revealing the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe's architectural heritage. She tracks the transmission of key innovations from the great capitals of Islam's early empires, Damascus and Baghdad, via Muslim Spain and Sicily into Europe. Medieval crusaders, pilgrims and merchants from Europe later encountered Arab Muslim culture in journeys to the Holy Land. In more recent centuries, that same route through modern-day Turkey connected Ottoman culture with the West, leading Sir Christopher Wren himself to believe that Gothic architecture should more rightly be called 'the Saracen style', because of its Islamic origins. Recovering this overlooked story within the West's long history of borrowing from the Islamic world, Darke sheds new light on Europe's buildings and offers rich insights into the possibilities of cultural exchange.

Despite growing interest in Islamic architecture, introductions to the subject which go beyond the superficial are scarce. Employing a broad historical narrative, The Story of Islamic Architecture introduces the religious, social, and political influences that have shaped the Islamic architectural form, while revealing an architectural splendor unfamiliar to most Western readers. Painter and educator Richard Yeomans interweaves historical fact with precisely detailed descriptions to trace the genesis and flowering of Islamic architecture in the various Muslim regions of the world including Spain, the Maghreb, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Persia, and Central Asia, ending at the farthest point East in India. The volume includes a brief introduction to Islam and to the theological attitudes which determine the form and function of its art and architecture. The Story of Islamic Architecture is fully illustrated with over 200 striking color photographs, and includes a comprehensive glossary of architectural terms. Yeomans' flowing, clear, and engaging narrative captures not only the shapes and colors of this architecture, but even the sounds of activities that take place in the space defined by it.

This book traces the historical identity of Kashmir within the context of Islamic religious architecture between early fourteenth and mid-eighteenth century. It presents a framework of syncretism within which the understanding of this architectural tradition acquires new dimensions and possibilities in the region. In a first, the volume provides a detailed overview of the origin and development of Islamic sacred architecture while contextualizing it within the history of Islam in Kashmir. Covering the entirety of Muslim rule in the region, the book throws light on Islamic religious architecture introduced with the establishment of the Muslim Sultanate in the early fourteenth century, and focuses on both monumental and vernacular architecture. It examines the establishment of new styles in architecture, including ideas, materials and crafts introduced by non-Kashmiri missionaries in the late-fourteenth to fifteenth century. Further, it discusses how the Mughals viewed Kashmir and embellished the land with their architectural undertakings, coupled with encounters between Kashmir’s native culture, with its identity and influences introduced by Sufis arriving from the medieval Persianate world. The book also highlights the transition of the traditional architecture to a pan-Islamic image in the post-Independence period. With its rich illustrations, photographs and drawings, this book will interest students, researchers, and professionals in architecture studies, cultural and heritage studies, visual and art history, religion, Islamic studies and South Asian studies. It will also be useful to professional architecture institutes, public libraries, museums, cultural and heritage bodies as well as the general reader interested in the architectural and cultural history of South Asia.